PG Day

On Saturday January 28th the second annual Punta Gorda Day was celebrated. We decided to stay close to town to take in all of the festivities. The event kicked off with a local group singing the Belize national anthem in Garifuna language. There were information booths and food booths along with a table filled with historical photos of the people of PG. The city triangle park was filled with locals. We ate some delicious local food and listened to some live and some very loud DJ music throughout the day. The day ended with an all night concert in the sports pavilion on the edge of town. We bought tickets ($7.50 US) for the 7:00 concert which didn't gat started until about 9:30. We stayed for the first group of very good Garifuna drummers but we could hear the concert all night a mile away in our hotel room!

Moving On

Yesterday we packed our bags and said goodbye to Placencia. It is a 4 block walk to the Hokey Pokey water taxi stand. We boarded a very full boat for the 11 minute $2.50 per person boat ride across the inlet to Independence.
There was a taxi to meet us and for another $2.50 we got a ride to the bus station. We then boarded a James Bus for the 2 hour scenic bus ride on the Southern Highway to Punta Gorda. The bus is an old American school bus painted green and yellow. The trip cost $4.50 per person. Hot and bumpy but we made it to PG after many stops to let folks on and off. If you stand on the road and flag the bus down they'll stop for you. The bus driver dropped us off at the front door of our hotel!