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DANGRIGA |
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 The last stretch of the Hummingbird Highway is flat and relatively
uninteresting; from the junction with the Southern Highway to Punta
Gorda, it's another 10km further to DANGRIGA , the district capital (formerly
known as Stann Creek) and the largest town in southern Belize. Though
Dangriga is the cultural centre of the Garífuna , a people of mixed
indigenous Caribbean and African descent, who overall make up about
eleven percent of the country's population, it is not the most exciting
of places unless you're here during a festival. However, the town is
home to some of the country's most popular artists, including painters,
drum-makers, the Waribagabaga Dancers and the Turtle Shell Band, and you
may catch an exhibition or performance. It's also a useful base for
visiting the offshore cayes and the inland jaguar reserve nearby.
Since the early 1980s Garífuna culture has undergone something of a
revival, as part of which the town was renamed Dangriga, a Garífuna word
meaning "standing waters". The most important day in the Garífuna
calendar is November 19, Garífuna Settlement Day , when the arrival from
Roatán is re-enacted with a landing on the beach in dugout canoes, and
expatriate Belizeans return en masse to the town to celebrate wildly
with music, drumming, dance and drink.
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