Settlement Day details/help

That's exactly how you do it, ashlita.

The water taxi trip is about one hour. After arriving in Belize City, you have to walk (1 km through the City) or taxi (BZ$6) to the bus terminal. At the bus terminal, the best option would be to get a James Bus Line bus to Dangriga (it will go to Belmopan, and then head to Dangriga -- no change of bus necessary). The second option is to get any westbound bus (the final destination of BENQUE will be displayed in the front window of the bus), but with this option, you'll have to get off at Belmopan and change to another bus heading to Dangriga.

A Regular James bus will take about 3 hours. The James Express bus at 3:45 pm will be about 30 minutes quicker. If you have to change in Belmopan, you might have to wait up to 30 minutes if there isn't a bus ready to go.

If you haven't reserved a room in advance, I'd leave as early as possible. Otherwise, I'd plan to be at the bus terminal no later than 3:45 for the James express bus. That will put you in Dangriga a bit after 6pm.

Check the BelizeBus site for more bus info -- the link is on my profile page.

In Dangriga, you could try Val's Backpackers. Bus service between Dangriga and Hopkins isn't frequent and I think the going rate for a taxi is BZ$50 per trip.

Hi!

Figured I'd update since I did it. I left CC on the 1:30 water taxi, and caught a bus to Dangriga. It took about 2 1/2 hours on the bus and was quite interesting since it was my first Belize bus experience. Not in Mexico anymore! Haha. We got to Dangriga at dusk and walked to Val's Backpackers. She told us she didn't have any space, so we continued walking around. After 2 places shut us down we happened to walk back past Val's. She sent out a friend to offer us space in the boy's only dorm, saying they'd bend the rules for me :). So feeling very lucky, we gladly accepted.

Anyways, the actual festivities were really incredible to watch, I love drumming. Hearing the African singing was really surreal for me as an American, as many black people in the states don't really identify with their African roots. It was so interesting to see how a group with such different circumstances have evolved. Their solidarity was really cool to see. There's lots of good food and friendly vendors of course.

As far as safety goes, I was perfectly safe all night, although there was an incident where I didn't feel like it and I had to get out of a crowd. I was very lucky I found a group to hang out with with several guys, it would've been a different story without them I think. That being said I think I was just unlucky because the other girls didn't seem to have a problem. I think I just got freaked out and stuck decently close to the group the rest of the night.

As far as accomodation, I think if you're winging it, it could be smart to leave your stuff somewhere locked up and just say up
all night like everyone else. Val's has hammocks and stuff on the roof and she just kind of goes to bed and the guests do
whatever. It's really safe here. I think if you get here on the 17th you can find places too. I'd definitely recommnd Val's and be here on the 18th and stay up all night :)

Edited by: ashlita

Thanks for coming back with an update. Can anyone who has been to Garifuna Settlement celebrations in both Dangiga and Hopkins comment on the similarities and differences?

It's great when people report back.

Apparently, there was a shooting incident in Dangriga following the festivities. Hope you're OK. I'll post details later if anyone's interested. What good advice from #2. Where does he get good information like that -- it's almost like he's been there for more than an hour.

Yeah there was, in the park. I was close and heard the shots. People ran at first and then went to look at what was going on. It took awhile for the news to spread that it was actually gunshots! I was over it and went to the hostel for the rest of the night after that. I heard it was people from Belize City that were causing the mess.