The Garifuna Collective Performs in San Pedro for the First Time Ever!

The late Andy Palacio’s world famous group, the Garifuna Collective, played on Ambergris Caye for the first time yesterday at the re-opening of Sundiver.  Sundiver is a resort about 5 miles north that closed a few years ago, was rented to a group for the years after and is now reopening as a resort.  It’s a pretty cool looking place.

With a great beach and a great raised palapa beach bar.

And the view from the upper deck which has a small restaurant/bar/eating area.

The conch ceviche was plentiful and delicious.  Free food!

The Umalali singers got ready and I dropped my food and ran downstairs.

And maybe my favorite part of Garifuna music…the drums.  And in particular, the turtle drums.

I’ve seen these guys once before at the Bliss Center fundraiser for Haiti.  But…this close?  It was fantastic.  I’ve never seen a group having so much fun performing.

Everyone was playing along…

Here is the crowd watching the amazing show.

I needed to upload this video…after uploading 2 hours to this blog, it didn’t work.  So now I THINK I have it on You Tube (2+ hours of uploading again).  See my commitment to this blog?  But totally necessary…it really captures the feel of the concert.  Amazing…really really amazing.

Check out “Watina”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKZw-YnnYw&feature=youtu.be

What a crazy awesome treat from Sundivers.  Thanks guy, I had a really good time.

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