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The last stretch of the Hummingbird Highway is flat and relatively uninteresting; from the junction with the Southern Highway to Punta Gorda, it's another 10km further to DANGRIGA , the district capital (formerly known as Stann Creek) and the largest town in southern Belize. Though Dangriga is the cultural centre of the Garifuna , a people of mixed indigenous Caribbean and African descent, who overall make up about eleven percent of the country's population, it is not the most exciting of places unless you're here during a festival. However, the town is home to some of the country's most popular artists, including painters, drum-makers, the Waribagabaga Dancers and the Turtle Shell Band, and you may catch an exhibition or performance. It's also a useful base for visiting the offshore cayes and the inland jaguar reserve nearby. Since the early 1980s Garifuna culture has undergone something of a revival, as part of which the town was renamed Dangriga, a Garifuna word meaning "standing waters". The most important day in the Garifuna calendar is November 19, Garifuna Settlement Day , when the arrival from Roatan is re-enacted with a landing on the beach in dugout canoes, and expatriate Belizeans return en masse to the town to celebrate wildly with music, drumming, dance and drink.
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