Placencia, Stann Creek District, Belize
Placencia
Why
do people come to Placencia?
- This town is at the end of a 16 mile long peninsula
- they call it the caye you drive to
- it got repeatedly flattened by Hurricanes: last time in 2001 by Hurricane Iris, when it destroyed 95% of the buildings – but they always rebuilt it
- it is a beach holiday strip and still a ramshackle village
- what you find here is plenty of sand and beach; all the beach is public and between every few houses you will find a beach access – you come here for beach time
along
the Peninsula
finally
we are on the Peninsula and we are driving considerably slower,
because we have to admire the expensive houses along the beach –
and 80% of the houses or lots are for sale... guess there is some big
development going on. Then it goes through a small village in the
middle of the peninsula Seine Bright which is not very touristy
looking and then we drive into Placencia and the funniest thing is
the air strip: because the runway goes right towards the ocean and
the road goes around the runway. So whenever a plane takes of or
lands – the corner around the runway is closed – there are little
huts on either side: It is so super cool.
our
nuthouse
it
is easy to find and we park our car – and soon discover that we are
likely not using it for the next 2 days!! Because we discover
everything is in walking distance – the beach and the sidewalk are
barely 100 m away, the supermarket even closer and to the end of the
peninsula google says we only walk 10 Min!!
This
is a super awesome looking place – must be Canadians owning it!! we
have our own little cabin with the pool right outside – perfect to
jump right in and cool down and then having a cup of coffee....
Laundry
day
we
are now already 10 days in Belize it is high time to do some
laundry!!! because a lot of our cloth are getting dirty – Gine
starts out in the Mini sink in the bathroom but Paul said how about
the kitchen sink.... and see there it works perfectly
Where
is the beach
so
with all that relaxing and moving our staff around it is finally time
to go a bit to the beach and soak up the last sunshine.... so we walk
over and go to the first access – in the water and on the sand....
now we are nice and relaxed the sun is going behind the palm trees:
time to head back – in the pool and then shopping in the town.
And
tonight we have again sandwiches that means tortillas on the deck...
Breakfast
on the beach
this
morning we decided we deserve a wonderful vacation breakfast – and
what can be better than right along the beach and the palm trees.
Visiting De Tatch we get a view table as where Paul went more
conventional Gine got the Stuffed Fried Jacks – I mean the food was
supper yummy and we were supper staffed – but the view with the
palm trees
Downtown
Placencia
we
plan to do a two in one: explore the town and go to the beach: there
are 2 ways: the street and the sidewalk. To see all we decided to
walk along the street first (which by the way is the longer walk with
1.1 km to the pier. On the way we find a lot of street vendors and
once we hit more downtown also stores, tour guides – Gine checked
out a view tour guides regarding some snorkeling and then we booked a
tour to the Silk Cayes – after we got told that yes it is a bit
more pricy but their is more marine life to see – if you want more
sandy beach then the laughing Bird Cayes would be the place to go.
And yes there are some souvenir shops too... we had to check
at
the Pier
ok
so there are 3 little colored huts at the pier – but they are
closed – aren’t we in high season?? From here we could also see
a cruise ship anchored offshore and some sail boars. Near the dock
was a little beach with a big chair but: we are having some clouds
today!! so maybe we get later some rain??? Hopefully tomorrow the
weather will be great. A bit relaxing int he sun and we decide to
return to our beautiful nuthouse for some relaxing.
Along
the Sidewalk
this
time we walked back on the Sidewalk – which is so much more fun,
there is so much more to see. Super cool local vendors with beautiful
carvings, potholders made from palm leaves – some amazing houses
and some old ones, gorgous flowers and trees, signs and fences –
and let’s not forget all the restaurants... so the walk back took
way longer because we had to talk and had to look.
Relaxing
on vacation!?!
with
some clouds and a slight wind we have the perfect weather to be
outside without getting grilled and also very relaxing... but then
can we relax if we are on vacation??? Paul says yes – Gine is still
deciding.
When
it rains it pours
it
is nearly like at home. So yes we had the whole day some clouds. When
we walked to the restaurant it was super humid (that is when Paul got
stopped by a lady and she asked him to carry her cakes) – once we
were in the restaurant it suddenly started to rain – then some
lightning and thunder storm. Lucky for us when we walked back home it
was dry and we could see some lightning, back in our little nuthouse
and it started to pour!!! Let’s hope it is only for tonight.
And
see there it was only for tonight we woke up to sunshine...
And
the wind says NO!!
yesterday
we booked a whole day Snorkeling trip to the Silk Cayes – and we
were so excited about the blue sky and the sunny weather, looking
forward to see the tiny islands and snorkel with the fish, turtles,
nurse sharks and sting rays...
on
time we were at the office and the lady told us, that it is too
Windy, out on the Cayes there are winds of 25-30 knots. So it would
be a rough ride in the small boats and then the currents make it
nearly impossible to snorkel... guess we are not going snorkeling.
She offered us for Monday when the weather is better, but coming back
and then we would have to drive another 3 hrs into the dark – no
way!!
And
so it became a Sunny Beach Day
What
now? First we walked down to the pier – and here in that protected
area it is super quite and calm. Then we walked a bit around the town
and out to the beach and yes here is a stiff breeze. We got out beach
staff and off we go to the beach: the sound of the waves is amazing –
but even when going in the water feels cool. So we lay underneath the
palm trees and listen to the sounds and let the sun shine on us. A
quick break at lunchtime for a cold drink and then at 4 pm after all
that hard work on the beach we deserve real italian icecream – yes
they sell that here at the Tutti Frutti.
And
we also saw the Tourist Police in action: first when they drove along
with their golf cart on the beach and had a guy emptying his pockets
(by the way the guy told us a bit later that the tourist police is
great because they gave him Marijuana) – then later at the soccer
game and finally in the cozy corner bar....
But
then they do say that coming to Placencia means Beach time – guess
that’s what we did a lot.
At
the Checkpoint
in
front of the police station is a big sign “Stop – Checkpoint”.
Now we came here every day since we are here and they never stopped –
but today when we drove to get the ice cream they stopped us and we
didn’t had the wallet with us. That means we got told: in the
future always bring your driving license.
As
well you discover police stations quite easy to find only look for a
bright yellow building.
Supper
or Superbowl or both?
with
all the wind today it is actually quite cool. Gine even needs her
sweater because of the wind. We decided to go to the Cozy Corner for
supper and see there even here they play the superbowl. But with the
cool wind we didn’t linger and only saw partly of it. This is
clearly an indoor night!
Around
the Airstrip
Lucky
for us, when we left and drove around the airstrip: the beams were
down and a plane took off. It’s kind of cool if a plane goes by you
maybe only 5m to your left and takes off.... I mean you can’t get
much closer. It was king of cool
Seine
Blight
halfway
up the Peninsula – we drive through this tiny town with a lot of
very old houses: this is Seine Blight:
- today it’s a small Garifuna town
- this town is quite old – it got founded by the privateers in 1629!!
- It got it name from french fisherman deported from Newfoundland after Britain gained control of Canada
Discoveries along the
Hummingbird Hwy
we leave Placencia in the clouds
– and as where we are no lovers of clouds, it was very pleasant for our long
drive: our longest drive of the whole trip: 3 hours. And it didn’t go faster
with all the road constructions - but there were still some interruptions making the trip fun:
- Mayan World: as we drive along we see a small Mayan temple – ok so it is made of a little more modern material – but it looks cute, so we stop and walk up to the top.
- overgrown vehicles: as we hit the first construction site, where you can the red soil, we see that old bus, we had to stop, because a tree was already growing through it, a bit later we saw a pick up on the site: the only color visible was rust. And a bit later we found a totally rusty broken apart tractor.
- Construction site: it’s kind of funny, at one time they had a flagger, another time you have to find your way through the construction vehicle and you have to find out, which site of the road is the best to drive – all you have to be is a bit flexible.
- The brown blue hole: we stopped at the blue Hole NP, when we paid, the ranger told us, that because it rained yesterday the water is actually not blue and you can’t see the ground, so we decided to not go. But we did found something really cool:
- the Chinese World traveller: so on the parking lot we saw a Ford Camper with a Chinese license plate and when we walked over on the outside he had his map where he already all travelled: so he went around China, for 2 years he drove overland to Europe and all around there and back. Then the Camper went over to San Fransisco and he went up through the US and Canada to Alaska, all the way to Newfoundland and through the US, Mexico and he is now in Belize: his plan is to drive this year through the rest of Central and South America and if he has money he will ship his car to Capetown if not then he goes back home to Shanghai. I don’t think we are that ambitious -oh and the Ford Camper is built in Shanghai.
Speed bumps in Belize
we are now already experienced
in driving over Belize’s speed bumps and we discovered there are different kind
of speed bumps, depending on the kind of speedbump you can go over faster or
slower – funny part is they are all called speed bumps – but sometimes the
picture look a bit different so you may know what it could be. Let's not forget sometimes there is a sign before, sometimes a sign right where it is (no ore-warning) and if you are lucky there is none at all or there is a sign and no bump.
- the rumble strips: are the easiest to drive over and you nearly can’t feel them
- normal speed bump: is a single speed bump not to bad
- Pedestrian Crossing/ramp: if you see those ones, then you really want to slow down, because they are super high and quite wide and if you would speed over them, you likely don’t drive much further.
2025-05-22