Placencia- Saturday June 18th -Sunday June 19th 2011

PLaCenCIa

We left for Placencia this morning at 9am. Given that the roads are not horrible in Belize I was thinking that we would bet to Placencia in 2 hours. Boy was I wrong. It took us over 3 hours with a stop somewhere in the middle. The drive was beautiful in that dewy, green rainforesty kind of way.

After making a detour halfway to Dandriga to catch the bus to Placencia. This stop was somewhere in the middle of sugarcane fields and in the distance the sky had turned a darker shade of gray. After waiting 20 minutes a new bus to Placencia pulled up blasting a remix of the Commodores "Nightshift"

 Little did we know that this would become the theme song of the weekend. After a few more grueling hours of hot damp air and sitting in a vibrating uncomfortable chair we approached Placencia. The sun then started shining again as if to welcome us to paradise. All around we could smell the the salt from the Caribbean sea and I just couldn't wait to take my shoes off and recline on a beach chair. After another slow hour or driving through Placencia the bus stopped in from of Lydia's Guesthouse and we debarked.

After meeting Lydia, we walked up the stairs into our rooms in the dorm room to find that we were the only ones in the entire establishment, a relief because we would not have to share the bathrooms with anyone else. Within minutes we all realized that we were famished and decoded to look for place to eat. Our answer was Tipsy Tuna a local establishment on the beach.

If you ever do visit the Tipsy Tuna I highly recommend the "Big A** Burritos" which come with your choice of meat. As the name implies it really is big and you get your money's worth. After eating and taking in the scenery of the bar and the beach surrounding us we decided to relax on the beach and spent the entire evening relaxing, walking around the island and chit-chatting with the locals.

As the evening drew closer we sat at the bar as a new crowd of travelers, expats and Belizean's came out to listen to the live band that played a mix of contemporary music, reggae and punta-rock. After mixing with others we ended up staying at the Tispy Tuna until 2am talking with other Americans and the owners about Belizean culture, politics and a wide range of topics.

SuNDaY

We woke up at 10am and packed our bags to head back to Belmopan. After paying our fees at Lydias we walked back to the Tipsy Tuna and had lunch while hanging on the beach and using the internet to catch up on homework and send emails. The owners were sad to see us go and informed us that we could catch a water taxi to Independence at 4pm instead of leaving from Placencia at 3pm. We opted for the 4pm departure since it would allow us to see another city in Belize that we had never been to. As we walked away from our weekend adventure I could not help but be grateful that I had had the opportunity to see a new place and also experience a more relaxed and laid back part of Belizean culture. After being escorted to the water Taxi depot by a worker of the Tipsy Tuna we sat on the boat and rode away into Independence to catch the express bus back to Belmopan. Once on the bus, which is alot more comfortable than the regular buses and also is equipped with A.C. we all dozed off and by 7:30pm arrived into Belmopan to start our week doing our research.