The small community of Bélen

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Soon enough after returning from Yamari to Brus Laguna we were piled back into a big dugout canoe and were on our way to the second stop - Bélen (Bethlehem). The views along the way were great and we saw all the usual things you might expect like kids swimming and jumping off boats, people doing their washing, people fishing and even a dugout canoe loaded up with cows they had some how persuaded to lie down with their legs in the air so they could be transported. The journey used to involve a potentially dangerous journey out to sea and along the coast but after a few deaths and some nasty hurricanes funds were injected into the local area and the whole community spent something like 220days digging a channel along behind the beach to link the two lagoons connecting the towns.

Once we arrived we said goodbye to our english speaking guide and were met by another spanish speaking guide who took us for a walk around town and explained a bit about the place and a bit about the Miskito language - which shares a lot of words with English! - due to various english speaking people passing through over time in the past I guess. There's not much to do in Bélen as such but it's a great little community with friendly people that so far haven't become annoyed with tourists and so it retains that 'authentic' charm that draws people here.

In the evening on the day we arrived we were ushered down to the beach in darkness for what was, for us, the worst experience of the trip - a 'local dance'. When we arrived we found a small gaggle of people milling around and a pile of wood doused in petrol was quickly lit. The two of us sat down and had to watch as this forced show consisting of about four women dancing, a man on a guitar singing and a man with a cheese grater (used as some kind of percussion instrument). The idea is that they show you some of the traditional songs and dances, explaining the meaning behind them all. In a real situation where everybody is having fun and it's a genuine party on the beach it would be great but it couldn't have been more different. Nobody wanted to be there and we just felt ridiculous with all these people stood around performing like monkeys for us.

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Photos

Housing
For Sale: A spacious appartment located in the picturesque rural town of Bélen. Built entirely out of natural, renewable materials with a charming thatched roof and local decor it's full of character and surrounded by wildlife...
Apparently the stilts are to stop lice (or possibly some other similar pest) becoming a problem.

Cruising
Relaxing on the way to Bélen as we travel along the 10km channel dug out by hand to save people from the trecherous sea journey.

Bélen horses
There are loads of these guys wondering freely around the place

The airstrip/football field
There's only about 1 or two little planes a week to this place so the airstrip is mostly just an open space for people to play in.

Cleanlines is close to godliness
We were not very clean I'm afraid. This is what was laura's perfectly white top about half way through the trip. No amount of washing since then has budged the immense amount of dirt that has built up