Punta Gorda, Toledo, Belize

Mark and I decided to do a trip to Punta Gorda in the Toledo district before he sells his Jeep. Punta Gorda is Toledo’s Capital and the largest southern city in Belize. To be perfectly honest it is not a big city at all, and we found it to be one of the most laid back places in Belize.

It has a beautiful mix of Garifuna, Mayan, East Indians, Chinese, and Mestizo people. It’s also right on the coast just a short distance away from Guatemala and Honduras. It’s a lush area of rainforest, receiving more rain than most areas of Belize, and being home of many farmers, including organic farmers of cacao, and cashew, among others.

Upon arriving in town, we met up with Victor, the local remax representative and then checked in to the Natures Way hostel.  Victor then gave us a tour of the town, showed us some of the available real estate and then took us out to his favorite bars for some drinks. It was a good time.

On Saturday morning I got up early and went on a little exploration around town. I discovered the Saturday market just along the waterfront, and bought myself two big bags of raw cacao beans for $10 BZ total (very good deal). I also bought a bottle of home brewed cashew wine from a fellow on a bicycle. It tasted delicious.

Now one of the things I’ve been looking to get since I got to Belize is a traditional Garifuna style drum. When I had asked Victor, he had told me of a craftsman to check out, so I decided to stop by his house and see what he had for offer.

When I got there, this Garifuna Rasta craftsman named King Ruban was sitting outside with a drum shaped piece of wood smoldering on the inside. Apparently Victor had stopped by his place earlier and informed him that I was coming to buy a drum. So Ruban was already starting to make it.

Ruban greeted me and we discussed what it would take for him to make me a drum. Since would be leaving on the Monday, it didn’t give him much time, but he said he would have it completed by the time I was leaving.

I had been imagining finding a shop with a few drums to choose from, but there were some advantages to having a drum custom made from scratch by this artisan. Since he was on the same block as the guesthouse, I was planning to visit in often to see the progress of the drum and do a video of the drum making process. You can check out my video at the link below:

The Making of my Traditional Garifuna Drum

I met a couple of interesting organic farmers named Gordon and Dija. Gordon has a nice farm called Bedrock Gardens out on the outskirts of town, and he showed me the place and told me a bit about farming the indigenous plants and fruit trees.  I learned a lot from these two in the short time we spent together, as Dija had also lived for over a year in the jungle, surviving easily with a machete and the wisdom and knowledge of jungle plants, animals, and foods.

Back downtown, Mark was spending most of his time at the reef bar, which is in the most ideal location and run by Polly from England. She’s one of the coolest people you could meet, very friendly, and running a diving operation with a focus on reef conservation (Check her website at: http://ReefCI.com). In the evenings there is often live Garifuna music and dancing, and the bar overlooks the beautiful sea with that wonderful sea breeze keeping things cool.

We both spent most of our evenings at the Reef bar, and on Sunday night when the live Garifuna music was playing, I was taken by the spirit of the music and danced wildly to the African-Carribean vibe along with a couple of cute Garifuna girls. For anyone who has not experienced the music of the Garifuna people, their music alone is worth a trip to Belize and one of the Garifuna towns. It is mostly fast trance drumming on various sizes of drums and turtle shell drum sets, as well as group harmonic singing/chanting in the traditional Garifuna language. So beautifully tribal!

I had been hoping to receive my drum that night, but Ruban told me it would be ready in the morning before I left. Luckily it was, but the skin still wasn’t dry, so I had to wait until I got home to Benque before it was ready to play.

The whole journey to Punta Gorda opened my eyes to a new part of Belize. The diversity there, the laid back nature of the place, the rich lush growing habitat, the beautiful multi-cultural women, and the incredible Garifuna music are all good reasons to visit Punta Gorda. I will definitely go back for another visit sometime.

~Jambhala