Day 10: Identity

We had originally planned to leave for the island of Caye Caulker today, but on our arrival in San Pedro were told that the annual Belize food and music festival was today. We were a bit meh. Then we were told that it was headlined by Koffee and Barrington Levy. Fuck caye caulker, we were staying put. David and I had tried for a decade to see barrington levy, driving to Croatia for a festival he had headlined only to pull out, and having had him pull out of two further events in the uk. We had finally been able to see him in May, and now we were about to again in the space of 2 months.

Henry and I wandered off to find lunch and a pharmacy to attend to the pain in our ears. As we waxed lyrical about life we walked straight into our crew from Bacalar. They weren’t supposed to be in San Pedro until the following day, we were supposed to have left, but the stars had aligned such that we had all reconvened for this festival. We resolved to meet later and, after checking into our new beachfront Airbnb for the night, we headed to the festival to grab some food.

I’m not quite sure how the next part happened. We linked up with the crew from earlier and they introduced us to a few of their hostel mates. On a little expedition to find drinks tokens with one of them, we were directed to what looked like out of the festival. Then to VIP. Then to ultra VIP. I didn’t even know ultra VIP was a thing. Henry, David and I held our breaths, silently willing the universe to deliver for us. We had our wristbands removed and replaced with ultra vip ones. Turns out one of the crew had a legit ultra vip ticket. We just happened to be standing with her at the time when it came up with security, so we got a pass too. Maybe random chance, maybe chance isn’t random.

We dipped back to the pad with a fat crew for pre drinks and then hit the festival proper later on. Vibes were right, we’d made a fair few friends on the island by now, and everyone was out for this one. We were getting pretty mashup when Henry made what was for sure his best quote of the trip so far, maybe of all time. He looks around and goes, “The problem with travelling, is you either meet a bunch of clueless 20 somethings with no idea about the world, or a bunch of lost 30 somethings with no place in it”. Murderation. And quite accurate for a number of people we had encountered on our travels. I mentally categorised the people we’d met so far into 3 groups. Type A, clueless 20 somethings. Type B, lost 30 somethings. Type C, Top Donnny Dons like us (or are we really the lost 30 somethings?). Jorge and Armando, the architect and journalist couple from London, our dive masters, the chefs, Lloyd and Justin on the island, the Americans; all type Cs. I was in the middle of a conversation with a couple type of Bs, so I excused myself for the bathroom, leaving them at the back and joined the boys in ultra vip where I belonged.

What followed was the second best gig of my life. First is reserved for Buju Banton in Germany, but this was close. We were in touching distance of Barington Levy and Koffee, screaming along with tune after tune. Between acts, they dropped a Buju and Sizzla medley, and we were on a mad one with a Jamaican woman named Mona we had met on the island (straight up legend). It was funny that the four of us knew more of the music and were on more of a hype than the locals who the festival was for. I was struck again by what I perceived as a lack of identity amoung the people of San Pedro. Everything is imported, including culture. A curious combination of Carribean and Latino. And instead of those cultures mixing to create a distinct sense of Belizianess, as David remarked, they mixed like oil and water, to create a people who seemed slightly lost. Perhaps this was just on the islands, which had been gutted to accommodate the influx of tourists. It was a bit sad to see how a legacy of colonial exploitation, tourism and larger, more culturally dominant neighbours had seemingly stifled the creation of a unique sense of identity here. The festival was fire though.