3-14-2020 Hopkins Kite Festival & The Garifuna Collective Concert

We always love going to the Hopkins Kite Festival. The kites entered into the competition are all supposed to be homemade.
Some people make their kites beforehand, while others make their kites in the morning at the event.

There were lots of kites being flown all day long by children and adults.

We also spent time hanging out with friends. Our friend Pam (at right) made this colorful triangular kite from straws, string
and a broken umbrella. It flew well and she won first place in the adult competition. It looked store bought while it was
flying, so she had to bring it down for the judges to verify that it was indeed homemade.

After naps and dinner we went to an all night concert at Miss Tracey's Guest House, which is the guest house, music studio
and concert venue run by our friends Trevor and Tracey. The first band was Trevor's band called Zero Tolerance - we failed
to get a photo of them. Here is the main attraction, The Garifuna Collective, who is known and tours internationally. They
played twice that evening - early for the elders who couldn't stay late, and again at about 3 am. If you have never heard them,
look them up - they are awesome!

Next was the World Culture Band, which was started by a local musician who had traveled the world and assembled this
band along the way. They were really nice.

It was a smaller crowd than normal because the Covid-19 scare was just hitting Belize, and that kept a lot of people away.

Those who did come out all had a great time.

A band from the Cayo District called Mile 41 played nice reggae music. We enjoyed all the music, and we lasted until about
3:30 or 4 am and then had to call it quits. This was basically the last event we were able to go to before social distancing
began for everyone.

3-16-2018 Trash Cleanup and Hopkins Kite Fest

In the morning Cara participated in a trash cleanup challenge with some friends. She picked a particularly trashy area near
the library (and across the street from the Kite Fest) to clean up. This is a before picture.

After cleanup of Cara's area.

Before picture of the area that Dhalia and her daughter cleaned.

After cleanup picture of Dhalia's area.

We picked up five bags of trash in just one hour!

On the beach across the street the 15th Annual Hopkins Kite Fest went on all day.

Children and adults make their own kites to fly - this one says "One Love", a common phrase heard here in Belize.

Some of the kites are quite large, and pretty!

Some of the kites fly REALLY high. In fact, there is an award for highest flying kite.

Here you can see the One Love kite flying.

It's always fun to watch the kites flying and kids playing, as well as hanging out with friends.

3-17-2018 Beach Walk & Hopkins Kite Fest

We normally do beach walks on Sundays, but we had big plans for this Sunday, so we figured we if we wanted to do one
with our visiting friend, Cheryl, then we would have to fit in a short one on Saturday.

Lots of people were out enjoying the beach.

Cheryl had to try stuffed fry jacks at Queen Bean Restaurant.

Another vising friend, Siobhan, also joined us on the walk. Here we are at Tangos Beach Lounge.

It was an abbreviated walk because we wanted to get back to see the kites flying in the Hopkins Kite Fest that was going on
by the church.