Paradise is in Placentia

I apologize for the delayed completion of my last entry. This past week has been the craziest week of work I've experienced so far, but it has yielded terrific results. More on that later...

November 20
Ahhh... where was I? Oh, yes. So there we were, stuck on the middle of paradise with nothing but the packs on our backs. Raul and Donal took off around 9:00a.m. Our journey quickly turned from a rushed calamity to calm idleness. Justin left for a run as I swapped all our gear from our sea cabin that was just inside the treeline to the "Parrot Fish" sea cabin right next to the ocean. It cost us an extra $20 overall, but it was so incredibly worth it. The view was unbelievable... check out photos below..

The rest of the day was chock-full of absolute nothing. Picked up a pizza from a burnt-out 50 year-old gringo surfer dude, stopped by the grochery store for some food and refreshments, and relaxed in the hammock with the occasional dive into the ocean. Placentia is the perfect place to escape. No worries in the world: only you, the sand, and the ocean..

Well, that is, until the sixth set of beach venders stops by your cabin and asks if you want to buy anything.   As long as you are bold enough to tell these beachers to carry on, you won't be bothered by anything else aside from the beach bum dogs that like to post up by your cabin's deck. Here's a picture of one frequent visitor...

Justin and I got some dinner that night at Omar's Crab Club. While we looked around, we noticed one thing particularly interesting about Placentia: if you end up staying there for a few days, you begin to recognize EVERYONE. We later found out that the village of Placentia holds about 800 people, most of whom work within the tourist business. We saw our waitress buying grocheries AND taking her kids for a walk (two separate occasions), we saw the hotel receptionist eating at the same place as us, and we even saw the same woman who had sold us our places on a snorkeling tour for the next day.h Tourists were similarly easy to recognize. Placentia is a peninsula into the Caribbean... with one main road out to the point. Aside from that, it's filled with square sand-lots and stilted beach house. Everything is worn by the sea air, yet the town still holds a very warm feel. Anyway.. all you have to know as a reader is that I found this place to be absolute paradise.

November 21
We began our day at 8:30a.m. because we were due for a 9:00a.m. launch for a snorkeling excursion we had paid for the day before. As we began to walk towards the boat launch, clouds rushed over-head. Soon, we were drenched by tropical rain.

Rainfall was constant for at least a half-hour; a true raincheck was in order. Since we couldn't head to the Cayes for snorkeling today (they let us delay the trip for a day), we took a walk around town and explored the shops (typical chintzy tourist stuff... go figure!). After a coffee shop stop (house in the trees!) and the purchasing of a couple Hawaiian shirts, the sun was shining again, and we headed back to the beach. Repeat actions from previous day.

November 22
We woke to happily find a sunny day on the horizon. We met up with the "Nite Winds" tour guides, Gas and Bubbles. Each had the "Caye Life" style- suave with shorts and shades. Rastafari. We packed up our luggage (snorkels, raw chicken floating in water in a white mason bucket, potato salad, island punch), met our tour companion (Victoria, a young, independent lady from Houston), and we were off. It took us about 1.5 hours to get to.... our destination?

Silk Caye, a collection of islands about the size of 10 small college dorm rooms. The island was scattered with 12 palm trees, a few picnic tables, a crude grill on one end and an outhouse on the other.   Surrounding these islands were beautiful coral reefs. It was prestine. Perfect. And of course... no pictures for this either. Sorry! we were afraid of ruining our good cameras. Still, no cameras did NOT ruin an incredible experience.

After exploring the coral reef (which wasn't as good as Hawaii) We ate a very tasty fried chicken (the marinade was incredible), had some delicious punch and potato salad. After lunch, off to swim with the sharks, rays, and turtles! Even though I knew there was nothing to be nervous about, I was nervous when I first jumped in the water.  I've never swam with sharks before! They were, of course, harmless. I saw plenty of huge sting rays, some shark, barracuda, but my favorite of all was the turtle. All the turtles swam very peacefully, and were always followed closely by fish that were using the turtle as protection. Occasionally the turtles would mosey on up to the surface for a gasp of air. After getting just a tiny breath, they'd float right back down the ocean floor, almost as nonchalant as they had left.
Our journey back to mainland was graced by a stop at the "Hatchet Caye" Resort
http://hatchetcaye.com/

Okay... wait. Go back. You really do need to click on that link. This place is incredible. It's a resort on a private island. I don't know who invested in this (recall Hurricane Irene absolutely trashed Placentia a few years ago), but for now, it seems like one of the best kept secrets in the Caribbean. We were offered free beer by the bartender. One of our tour guides, Bubbles, told me that the owner of the island permitted all tour guides in the area to stop by for a beer on the way back. It makes sense: 1) Keep the locals happy. 2) Advertising. I thought about this for awhile as I sipped on a delicious crisp Belkin (the ONLY Belize beer, better than Gallo in my opinion) and watched the sun go down as a let my feet sink into the sand..

We returned to mainland in time for another dinner (Wendy's Restaurant, Placentia. Order the Garlic Cheesy Shrimp-awesome). On our way back to the cabin, we ran into Victoria, who was heading to the bar. She was traveling alone, and I felt like I'd be a twit if I didn't offer her a drink from us. She gladly accepted. We went to the Barefoot Bar, where Victoria called the drinks... "Bailey's on ice please." I watched Justin's expression as his eyes rolled into the back of his head (it was previously determined Justin's card had the next tab).  We chatted with Victoria for a bit until Bubbles, our tour guide, found us and began to be flirtatious with Victoria. A couple of head nods, handshakes, and "good night"'s later, we were relieved of the awkward situation. An expensive $30 bill went towards a story at least.

On our way home, we stopped by the Tipsy Tuna for a game of pool. The interesting thing about this game of pool, though, is it's played in... sand. In fact, the whole bar floor was sand. Locals say that you can walk all of Placentia without shoes. Most of the bars are barefoot (not to mention THE Barefoot Bar), and there is never a hint of trash on the beach (which is constantly combed), much less anywhere else. The locals find it in their best business interest to keep the place immaculate. Even though Placentia is run-down, its surprisingly clean.

November 23

As fast as the vacation -erm- visa trip came, it went. As we packed up, I knew that I would be back to Belize many more times in my life. While traveling can sometimes be trying, our way back to Guatemala was painless. We took two water taxis, and a bus to reach Puerto Barrios. We stayed in a cheap hotel in Puerto Barrios and caught the El Rancho Bus the next morning. Our only true obstacle was the microbus between El Rancho and Coban.

(Aside)
microbus  n. - in Guatemala, illegally oversized vans used to cart people like cattle between cities. A microbus has 5 passenger benches, and will usually operate containing 10 people over the legal capacity.

About 45 minutes into a 2 hour ride, a young woman's daughter was extremely sick, and vomited in the middle of the van. Damn. Lucky I choose a window seat. I spent the whole trip trying to keep warm while I gasped for the icey-cold mountain air. Justin, who was directly behind the whole fiasco, was not so lucky.

Justin's luck continued to sink. When we had finally returned to the monastery, he realized that he left his North Face jacket and passport on the microbus. We spent an hour driving around and talking to microbus drivers. For some reason, I knew the whole time that we'd eventually get it back.
"These kind of big-time loses usually end up better than you think," I told Justin. I was right, thank goodness.

November 24
The next day, while Justin was out for a run, his phone got a call from the driver. He said that he would be in Coban in less than 5 minutes with the jacket. I knew I had to make the rendevous. As I ran down to retrieve the brown Suzuki (the only car I've ever driven here), my heart sank as I realized it was gone.
"Puedo llevar un carro?"
Only one left... the giant white Jeep / monster truck. I swear the wheels run parallel with my waist. While a bit intimidated at first, I quickly realized that I was king of the road, and drove so. I reached the Coban taxi station just in time. As the man gave me the jacket, he asked for 100 Quetzal. At first I refused... what the hell? (Little had I known that Justin told him over the phone earlier that he'd pay him) I thought twice, and decided it was actually a fantastic trade ($12 for a $125 North Face and invaluable passport), and pulled out the only bill I had in my wallet, a 100 Quetzal, and gave it to the happy driver. Knew it'd turn up.