Placencia, Belize

May 25-28

Matthias and I both needed to get to the south of Belize to find our next destinations, so we thought we'd have a stop on the way - and decided on Placencia because we were told there would be beautiful beaches and a chance to swim with whale sharks!

The journey from Caye Caulker to Placencia has got to rank as the worst yet. It is not particularly far but was incredibly difficult. It involved lots of waiting, an hour of standing on a hot and crowded bus, far too much walking with my far too heavy bag (yes, it would seem I overpacked) and to top it all off..my watch went missing somewhere along the way! Either somehow stolen off my wrist or just fallen off. Hurrah!

However... Upon arriving we found a great hostel and met some really nice people. We spent the evening playing cards with others at the hostel. The rule was that the winner got to slap the loser with talcom powder at the end of each game! So...of course, I got a lovely slap of talc from Matthias. 

We wanted to go snorkelling the next day, but apparently it was too windy, which meant the water was too choppy. We also found out you can only see whale sharks at full moon..which it wasn't! Boo. Instead, we relaxed on the beach, swimming and reading our books. When we discovered that we were getting burnt despite our 50+ sunscreen, we headed back to relax in the hammocks at our hostel. 

In the afternoon we ran into an American couple that we met on the journey down. They were staying in a rather nice apartment and invited us to come round for a BBQ dinner. And it was delicious!

On our last day in Placencia we got to snorkel! The plan was to go to Silk Cayes, where there are lots of TURTLES! The boat ride out there was interesting! It was still mad windy, so the waves were enormous. We would bang down so hard after flying over a wave that one man fell off his seat. Twice... There were some parts where I'm pretty sure we were completely airborne!! After a good 40 minutes of this, the captain told us we were only half way and it was only going to get rougher, so he'd recommend we go to a different (closer) island - where we would not see turtles but would still get to snorkel. Everyone agreed that this was a better option. 

I didn't have a camera (as it broke a short while ago) so I am stealing pictures from google to show off how beautiful this place was. Soft white sand, clear blue water... Lined with Palm trees, decorated with conch shells... And no bigger than a football field. 

The island was surrounded by coral reefs, which our guide showed us around. Almost immediately he said he spotted a lobster, tucked away in the coral. None of us could see it so he poked his snorkel in to try and coax it out... Then out swims a SHARK!!! I got the absolute shock of a lifetime - apparently my scream was audible even underwater through my snorkel. Apparently the nurse sharks eat lobster, hence why he was in there. Eventually the lobster came out - he was huuuuge. We saw a bunch more along the way, as well as a ridiculous amount of beautifully colourful fish. 

After lunch and another snorkel we headed back, stopping off at Tranquillo Bar on the way. This place was reeeeally cool! It's a bar accessible only by boat. You can order your drink and sit out on a variety of inflatables on the water. While we were there we saw a spotted eagle ray swimming below us! 

 

That evening we got a ferry and a bus to Punta Gorda, where we stayed overnight in order to get the first ferry out in the morning.

Matthias and I boarded a tiny little 20-seater boat to get to Guatemala. About half way across, the skies turned very dark and they quickly got a few pieces of tarp out, so that each row could huddle under one through the short downpour.

I am very glad to be back in Guatemala, but with Matthias off to Honduras I've lost my whole travel crew! Time to explore on my own :)