Christmas Day in Dangriga

Santa heading to Glovers:0

Santa and his little helpers at the dock:)
Alex at his desk looking festive.

Cait sucking on a Chinese candy whilst waiting for the boat.

Here are just a few pictures from Christmas Day here in Dangriga Belize:)

Kayaking in Dangriga

Perfect form;)

The pics above are me with CJ (D & Tiaja's cousin) on the bow.



Righting and emptying the capzised kayak

Little "D"

Tiaja

Here are a few pictures of me kayaking with Denver and Tiaja (a couple of local boys who's father is one of IE directors). The weather was a little cloudy but the water was lovely and warm and a little swell appeared near the end of the session. If you look at the little red boat you can see when I am emptying it that is has a glass bottom, great for watching the coral and fish from!

A nice perk of this job is I get free use of our kayaks whenever I have a day off and will taking advantage of this a lot more this year. Not far from our base there are a couple of inlets where you can paddle and see both Manatee and Crocodiles.

Xunantunich

Me in front of El Castillo.

Hand crank ferry over Mopan River

San Ignacio

San Ignacio from on top of El Castillo

Guetemalan & Belizean Border (see the road)



Top of El Castillo

Frieze on El Castillo

A few weeks ago I visited a Mayan Site called Xunantunich, which is one of the older Mayan Sites to be found in Belize and is very close to the border with Guetemala. In fact if you look at the pictures one shows a road in the distance and that road is the border. To get to the site you have to cross the river on a hand crancked ferry across the Mpoan River, which is fun.

Xunantunich is located across from San Jose Succotz, a few miles from the western border. The partially-excavated and largest pyramid, El Castillo, rises 130 feet above the main plaza and offers an impressive panaramic view of Belize's Cayo District and nearby Guatemala. El Castillo, is known for its frieze, a banded stucco decoration which at one time extended around the entire pyramid. The impressive museum displays a three-dimensional model of the entire Xunantunich site, as well as depicting the evolution of Maya civilization. Three stelae from the site are on display.

Visit to the Cayes

Cabanas at Coco Plum

Thatch on Coco Plum

Coco Plum Caye Natives;)

Paradise Lodge area on Tobacco Caye.

View of water from the deck of the Cabana, sweet!

Cabanas on Tobacco Caye. This is where our guests stay on the Island with decks right over the water!

Tobacco Caye

Tobacco Range meadow
Tobacco Range shore front
Tobacco Caye in the distance taken from Tobacco Range
Tobacco Range

A few weeks ago I took a day off work and went out on our skiff for a visit to the Cayes (islands)just off Dangriga including Tobacco Range, Tobacco Caye and Coco Plum. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and I was happy to be visiting the Cayes once again. I had also hoped to visit South Water Caye (my favourite of the Cayes) but did not have time on this trip. Each Caye has its own unique charm and diversity. Our guests stay in either Cabannas on the islands or camp there, depending on the trip. Take a look at the pictures and imagine spending Christmas or New Years Eve out there........ wow!!! The close proximity to the Cayes is why Island Expeditions has its operational base in Dangriga.

Garifuna Settlement Weekend Celebrations!

The Parade in Dangriga on Monday Morning



Lots of drumming, singing and grinding goes on throughout the celebrations.
Here the people are reenacting the arrive to Dangriga of their ancestors.
Andy Palacio playing in Dangriga


The Garifuna Settlement Day is officially on November 19th but every year the celebrations start on Friday evening and go right through until Monday night. In Dangriga it is probably the biggest celebration of the year and this town of 10,000 can swell to double that size during the celebrations with visitors returning to their roots from all over the world.

The entire weekend consists of a lot of dancing, drumming, drinking and eating. Everywhere on the streets and in the bars you could see men and women doing traditional Garifuna Dancing plus a lot of grinding going on:)

On Sunday night I along with most people, partied until 5am and then everyone goes down to the waterfront and watches the reenactment of the Garifuna arrival by boat to Dangriga. Later in the morning there is a parade that goes through the town.

If anyone gets the chance to visit Dangriga over this weekend I can highly recommend it as it is an amazing experience, just don't expect to get much sleep:)

Dangriga and Island staff

Here are a few pictures taken in Dangriga and pictures showing the Island Expeditions staff posing for a photo after a recent staff meeting. I work with a great group of people here in Belize, and just like the great people I work with inVictoria the staff here are more than co-workers, they are also my friends.