Weekend Update
I’m going to try and type fast, I have about 15 minutes until the time on my internet runs out! All the internet stopped working at the Jungle Huts, so in typical Belizian style, they won’t have someone at Dangriga until the end of the week at least to fix it. I’ll probably just keep word processing about how everything is going and I’ll put up a giant post next Monday, gotta be flexible!
This weekend was fantastic! Saturday we got up early and went to the Cacoa Festival (aka chocolate) in Punta Gorda. All of the Mayan cacao growers were there, so I got to sample a ton of chocolate, and all of it was organic and fair trade. My favorite part was a tour of a chocolate factory there. After we had already met the Mayan farmers, we got to sample the cacoa beans, the roasted cacoa (called chocolate nibs) and every step of the process until we ate the finished product! They also had organic cacoa ice cream, bes ever. At the end of the day we went sea kayaking with a guide, it was really neat. We kayaked along the coast line and then through a river. Our guide was Mayan and he told us a lot about his culture and the local wild life— the kayaking tours are the profit branch of a not for profit conservation group. National geographic had photographed back there before, and we got to see some animals, all for $2.50 US, pretty awesome deal.
Saturday night we drove to Placencia, and stayed the night there. Total resort.tropical paradise. We all went dancing Saturday night on the beach (there was a reggae band playing) and Sunday we layed out all day. Beautiful beaches, calm clear water, I ate coconuts straight off the tree with the locals, am I really getting business credit for this? I think we might go back there duting our free weekend in two weeks, it was kind of touristy so we felt really safe, and it’s just beautiful and cheap, $25 US a night for a 2 person room.
Then Sunday night we went to a cooking class with the POWA women. They taught us how to cook a traditional Garifuna dish— chicken, rice and beans, and cole slaw— and we got to eat it at the end, it was awesome. Afterwards we begged them to teach us a Garifuna dance called the Punta everyone kept talking about, and they finally did. It’s hard but super fun, a lot of hip shaking! That night at Jungle Huts we met two guys who are going to start doing security around the hotel, and both of them are Garifuna drummers. Tonight they’re going to drum and teach us all of the traditional Garifuna dances, there are about 5 main ones. Oh, and this afternoon the business group is probably going to Tobacco Caye to go snorkeling and diving (today’s a public holiday and nobody’s out, that’s why I’m not working!), so that should be great, too.
Just a fun, relaxing, culture filled weekend. My internet time’s about out, and it might be the end of the week until I can update again, but I’ll still be journaling (word processing?) in the mean time.
2 years ago