One of the best things about travelling solo is the ability to change your plans last-minute, even to the point where you end up catching a bus to a totally different location at the bus stop. Belize is a country where travelling like this sometimes works out much better than having concrete plans to stick to. This is exactly what happened when I abandoned plans to go to Caye Caulker and ended up in a town further south on the weekend of Garifuna Settlement Day.
Garifuna Settlement Day, celebrated on the 19th of November, is a national holiday in Belize to commemorate the arrival of the first Garifuna people to Belize by canoe in 1832. I was lucky enough to pass through from Mexico just in time for this holiday, although I didn’t realise how big of a deal it was until I got into Belize. Another traveller at the hostel in Chetumal, just over the border from Belize, told me that the atmosphere in towns further south (with larger Garifuna populations) would be amazing, with people staying awake throughout the weekend to party on the streets, dance, sing and re-enact the arrival by sea at sunrise. I had initially planned to go to Caye Caulker via Belize City, but the only options from Chetumal on the day I wanted to leave were really expensive (a privately organised ferry) and I would have had to wait another day or two to take public transport to get to Caye Caulker. I didn’t want to hang around Chetumal for that much longer so I packed my bags and made my way to the bus terminal in Chetumal where there were several chicken buses waiting to make the border crossing over into Belize. At immigration on the Mexican side, the officer asked me for $20 as an exit tax. I’d been told that this was a scam and they tried to do this to all travellers. I told him I couldn’t pay it (which was actually the truth) so he waved me on.
On the bus just after the Mexico-Belize border
The trip from Chetumal to the Mexico-Belize border was a typical Latino affair, with loud reggaeton and Mariachi beats drowning out chatter in Spanish. As soon as we got into Belize I was struck by the immediate change in culture of the bus. Off went the Mexican ticket conductor and with him most of the Spanish-speaking Mexican passengers and the latin music. With the new Belizean conductor and driver came even louder dancehall and reggae anthems. Even the food that the street vendors were bringing onto the bus was entirely new, accompanied by coconut water and fresh juice sold in small plastic bags, to be drunk from a hole in the corner. I also discovered the deliciousness of fry jacks (literally just fried dough but spiced so perfectly, crispy and warm).
I’ve heard that you should travel by bus or train to high-altitude locations to gradually acclimatise to the surroundings and avoid altitude sickness. It felt like the same advice could be given for the trip from Mexico to Belize to avoid culture shock. As we made our way down towards Belize City, the culture change completed itself and my ears adjusted slightly to the creole English spoken by the Belizeans, although I found it so much more difficult to understand than Spanish. The bus arrived at the main bus station in Belize City and I soon found another bus to take me onto Dangriga.
At around 6pm, I arrived in Dangriga after 5.5 hours of travel and headed to D’s Hostel, the only hostel in town. It was already getting dark at this point and I hadn’t actually booked any accommodation. When I got to the hostel, I was told it was full (there were only two private rooms and one 8-bed dorm) so I began exploring the town on my search for a bed. The guests at the hostel were so friendly and kind and let me leave my bags in the room whilst I walked around town. Several of them also offered for me to take their beds saying they probably wouldn’t get much sleep that night anyway. I spent an hour and a half going from hotel to hotel asking if there was any room at the inn but they all said the same thing – that they’d been booked up weeks in advance with Belizeans from outside Dangriga coming specifically to celebrate Garifuna Settlement Day. The only options at this point were to take a taxi to Hopkins, or rough it for a night/not sleep at all. I didn’t want to spend $45 on the taxi option, and miss out on Dangriga festivities, so I decided I would just stay in Dangriga and see how the evening progressed.
It was around 8.30pm by the time I got back to the hostel to get my bags. One of the guests for the dorm still hadn’t turned up. Alessia, an Italian girl, messaged the friend who was meant to be taking the bed and, unfortunately for her but very fortunately for me, we found out she couldn’t get into the town because of roadblocks for the festival. Dana, the owner of the hostel, was the sweetest lady ever. She had been super worried about me wandering around the town looking for a room that when I came back, she said that if there hadn’t been a spare bed, I could have slept on the sofa in their dining room. So everything worked out in the end. If you ever make it to Dangriga, stay with Dana and her family! Her husband and sons were all so lovely too. I don’t think you can book online but the number is +501 502-3324. Click here to find out more on TripAdvisor.
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