Settlement Day Festivities:

Wednesday night the drumming started at dusk. Since the 19th was a national holiday and no one had to work, they got started partying early. Dangriga had a great vibe - since everyone was on holiday- not just us! Everyone says hello and smiles and we end up sitting on the curb watching people dance in the street before we wander on. It gets dark at 5:30pm here too! It seems unfair to have so little light in the tropics, but it is keeping me (Adrienne) from burning into a crisp. (Jessie has year-round Chaco tan-lines and a Vitamin D deficiency, so she's loving the sun.)

The locals kept insisting that we wouldn't be needing our beds that night because the party goes on until sunrise. Jessie, Abby, Janelle (our new friends from Bend, Or) and I took a taxi out to Malibu beach and waited for the band to get started...at 11:30pm- no wonder the party goes until dawn. We played cards on the beach (Abby wins!) watched 'Diamond' drum, then headed back into town. The streets were still busy with drunken festivities as Jessie and I headed back to Val's. We'd had enough Punta Rock (rap/reggae mix music and or lifestyle) for the night and the drumming outside our hostel would signal the beginning of Settlement day at sunrise.

HAPPY 19!!!

We woke up at 8am and realized that the first great thing about Settlement day was that they don't start the boat-landing ceremony right outside our hostel! Nice. We got some yummy scrambled eggs and Journey Cakes and stumbled across our new friend CJ who works at a stock photo/ web design company. He was the only float in line for the 10:00 parade... it was 10:30. We wandered down to the closed and possibly abandoned Garifuna museum then back to the parade. On the way we discovered that a bike race occured.


At around 11:30 the 10 o'clock parade was under way. We made our way to the beginning of the parade so we did not miss anything.


Jessie's favorite part was the Chinese float. They had firecrackers, gongs and these fancy dancing dragons.


The parade concluded with a Punta Rock float sponsored by Western Union. The entire town followed this last float in a huge loop dancing all the way. We did our best to keep up but they teach these kids young how to shake their money maker.