Thursday, May 21, 2015

If You are the Aggie with a Mom Living in Placencia Please Say Howdy

While walking one morning we spotted this older model van parked in front of a house...it had an Aggie Mom sticker on the back window. What a trip that Aggie's mom took. I imagine she just said "screw it" one day and decided she didn't want to pay any more tuition and loaded up the van and hauled it to Placencia. Instead of a "howdy" she shouted out "Bye, Mon". 

The village of Placencia sits at the far southern tip of the peninsula. There is one road leading into and out of town. At some points you can throw a stone and hit the lagoon on one side or throw it the other way and hit the Caribbean. In town, they have done something really awesome. That is, they built a sidewalk that runs down the middle of town for pedestrians only. On one side are quaint little hotels, bars and houses that face the sea and the other side of the sidewalk has the same backing up to the businesses that face the actual road. We heard that an archbishop had retired to Placencia quite some years back and he complained about the hot sand so the sidewalk was built to keep the archbishop from burning his feet.

There are also a few side roads that lead down to private homes on canals, a school, peaceful and secluded condos, smaller resorts, and a super nice fishing camp.

The road into town ends at, well, the end. There are a few boat slips, boat docks, and a beautiful anchorage where boats rest in a very protected area. It is well-kept and clean.

The peninsula begins up north. Dangriga is the dropping off point. As you continue south from Dangriga you can either veer to the right and end up at Independence on the Mango River, or veer more to your left and end up on the one road leading into Placencia. So, Richie's Bus Service goes all the way down the peninsula to Placencia. The James Bus Service goes south from Dangriga to Independence and on south to Punta Gorda. If you take the James line, you then have to take the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi over to Placencia.

One afternoon we rented a golf cart from Cap'n Jak's (Lucky and ? from Austin, Tx) and went up north to look around. You go past the Maya Air and Tropic Air terminal and pass The Moorings boat docks and this is where all the newer development is taking place. This is also where the more exclusive resorts are being built. 
Before you cross the runway, look both ways!


I think it was also this day that we spotted the wookie balls on the menu of one of the restaurants...a tribute to the wookie-lar we all know and love. 


Somewhere along this trip we also went to listen to live music at the Pickled Parrot and were a little disillusioned at the not so nice group of complaining cruisers at the table we sat down at. Maybe that was why Terry gave that handshake where I swore I heard bones crack as the handshaking cruiser swore too.  But, we know better and won't let this small sampling of cruisers sway our opinion of the admiration we have for people that have the wookie balls to pull up stakes and go cruising.  

Pics around Placencia and up north in the Maya Beach area ----




Placencia School
Placencia School 


Sunday, May 17, 2015

Hey U Wan Do C da Jungle?

Rayman acting like a Howler Monkey
Time gets away from us so quickly down here. Let's see...we fell in love with Placencia and so of course stayed longer than we originally planned. Each day we would go down to the front desk and ask if our room was available for another night and then we'd book it. We had decided when we could no longer have our room it would mean it was time to move on. So we were able to stay until last Thursday when a large group was expected at the hotel. 
Placencia was filled with exotic fruit trees, and snapper, conch and rum were plentiful. We met and talked at length with many locals who work hard to make a living and raise their families. We realized on several occasions just how small the village of Placencia really is - we started to see many of the same faces, could call them by name and then started learning their life's trials and tribulations. 
Placencia Soursop...makes excellent daiquiris

For example - 
On Wednesday night we talked at length with a gentleman that resembled Morgan Freeman. He spend part of his time in Belize, his native country, and the other part in New Jersey. We would see him on just about every walkabout around Placencia. He and his nephew, whom we met over cocktails, were building some houses on property where they already had a couple of very nice houses. The next morning we waited to get on the Richie's Bus we took back to Belize City and met a woman and her husband from New York. She had a Mexican mother and Black father and loved Hopkins, but her husband loved Placencia so they vacationed in Placencia first and were on their way to Hopkins before heading up to the Cayo District to visit her mother. They knew "Morgan Freeman" from New York and New Jersey as well as Placencia. When "Morgan Freeman" happened to drive by while all of us were waiting for Richie's to arrive, he waved and a big group of us waved back all thinking he was waving at them. We ALL knew him...including the woman sitting alone that the NY couple realized they knew from their original Belizean days...she was on her way back to New Jersey after getting a divorce from Morgan Freeman just two weeks prior!!! 
We bought beautiful wooden bowls hand-made by Tyrone. Tyrone and his wife were busy raising their two children and trying to figure out whether the cruise ship terminal out of Placencia was going to have a positive or a negative impact on their lives. It was a big and valid concern of theirs. They had been attending town hall meetings and their biggest concern was that they would be asked to "mass produce". They were adamant their craft of carving beautiful bowls and other things from wood could never be mass produced. They had a nice storefront that they were very pleased with. They explained the business started with Tyrone's dad who was an original carver and came to Placencia only on occasion to sell. Then they started setting up a table on a regular basis that grew into a 2-table business and so on until they built a storefront. Their 4-year old son became a favorite of ours and he loved coaxing us into playing soccer with him.
 
Through the mangroves




Hiking in the Jungle
There Really are several Howler Monkeys in this tree
We booked a trip with Rose one day to go up the Monkey River and see the jungle and it's wildlife. By land, Monkey River is quite a long drive from Placencia but by boat is was about 45 minutes south. Our captain was Kimoni and when we got to Monkey River we picked up Rayman as our jungle guide. There were only five of us on the boat so it was a relaxing and exciting trip through the open and rough water in the panga, then through the mangroves to the mouth of the river and the extremely small village of Monkey River. We heard about the earthquake that hit Monkey River hard back in 2009 along with seeing a crocodile, tarantulas, blue crab in their inland holes, teeny tiny bats on the trees, birds, and of course the awesome howler monkeys. I love monkeys! and could have been a Jane Goodall type in another life. It was only fitting that I spotted the first monkey, even before Rayman or Kimoni. :)
Rayman told us a lot about how they still use parts of the trees and native plants for medicinal purposes such as treating snake bites, ear aches and infections. We stopped in Monkey River and had lunch of snapper, rice and slaw before leaving to go find the manatees. 
Rayman working hard to crab it without getting pinched...

Out comes the blue crab!

Kimoni told us about the days when they had few tourists and they would take them out in hopes of spotting manatees because they knew if they could spot the manatees the tourists would give them a nice tip. Otherwise, it was an unpaid boat ride for the tourists. There were no licenses or regulations when tourism was in its infant stages. Again, he was concerned about the impact the influx of tourists from the cruise ships is going to have on Placencia. Interestingly, the manatees we encountered were just off the coast of Harvest Caye where they are building the huge cruise ship terminal.  He said there were "save the manatees" campaigns but the cruise ship business won out.
It was an awesome day in da jungle!
More on Placencia and the trip up the peninsula  to come!

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Welcome to the World of Tyrone, Kendra, Plastic Man, Chino, High Times, and Clean Gas

We have easily picked up on the beat and fallen into the rhythm of Placencia. We get up early, drink coffee made in our room, get dressed, go for a long beach walk, come back and make/eat breakfast on the balcony, go to the market with our returnable Belikin bottles from the day before to buy another day's supply of Belikin, go to the beach while the beer chills in the frig, take a shower, lounge and read and blog and post, eat a light lunch, go for a walk around town, have afternoon cocktails by the water, take another shower, get dressed for dinner/drinks, have dinner, sit by the beach some more, come up to the room and sit on the balcony, then go to bed. 
Entrance to the hotel




View from our balcony
We have met Tyrone the wood carver, Kendra the hotel desk clerk, Plastic Man that makes beautiful bracelets from old plastic found on the beach, High Times will supply anything you want from boat tours to whatever. We have been on the look out for Chino who was recommended to us by Tyrone, and we have heard about Clean Gas but we have not met either as of yet. 
The harbor is beautiful and we have seen the sailboats anchored there, although I haven't taken pictures. The docks are immaculate and the anchorage is super tranquil. We have done our fair share of people watching and browsing the local Belizean art and colorful Guatemalan textiles. We like it here!
Placencia Village - 
These huge palms are everywhere...beautiful
Colorful Guatemalan textiles


Our room is up there

 

Friday, May 8, 2015

The Midnight Bus to Belize

Traveling the Hummingbird Highway via James Bus Line
After being in Merida for a couple of weeks, we had taken several beach days to Progreso, gotten some errands behind us, painted on the wall, pondered on the mirador, and talked about taking a trip.
We decided to go even farther south. Somewhere we hadn't been before. We'd go to Placencia in southern Belize. It has a nice ring to it. Bought two ADO bus tickets in Merida for the run from Merida to Belize City. The bus runs 4 times per week down to Belize City, leaving at 11pm. I know that isn't midnight but it just sounds better to say "the midnight bus"...and it's close enough. We bought the tickets on a Monday and the next bus leaving was on Wednesday night. Booked it!
On Wednesday, Terry and I both stayed up reading, doing yoga (me), and packing. Since we generally go to sleep early it was a chore for us to stay up past 10, but we wanted to be able to sleep on the 8 or so hour bus ride. Otherwise, it is a long trip! And, we had more bus tripping to get to our final destination.
There were only 5 other people on the bus which included 4 Belizeans going home, an Asian guy, and us. Oh, and the riding bus driver that hopped off the bus just outside Merida to get in the baggage compartment for a snooze to Belize. I told Terry later I swear I heard him knocking on the bus trying to say he was ready to get out of there, but we never stopped for that.  The only other time we stopped was when the bus driver stopped, got off the bus and asked somebody for directions. That was somewhere outside of Orange Walk after we'd crossed the border. And we almost stopped when the bus driver passed up a turn and had to put the bus in reverse to make the turn to the right. I've learned and I always wear warm, comfortable clothes since the buses are like refrigerators. And this run is nice because everybody can take up as much room as they need to stretch out and get comfy. Terry can always sleep like a baby. For me, it usually takes a while but I slept more on this trip than most. We've taken this bus to Belize City twice before. Oh, and we did stop two other times. Once to exit Mexico and the other time to enter Belize, when I had to give up my banana. I'm pretty sure the Customs lady ate it after I left! Each time we have crossed the border the exit procedures are different. We have finally given up on trying to get them to stamp our tourist card with 'doble entrada' so we don't have to pay fees over and over, but it only worked for us on the first trip to Belize. No such luck since! This time we asked for a receipt, thinking that would get us something. But all it did was get us a walk over to another building where they put in our passport numbers and pulled up our information and printed the receipt. We still beat the much fuller Cancun bus out of Mexico which meant going through Customs in Belize went quick. And we were out of there.
The sun started rising somewhere between Corozal and Belize City and by the time we got to BC, things were hopping and the town was awake. 
We didn't really know which bus we were going to take out of Belize City to get to Placencia, nor what time we would leave out of Belize City, but we knew none of our options would be as luxurious as ADO. From what we gathered, the James Bus Line and Richie's Bus Service are much the same. Both lines cover the southern areas of Belize. They are all older model Bluebird school buses, but just painted different colors, and none have A/C and both carry lots of people on them. We wanted to take Richie's since I wanted to tell Kate and Richy that we rode on Richie's but as luck would have it - we literally got off the ADO bus in Belize City and there was one other bus inside the terminal with people boarding. When we asked the conductor he said the bus was going through Independence/Mango Creek with a final destination of Punta Gorda. I think that might be in Guatemala but since we weren't going there I can't even be sure of that. This bus would get us close enough to Placencia to take a water taxi over the bay to Placencia town, which is on the far end of this little split of land that is like a finger off the Caribbean coast of Belize....a peninsula (duh!) So, Bingo! We both hopped on. Terry and I took the last two seats, sitting at opposite ends of the bus, and within a couple of minutes we rolled out of there for what would be a 4 hour bus trip to Independence/Mango Creek. The Belizean female I sat with was reluctant to let me in to my window seat. The conductor came back to the back and told her to move her stuff. When I crawled in I realized why the seat had remained vacant. I was sitting on the rear wheel hump seat which meant my knees were up in my face. I only had to ride like that for the hour or so trip down to our first stop - Balmopan. My butt cheeks were aching! I kept thinking to myself: Thank goodness Terry took the first seat. It wasn't as cramped and he wasn't having to eat his knees. I told him later I was daydreaming that he went up to the bus driver and asked to be let off the bus and hollered at me to follow. I was concerned he was feeling claustrophobic on this rather warm and very cramped bus. Funny thing was, when we got to Balmopan and quite a few people exited the bus, we both jumped up before the new passengers got on to change seats. Little did I know but he had been seated on the front wheel hump seat and eating his knees too!!! But, we were on our way to beautiful Placencia so both of us were willing to make a few sacrifices to get there. And I don't think either of us was prepared for what was next. Upon leaving Balmopan headed towards our next stop at Dangriga, we took the most scenic part of the trip on the Hummingbird Highway. It was lush, green mountains covered with green palm trees and other tropical vegetation followed by valleys of rows and rows of citrus trees. We saw an organic ginger farm, banana farms, and national park land. It was truly beautiful and can almost make me forget the 18-wheeler we saw lying on its side where it failed to slow down enough to make the bend while coming down off a mountain. It was waiting for emergency help to arrive but had plenty of people trying to help. I did notice afterward, people on the bus seemed to grip the back-seat rails a little tighter. These non-first class buses stop for anybody to enter/exit anywhere....as in top of a mountain, side of a mountain, rounding a mountain and anywhere in between. We made it to Dangriga, about 2 hours from Balmopan, where we had enough time to take a potty break. We have learned when to drink fluids and when not to drink fluids when it comes to bus riding. This wasn't a morning for hydrating! We wouldn't even get a cup of coffee. I'm just glad the bathroom attendant let me in the bathroom even though she refused my Mexican 10 peso coin. Then, I learned later she took Terry's 10 peso coin! 
 The last leg of our journey took us to Independence. The bus station was on the edge of town and when we asked the attendant, he told us it was about 3 miles to the Mango Creek water taxi. We gave in immediately and hailed a taxi and, sure enough, not only was it a good 3 miles but it was down a dirt road which we never would have turned down if we had walked. As luck would have it, again, we arrived just in time to get on the next water taxi at 11am. We had gained an hour upon entering Belize. The water taxi goes down the Mango River through very thick mangroves but the river is probably 200 or so yards wide. It was a pleasant and short trip. Even though we were travel weary, we were exited to step foot on the ground in Placencia town and walk the short distance to the city center and find a place to have a Belikin and a rum punch and let the rest of the adventure unfold. 
Terry at DeTatch
View in front of us