Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Placencia
We caught the 7am boat to Belize yesterday morning. It was around an hour and a half across the bay, mostly through open water with the land off in the distance. It was another pretty trip, and a big change to be in open water with the hills around just blue rises along the western horizon and water as far off as you could see toward the east.
Unfortunately, we had to slow down a couple times because of bottles and other garbage in the water. Our second day in Placencia there was a layer of bottles and other trash that had washed ashore all along the beach with even more bobbing along in the water, patrolling the shore. They guy we rented the room from said that was unusual but others said they had seen garbage wash ashore like this before. Regardless, it is sad that people litter in such a beautiful place. One bright side is that there are a lot of garbage cans throughout the streets of Placencia with catchy slogans like "Don't be a quitter, throw away your litter" and "Don't be brash, deposit your trash". At least they rhyme, and the heart is in the
right place. In Guatemala we were alarmed that locals would, without hesitation, throw garbage out of their window as we drove along or just drop wrappers/napkins/etc on the ground as they walk. It is nice to see garbage cans in Belize and indications that efforts are underway to change the culture.
Back to our trip up the coast of Southern Belize, though...
The boat dropped us off in Punta Gorda, at a little 2-room hut with "Customs" and "Immigration" above each door. Absent any fruits or animals we proceeded into the town to find an ATM and transportation north to Placencia. The ATM noted in our trusty Lonely Planet was out of order but a nice guy we met on the street pointed us down to another bank a block or two away. People on the street were very friendly (possibly the friendliest locals on our trip so far) and our new friend also pointed us to the James Bus Station, which happened to be only a block away from the dock and customs (turn left from the dock, then a right on Queen to go to the ATMs; turn right from the dock one block until you pass the
police station for the bus station). We got to the bus station about 9:10am and quickly had tickets for the 10 o'clock bus to Placencia ($4.50 each, for interested travelers).
The bus turned out to be a chicken bus, but was far more dignified than any of the Guatemala chicken buses we rode on. We stopped every couple miles and went through each town along the way so it took a bit longer but it was a nice way to see the countryside along the way and kind of fun to open windows when the sun came out and rush to close them all when the intermittent downpours came upon us.
Placencia is on the end of a long peninsula. The road down the peninsula makes even the heartiest of locals shudder and takes a long time to traverse. Our bus dropped us off at Independance, a very little town on the mainland just opposite the end of the peninsula. We got a quick taxi about 8 blocks or so (unnecessary but we didn't know how far it was or even what direction, and it was really hot. The taxi was only $1.50 each, anyway) and hopped on the
Hokey Pokey Water Taxi to Placencia, which was nice enough to hold its noon departure ten minutes or so to accomodate the folks arriving on the bus from Punta Gorda. Things definitely move slow here. Likely because of the striking heat and humidity, but the
'go slow' culture is quickly evident in Belize.
Our Hokey Pokey taxi captain navigated us through a labrynth of mangrove swamps and we came to the dock at Placencia. As usual, we had a list of 3-4 places from Lonely Planet and travel blogs, but a guy named Stan met us at the dock and gave us a ride to the apartments and rooms he had for rent. It turned out to be the
Ponderosa Apartments, and he was a pretty cool guy who moved down here from LA about seven years ago. It was $30/night for a very big space, which is quite a bit less than most other places we were considering. The deck had a wonderful hammock and it was nice to have a kitchen, even if we only used it to cook some chicken. It was clean inside but we did find two cockroaches in the bathroom the first night; that
Placencia
Our apartment at the Ponderosa Apartment is most likely due to the tropical climate rather than the cleanliness of this place and we'd recommend the Ponderosa to other travelers. Placencia has a small village with a couple places to stay, shops and restaurants down by the tip of the peninsula and there is a hotel strip further north on the beach. We never made it up to the hotel strip, mostly because it was really hot and everything we needed was around the village - grocery store, beach, and our apartment. We just stayed around the village and swam, hung out on our deck or in front of the fan, and occasionally went down to the Purple Space Monkey cafe for lunch and a Belikin. It has been very very hot here. There has been a little breeze here and there but for the most part the days have been very humid and hot. As a result, we spent most of this morning and afternoon reading on the beach under the shade of a palm tree and swimming in the sea. Not a bad way to keep cool!
Tomorrow we will get up early and catch the 6:45am hokey-pokey water taxi back to
Placencia
The other side of our apt at Ponderosa Independance for the 730 bus up to Belize City (cough) and then over to Caye Caulker (hooray!).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0542s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb