Placencia and Punta Gorda: our last days in Paradise

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Oh hey there, fancy seeing you here! We´ve rather a lot to catch up on.

Our final few days in Belize passed far too quickly for our liking. We had an amazing taxi drive up to the junction after deciding against the relaxing hitch-hiking experience that we had to get into Hopkins. Our driver was the coolest reggae-playing rasta ever, named Shaka after his instrument (Maracas). After catching the bus with the Brizzle and German girlies and meeting our friend Shakil (another band member who taught us the art of Garifuna dance) we arrived in a boiling Placencia. We had a slight miscommunication with the bus-conductor and ended up being dropped at the wrong hostel in the midday heat with our bags, nightmare situation. After a mini-breakdown on the side of the road (which lasted until the bus was making its return journey, causing some weird looks from the conductor), we plucked up the courage to make the 5 minute walk up to another hostel which we´d been recommended. Turns out that whoever recommended it had a very different idea of nice to us, it was a dump. But then again, we suppose that if you like potentially lethal spiders scuttling around your floor, fleas in the bed and cooked fish in the cupboards, it would be paradise. This spider deserves his own story. We decided he looked too much like a black widow to let him roam free, so we artfully gave him a new home under a bowl, a heavy guidebook and a bottle of shampoo, there´s no way he was escaping. Or so we thought. The next morning, to our horror, after a tense removal of said spìder´s new home we discovered him nowhere to be seen... You can imagine that we didn´t hang around in good old Elouise´s guesthouse for too much longer and made a hasty exit to Deb n Dave´s Last Resort (hi-larious) up the road.

Enough about accommodation now, although we´re sure you´re thoroughly enjoying yourselves... We spent our days on the again postcard-perfect beaches of Placencia and befriended plenty more rastas. Our local haunt quickly became a cafe in the name of Jay Dee´s where we ate at least once a day (cough, on one occasion three...) and where we had our first, but by no means last, experience of Fry Jacks (look it up, we promise they´re nicer than they look).

Four days later and after a boat and bus ride, we arrived in Punta Gorda, the land of promised Bob Marley t-shirts. Now how would we sum up PG (the locals are apparently too laid-back/lazy to pronounce the four syllables)? Well, if we´re being generous we´d give it an easy 0/10. The so-called Bob Marley t-shirts were nowehere to be found, despite almost constant searching, they somehow managed to make an inedible burrito and to top it off it poured down non-stop. We don´t remember seeing the sun once.

Our most memorable night was after throwing away this questionable burrito. We discovered a beautiful restaurant that was solely lit by fairy lights but to our dismay, just as we sat down, everything went dark. We were experiencing a traveller´s rite of passage: a power-cut. Credit where credit´s due they served us a delicious burrito by candle-light, how lovely. Turns out, fans use electricity, who knew? This was pre-rain hence high heat and humidity levels, resulting in a sleepless and very sweaty (sorry) night.

Thanks PG, you were great. Back off to Guatemala tomorrow, we can´t wait to see baby Antigua once more.

Big love, Rosey and Luce x

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