A drumming lesson, a hudut supper, and Settlement Day on 19 November for those who can time it.
The Garifuna are descended from West African and Indigenous Caribbean peoples who settled this coast after being exiled from St Vincent. Their language, dance and music were proclaimed part of humanity's oral and intangible heritage by UNESCO in 2001.
In Hopkins we arrange a drumming lesson with a working drummer, a supper of hudut (fish cooked in coconut broth, called sere, with plantain pounded in a wooden mortar) in a family kitchen, and an evening where the music isn't put on for you. In November, Dangriga re-enacts the arrival by sea on Settlement Day.
Drumming lesson
Primero and segunda drums, and the rhythms behind punta.
Hudut supper
Cooked and served by a Garifuna family who host visitors.
Settlement Day
19 November in Dangriga: canoes come ashore at dawn.Check before you travel
Village walk
With someone from Hopkins, who'll introduce you.
Turneffe and Lighthouse Reef on your own boat and your own timetable, including the Blue Hole, framed honestly.
In spring, around the full moon, whale sharks come to feed off Placencia. It's a chance, never a promise.
