The Belize Blog: The Coastal Towns of Placencia and Hopkins

The drive down from the jungles of western Belize to the southern beach town of Placencia was uneventful, save the disappointment that the ice cream shop we'd be told to visit was closed on Sundays.  Ah well, ice cream would surely be in our future.

Placencia lies at the southern tip of a 21-mile long peninsula so narrow that at times the sea is barely more than a stone's throw in each direction.  It was no doubt at one time an isolated, sleepy fishing village, but now sports an airstrip with regular flights from Belize City and a large enclave of expats with mansion-esque residences sited in green-lawned developments (we met a couple in Table Rock, originally from Oregon, who moved there permanently about 10 years ago).

The town, itself, is quite pleasant, with lots of open-air restaurants and bars, a sidewalk entirely separated from the road system, and a fantastic gelato shop! We had a nice 2-bedroom, 2nd floor apartment a short stroll to the beach; we were thankful for its fans and AC, as it was HOT!  It also had a nice roof-top sitting area, where we enjoyed watching the frigatebirds and pelicans soar by.

View from our Placencia apartment
 
Sunset from our root-top

Tourist is what you do in Placencia, and so we did.  We swam at a pleasant, nearby beach and kayaked through the maze of mangrove-lined channels.  And we signed up for a highly hyped "Monkey River" tour with "world-famous" guide Percy.  The tour entails a long boating transit from the peninsula to the mouth of the Monkey River on the mainland coast to the south, a pleasant ride up the river, a jungle nature walk led by Percy, a typical lunch - including roasted "mangrove chicken" aka iguana! - and then a ride back to Placencia with stops to look for manatees. 

Percy is a character, and he clearly knows the flora, fauna, and culture of the area, since he is homegrown.  But our experience on the tour was a bit less than the hype, because he was running two boats that morning, and we weren't in the one he was in, so missed a lot of his commentary.  Oh well, the price of success, I guess.  Anyway, we did see quite a bit from the boat and in the jungle:

Howler monkey watching the tourists

Percy holds a horror-movie-worthy land crab


















Tiny hummingbird nest on a reed above the river









Young croc

What, me worry??












 We drove north from Placencia to Hopkins, our last stop, a town mostly renowned for its Garifuna (Creole) culture and sand flies.  We found quite a bit of the former, almost none of the latter (our Hopkins host blamed Placencia jealousy for the bad-bug rap).  Also found another really good ice cream shop!

Our Hopkins yard; our apartment was the one of the first floor with the nice balcony looking out to the Caribbean

  Our Hopkins home was right on the beach, where we swam and body-surfed (sort of).  We also did a couple of bird-watching trips, one led by a young guide, Raul, in his inland hometown of Red Bank.  Red Bank's claim to fame is the Scarlet macaw, which gather in large numbers in January-March to feast on local arboreal fruit.  Unfortunately, the last of the macaws had just left the area - back to their nesting homes in western Belize - by the time we got there.  Still, we saw some great birds, as we did with Charlton, a very experienced and friendly guide based in Hopkins.  [bird pics to follow in the next post]

On our last night, we sought out the famous Garifuna drumming at a local pizza joint.  It was a gas!

This group played nonstop for like 40 minutes in each set!  The boy in the middle is the son of the orange-shirted drummer next to him.  See/hear the action here and here.


 

All in all, a very good trip!

 

 



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