Placencia
Placencia is a resort town at the end of a very pretty peninsular. The beach is nice to look at but when we were there it was a little dirty with lots of rubbish being washed up that let it down. The main town has lots of really great resturants with a special mention of Rumfish which was incredible. We spent three days here happily relaxing before catching the weekly boat to Punta Cortez (Honduras).
The rooms have a fan, wifi, and shared bathrooms that are kept clean. It was a lot nicer than the pictures made out!
We filled in our exit immigration forms which were handed out and put our names down on the immigration list. We found out you could actually buy tickets on the boat, though we were glad we had ours secured. Slowly but surely more people arrived, in fact most of those staying at our guesthouse showed up! I quickly ran round to a coffee shop called "Above Ground" to grab a coffee once I saw there was a toilet on the boat (though we later found that using it during transit was wishful thinking). The coffee was again super-heated but we managed to finish it before we left. We took our positions on the boat (back right, about 2 metres forward of the open-air part of the stern is recommended as it's less rocky than the front, and less wet than the rest of the boat) as it started to became more crowded and the front of the boat began filling up with bags, spare tires and even a mattress. Soon 9am came around we were on our way to Honduras.
Getting There
We got the 9am bus from Hopkins to Placencia for 6 Bzd each, took about 2 hours.Where we Stayed
We stayed at Lydia's Guesthouse. It's about one and a half kilometres away from the end of the peninsular. There is a very nice walking path that runs just behind the first row of accommodation along the beach.The rooms have a fan, wifi, and shared bathrooms that are kept clean. It was a lot nicer than the pictures made out!
Food & Drink
- Barefoot bar - A really colourful bar with great drinks, the food is okay though perhaps a little overpriced.
- Rumfish - The drinks and the lasagna were incredible. The lasagna was probably the best one we've ever had. I had the burger which was okay, but would get one of the mains if I went again. A little pricey, but well worth it!
Journal
Arrival
We flew along the roads from Hopkins, and with the windows open then Chicken bus was the perfect temperature making for a very pleasurable break from the heat. The scenery was very colourful with beautiful flowers and trees lining the roads. As we went further south we began to see larger houses and much more pristine and manicured gardens. Larger resorts and developments started to appear and clear signs of money meant we were nearing Placencia.
Placencia is a small town at the end of a very long peninsular. It's not as expensive as you might think and there are budget accommodations as well as high end places dotted around the town. It's also not particularly built up either, so it retains it's laid back Caribbean nature. As we came in to the town saw our guesthouse and pointed it out. The woman in front of us heard her and stopped the bus for us (she just shouted) and we jumped off. Another couple who'd been on the bus jumped off at the same time and started walking in the direction of the guesthouse. We had to get our bags from the back of the bus so were a little delayed. At this point we saw the other couple were definitely heading towards the same guesthouse and were worried they might get the pick of the rooms. As Kate had spotted the guesthouse for them we thought that was a bit cheeky and we named them "evil us".
We didn't need to worry though, the room we got was perfectly adequate however we did need to wait for evil us to check-in before us - and they took ages! The room was small but had two fans and seemed a lot cooler than the room in Hopkins. We dropped our things and thought about our first task in Placencia.
The reason we had come to Placencia was to catch the weekly boat to Honduras. Because we'd done the Raggamuffin tour we'd put our schedule all out. The options we had to get to Honduras were to either go through the top of Guatemala and back through Flores and down to Rio Dulce, or get a boat from Puerto Gorda to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala and from there get a bus to Honduras. Either way we would have taken at least a couple of nonstop travelling days so instead we decided to relax a little and wait for the boat to Puerto Cortez (Honduras) from Placencia which left once a week, every Friday morning.
We wanted to make sure we didn't miss out of tickets so had got to Placencia a couple of days early. The guidebook said that we could get tickets for the boat at Barefoot bar which was just around the corner from our guesthouse. We headed over to the bar where there is a little tour booth. We purchased the tickets which were 110BZD each. We asked the woman at the counter if the boat ever sells out. She replied that she hadn't heard of it happening but as it was low season there was no chance of it selling out. We were still glad to have our tickets in hand though!
After we got the tickets we had a celebratory drink at the colourful bar. Then, as the drinks and setting were so nice we decided to have some nachos to celebrate that too. We stayed there for a while before continuing along the path to the main pier and end of the peninsular. We turned around and walked back up the main street, which though it is definitely dustier than the path still has some very nice shops and restaurants. We passed Tuttifrutti Gelateria and as it was so hot we had a good excuse to check it out. We went in and found out that the flavours change every week so you can always go in and try something new. We got a couple of pots and ate them outside, they were very, very nice!
Along the way home we decided to pick up some ingredients for a few meals at the guesthouse as it had a reasonable kitchen. We got some spaghetti and sauce, as well as a few vegetables, though not as many vegetables as we would have liked as the quality of those in the shops wasn't great. We then headed back to the guesthouse to relax and catch up on some blogging. The guesthouse had a very nice porch area with a couple of chairs, good wifi and lots of pretty bushes with hummingbirds darting around. We also got a few beers to help our blogging along, it was bliss!
For dinner we cooked up the pasta and had it on the front porch. It could have done with some cheese, but was great for the price! For our afternoons entertainment we caught up on the latest episode of Game of Thrones before calling it a night!
Day 2
To save money the next day we had oats, yogurt with some very unripe mango. It wasn't the greatest meal but the oats definitely filled us up. We decided to then go and take a walk along the beach which was hot, windy and actually quite dirty. We have a feeling that as it's low season there are less people cleaning the beach and on this particular day the tide was bringing a whole heap of rubbish from the rest of the Caribbean. We sat on some dilapidated sun loungers that had probably been left on the beach instead of placed and before long we were far too hot to think and decided to leave the beach and go in search of some coffee.
We found the very well named Brewed Awakenings for a cup of coffee, it was a little unassuming shack on the main road that looked promising for coffee and also apparently does great smoothies. We got ordered two americanos and crossed our fingers. When they arrived we picked them up and almost dropped them immediately; They were beyond hot, they were super-heated, they were so hot they were possibly responsible for a sharp rise in global warming. Even after waiting half an hour they required an asbestos mouth to be able to consume them. Kate wasn't impressed as rule one of coffee making is don't burn the beans. Unfortuntely much of the coffee making skills in Central America seem to have been imported from the United States where everyone sells the hottest coffee possible.
We eventually managed to drink the coffees and decided to head across the road to a supermarket to grab something for lunch. We picked up some baked beans which, being from the UK, is one of my favourite meals! We got some toast and went back to the guesthouse to serve it up - and of course wishing we'd picked up some cheese too. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on our blogs before Kate came up with the hair-brained idea of going for a run. We hadn't done much (if any) exercise since we left and with all the pringles and dodgy meals along the way we both felt very unhealthy. It had cooled down a bit so we put on some exercise gear and went for a short three kilometre run down the beach path. I wouldn't say we did particularly well but we were definitely very pleased that we tried!
As we'd cooked up breakfast and lunch Kate convinced me that we needed to eat out at Rumfish, one of the highly recommended places in Placencia. It was a ten minute walk down the main street towards the pier and takes up the first floor of a building, weirdly above and estate agents. The ambience was really nice, and though the menu was a bit more expensive (above 30-40BZD for a main) we had heard it was worth it. We both ordered cocktails as they infuse their own rum and they sounded really good. We weren't disappointed, they were definitely the best drinks we'd had in Belize. For our mains I ordered the burger and Kate got the slow cooked Lasagna (her favourite dish). the burger was a lot cheaper than everything else on the menu, and I felt it could have been a lot better. However Kate's Lasagna more than made up for the burger. I only had a few bites, but both Kate and I agree it was the best we'd ever had, even better than Kate's Nan's (sorry Nan!). After the great Lasagna and cocktails we decided we had to share a dessert. We got a creme brulee, which to Kate's dismay had banana on top. After I ate the banana off the top we both were able to dig in and enjoy. Again, it was delicious.
Day 2
Our second and last full day in Placencia was another relaxing day at the guesthouse. It's sometimes nice staying somewhere with nothing to do as you can sit back and catch up and think about everything you've done recently. For breakfast we had yogurt and mango again, though this time we brewed our own coffee. For lunch we had avocado on toast, another backpacker classic. And finally for dinner we had some vegetables and noodles, with a possibly very unhealthy sweet and sour sauce, at least it was cheap.
As we'd had such a good day of saving we decided to head back to Barefoot bar to have a drink. As we sitting having a drink we watched a thunderstorm which was going on out to sea, and thought we're very lucky to not be in that, and to be able to observe. It was at this point we should have noted the very strong on-shore wind because shortly afterwards we were very much in the storm. The thunder and lighting were tremendously loud and the rain was like some one was chucking buckets out of every window. The bar was full and so everyone did the only thing they were able to, drink! We sat in the bar until the weather began to die down, which was about four drinks later and then we headed back to Lydia's guesthouse which luckily was only a few minutes walk away so we only got a bit damp.
We headed to bed early as we needed to be up in the morning to pack and make sure we got down to catch the boat to Honduras. As it left weekly and we'd pretty much already waited that long for it we did not want to risk missing it. As we headed to bed the rain was still going but nothing to what it was and so we drifted peacefully to sleep.
BANG! We woke up with a start. FLASH! WOW! The thunder and lightening had decided to take it from 10 out of 10 to 11 out of 10. There was no way we were sleeping through this. It was about 3am so we were hoping it would have finished by the morning!
Day 3
When we woke up the next morning (part of us was surprised we'd made it through the night) we quickly packed up our things and made ourselves some breakfast with the remaining yogurt in the fridge. The D-Express ferry leaves at 9am, but it's about 1.5km from Lydia's to the pier so we wanted to allow lots of time as our bags were heavy and we didn't know how the immigration was going to work. We left Lydia's at about 8am and walked down to the pier where the boat was already waiting (though we were definitely some of the first one's there).
We flew along the roads from Hopkins, and with the windows open then Chicken bus was the perfect temperature making for a very pleasurable break from the heat. The scenery was very colourful with beautiful flowers and trees lining the roads. As we went further south we began to see larger houses and much more pristine and manicured gardens. Larger resorts and developments started to appear and clear signs of money meant we were nearing Placencia.
Placencia is a small town at the end of a very long peninsular. It's not as expensive as you might think and there are budget accommodations as well as high end places dotted around the town. It's also not particularly built up either, so it retains it's laid back Caribbean nature. As we came in to the town saw our guesthouse and pointed it out. The woman in front of us heard her and stopped the bus for us (she just shouted) and we jumped off. Another couple who'd been on the bus jumped off at the same time and started walking in the direction of the guesthouse. We had to get our bags from the back of the bus so were a little delayed. At this point we saw the other couple were definitely heading towards the same guesthouse and were worried they might get the pick of the rooms. As Kate had spotted the guesthouse for them we thought that was a bit cheeky and we named them "evil us".
We didn't need to worry though, the room we got was perfectly adequate however we did need to wait for evil us to check-in before us - and they took ages! The room was small but had two fans and seemed a lot cooler than the room in Hopkins. We dropped our things and thought about our first task in Placencia.
The reason we had come to Placencia was to catch the weekly boat to Honduras. Because we'd done the Raggamuffin tour we'd put our schedule all out. The options we had to get to Honduras were to either go through the top of Guatemala and back through Flores and down to Rio Dulce, or get a boat from Puerto Gorda to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala and from there get a bus to Honduras. Either way we would have taken at least a couple of nonstop travelling days so instead we decided to relax a little and wait for the boat to Puerto Cortez (Honduras) from Placencia which left once a week, every Friday morning.
We wanted to make sure we didn't miss out of tickets so had got to Placencia a couple of days early. The guidebook said that we could get tickets for the boat at Barefoot bar which was just around the corner from our guesthouse. We headed over to the bar where there is a little tour booth. We purchased the tickets which were 110BZD each. We asked the woman at the counter if the boat ever sells out. She replied that she hadn't heard of it happening but as it was low season there was no chance of it selling out. We were still glad to have our tickets in hand though!
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| Walking to Barefoot Bar |
After we got the tickets we had a celebratory drink at the colourful bar. Then, as the drinks and setting were so nice we decided to have some nachos to celebrate that too. We stayed there for a while before continuing along the path to the main pier and end of the peninsular. We turned around and walked back up the main street, which though it is definitely dustier than the path still has some very nice shops and restaurants. We passed Tuttifrutti Gelateria and as it was so hot we had a good excuse to check it out. We went in and found out that the flavours change every week so you can always go in and try something new. We got a couple of pots and ate them outside, they were very, very nice!
Along the way home we decided to pick up some ingredients for a few meals at the guesthouse as it had a reasonable kitchen. We got some spaghetti and sauce, as well as a few vegetables, though not as many vegetables as we would have liked as the quality of those in the shops wasn't great. We then headed back to the guesthouse to relax and catch up on some blogging. The guesthouse had a very nice porch area with a couple of chairs, good wifi and lots of pretty bushes with hummingbirds darting around. We also got a few beers to help our blogging along, it was bliss!
For dinner we cooked up the pasta and had it on the front porch. It could have done with some cheese, but was great for the price! For our afternoons entertainment we caught up on the latest episode of Game of Thrones before calling it a night!
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| Using Lydia's Guesthouse's kitchen |
Day 2
To save money the next day we had oats, yogurt with some very unripe mango. It wasn't the greatest meal but the oats definitely filled us up. We decided to then go and take a walk along the beach which was hot, windy and actually quite dirty. We have a feeling that as it's low season there are less people cleaning the beach and on this particular day the tide was bringing a whole heap of rubbish from the rest of the Caribbean. We sat on some dilapidated sun loungers that had probably been left on the beach instead of placed and before long we were far too hot to think and decided to leave the beach and go in search of some coffee.
We found the very well named Brewed Awakenings for a cup of coffee, it was a little unassuming shack on the main road that looked promising for coffee and also apparently does great smoothies. We got ordered two americanos and crossed our fingers. When they arrived we picked them up and almost dropped them immediately; They were beyond hot, they were super-heated, they were so hot they were possibly responsible for a sharp rise in global warming. Even after waiting half an hour they required an asbestos mouth to be able to consume them. Kate wasn't impressed as rule one of coffee making is don't burn the beans. Unfortuntely much of the coffee making skills in Central America seem to have been imported from the United States where everyone sells the hottest coffee possible.
We eventually managed to drink the coffees and decided to head across the road to a supermarket to grab something for lunch. We picked up some baked beans which, being from the UK, is one of my favourite meals! We got some toast and went back to the guesthouse to serve it up - and of course wishing we'd picked up some cheese too. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on our blogs before Kate came up with the hair-brained idea of going for a run. We hadn't done much (if any) exercise since we left and with all the pringles and dodgy meals along the way we both felt very unhealthy. It had cooled down a bit so we put on some exercise gear and went for a short three kilometre run down the beach path. I wouldn't say we did particularly well but we were definitely very pleased that we tried!
As we'd cooked up breakfast and lunch Kate convinced me that we needed to eat out at Rumfish, one of the highly recommended places in Placencia. It was a ten minute walk down the main street towards the pier and takes up the first floor of a building, weirdly above and estate agents. The ambience was really nice, and though the menu was a bit more expensive (above 30-40BZD for a main) we had heard it was worth it. We both ordered cocktails as they infuse their own rum and they sounded really good. We weren't disappointed, they were definitely the best drinks we'd had in Belize. For our mains I ordered the burger and Kate got the slow cooked Lasagna (her favourite dish). the burger was a lot cheaper than everything else on the menu, and I felt it could have been a lot better. However Kate's Lasagna more than made up for the burger. I only had a few bites, but both Kate and I agree it was the best we'd ever had, even better than Kate's Nan's (sorry Nan!). After the great Lasagna and cocktails we decided we had to share a dessert. We got a creme brulee, which to Kate's dismay had banana on top. After I ate the banana off the top we both were able to dig in and enjoy. Again, it was delicious.
Day 2
Our second and last full day in Placencia was another relaxing day at the guesthouse. It's sometimes nice staying somewhere with nothing to do as you can sit back and catch up and think about everything you've done recently. For breakfast we had yogurt and mango again, though this time we brewed our own coffee. For lunch we had avocado on toast, another backpacker classic. And finally for dinner we had some vegetables and noodles, with a possibly very unhealthy sweet and sour sauce, at least it was cheap.
As we'd had such a good day of saving we decided to head back to Barefoot bar to have a drink. As we sitting having a drink we watched a thunderstorm which was going on out to sea, and thought we're very lucky to not be in that, and to be able to observe. It was at this point we should have noted the very strong on-shore wind because shortly afterwards we were very much in the storm. The thunder and lighting were tremendously loud and the rain was like some one was chucking buckets out of every window. The bar was full and so everyone did the only thing they were able to, drink! We sat in the bar until the weather began to die down, which was about four drinks later and then we headed back to Lydia's guesthouse which luckily was only a few minutes walk away so we only got a bit damp.
We headed to bed early as we needed to be up in the morning to pack and make sure we got down to catch the boat to Honduras. As it left weekly and we'd pretty much already waited that long for it we did not want to risk missing it. As we headed to bed the rain was still going but nothing to what it was and so we drifted peacefully to sleep.
BANG! We woke up with a start. FLASH! WOW! The thunder and lightening had decided to take it from 10 out of 10 to 11 out of 10. There was no way we were sleeping through this. It was about 3am so we were hoping it would have finished by the morning!
Day 3
When we woke up the next morning (part of us was surprised we'd made it through the night) we quickly packed up our things and made ourselves some breakfast with the remaining yogurt in the fridge. The D-Express ferry leaves at 9am, but it's about 1.5km from Lydia's to the pier so we wanted to allow lots of time as our bags were heavy and we didn't know how the immigration was going to work. We left Lydia's at about 8am and walked down to the pier where the boat was already waiting (though we were definitely some of the first one's there).
We filled in our exit immigration forms which were handed out and put our names down on the immigration list. We found out you could actually buy tickets on the boat, though we were glad we had ours secured. Slowly but surely more people arrived, in fact most of those staying at our guesthouse showed up! I quickly ran round to a coffee shop called "Above Ground" to grab a coffee once I saw there was a toilet on the boat (though we later found that using it during transit was wishful thinking). The coffee was again super-heated but we managed to finish it before we left. We took our positions on the boat (back right, about 2 metres forward of the open-air part of the stern is recommended as it's less rocky than the front, and less wet than the rest of the boat) as it started to became more crowded and the front of the boat began filling up with bags, spare tires and even a mattress. Soon 9am came around we were on our way to Honduras.
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| The D-Express waiting to depart for Honduras |
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