Los Tigres!

Tegucigalpa, Honduras is a city with a terrible reputation for its crime. It was hard for us to believe all the warnings and be content to simply look out the window of a hotel room without seeing any sings of danger ourselves. But that's what we were faced with upon arriving in the third country of our Central American tour.



The upshot, however, to being stuck in a five-star hotel is that you happen to run into certain people in the lobby, like the production manager for a famous Norteño band who happens to be, Los Tigres del Norte!

I still can't quite fathom my good fortune in the events which I am about to recount. We noticed their tour bus parked in front of the Marriott which was a dead give-away that we were staying in the same hotel as them. Their concert was taking place on our night off, and I assumed that it would be sold-out, or at least, too crazy of a scene to try to attend myself. Their manager, Mr. Angulo said that sales were very bad for that night's show due to fears about the killer-flu from Mexico, (Los Tigres sing about the experience of Mexican working class peoples, but they all live in San Jose, California) which meant that he was willing to offer us two free tickets to the show.

The scene outside the outdoor stadium of the concert was a bit hectic, and myself and Sean, a fellow red-head stuck out like sore thumbs. But once a call was placed to the promoter who waved us in, the night was pure magic from then-on out. All our cares about crime and swine-flu were washed away with the music.

More Sounds from Belize

Taking a walk on a nature trail near San Ignacio, the cicadas were sounding like and orchestra of voltage-controlled oscillators.

The kids at the Wesley Elementary School in Belize City were astoundingly good at the clapping and vocal participation we invite audiences to do with us in our concerts. Its no wonder they were so good at singing their own school song.



The same day as our concert at the Wesley School, we took off for Honduras, feeling very attatched to the people and the places we'd seen in this amazing country.

Performing for yet another Belizean Legend

Making our way through the southern towns of Belize where Garifuna communites are thriving, we were again offered an opportunity to meet with an incredible musician and part of living history, Paul Nabor. His small abode in the town of Punta Gorda includes the room where he holds traditional Garifuna healing ceremonies; we felt quite honored to be in such a sacred and serene space. Here's the two videos of us performing "When Sorrows Encompass Me 'Round" for Mr. Nabor whose facial expression is priceless at the end end of the second clip. This is without a doubt one of my favorite performances we have had so far on this trip.

We were then most honored to have Mr. Nabor play his guitar and sing for us a few of his lastest compositions. While tuning up, he played a micro-cassette recording of a song through the overdrive chanell of an incredible little amp. I was blown away by the heavyness of the groove in his gutar part, the Pepsi bottle clave and the beautiful singing on top.

Check Alicia and Sarah's blogs for more clips of our visit with the incomparable Paul Nabor, snappysarah.blogspot.com

violinistalibre.blogspot.com

Un-Belize-able

On the way to play an Earth Day performance at the Guanacaste National Park, I decided to ask our representative from Jazz at Lincoln Center, Shana Bromberg, her impressions of this amazing country. She will be returning to NYC in a few days and we'll be sad to say goodbye to such a fun travel companion.

We continued on to Guanacaste National Park where the Belize Audubon Society's Earth Day event was held next to a little building where a small office, some bathroms and an exhibit on the various creatures who live in the forest, (Belize's natural landscape is 40% of the country, all national reserve territory) including this life-size leopard.

Our concert was well received and we continued on to San Ignacio where we checked into an amazing resort/hotel with this peacful scene outside my room's back door.

First Night in Belize

Two short flights away from Nicaragua put us a world apart in this English-speaking country on the Caribbean coast, and with only a few hours of sleep we were setting up to play a show in 'Old Belize' a open-air waterside tavern of sorts, with plenty of sea breeze to cool things down. This was cool enough, but when Mr. Peters the King of Brukdown, arrived after Denise from the US Embassy made a few calls on the behalf of Sean who is a fan of his music, we were really amazed.
Here is what happened when we got ready to play a few tunes with him:

No night is complete without a group photo to bring everyone together. From left to right:

Jack Difily (charge d'affaires US Embassy), Sean, Mr. Wilfred Peters, Alicia, Sarah, Wilfred Peters Jr. and myself.

Day Off in Nicaragua

This tour is definitely not hurting in the fun/leisure department. We were encouraged by the officers from the US embassy, as well as the Ambassador's wife, that canopy-gliding was THE thing to do on our day off. The zip-lines were wrapped around huge old trees overlooking coffee plants growing in the partial shade blow. Sean, Sarah, Shana and I got suited up, and before we could say Pixie Dust we were flying through the jungle like Peter Pan's lost boys!








Our sound man Marvin, also agreed to show us around one of his favorite towns, Catarina, with one of his favorite views. "Te gusta? Te gusta la vista?"















Marvin is a very sweet man and he can't resist giving us the best treatment imaginable. Here is a video of him stopping to buy us fruit that we had just enjoyed at lunch.

In the middle of the town square in Granada, the huge poster for our concert attracted a crowd of three hundred, a mixture of locals and American ex-pats who make that funky town on the giant lake of Nicaragua their home. (see Alicia's blog for an account of our boat tour of that lake's small islands, home to rich Nicaraguans, bargain-hunting vacationers, and the occasional Spider monkey named Lola!)





Our smiling faces and foot-stomping songs are always balanced by the scenes surrounding us in this, the second poorest country in the region, behind Haiti. There is visible contention between supporters of the Sandanista party, and those who oppose their rule currently, as illustrated by the grafitti in the streets.


























Tonight, we will play in the residence of the American Ambassador and will meet young Nicaraguans who have traveled to the US on exchange programs and returned home to share their experiences abroad with their communities.