Placencia

We left San Ignacio by bus and took the Hummingbird highway towards our next destination, Placencia. What an absolutely beautiful bus journey this was with cool air flowing through the bus as it blasts down the Highway blaring out reggae vibes! The bus sped through tiny ‘real’ Belizean villages amongst lush jungle and after a few hours of a wonderful journey, the bus arrived at a little place called Independance, a small fishing community where we took the ‘Hokey Pokey’ water taxi through the mangrove lagoon to the town of Placencia, a narrow peninsular on the Caribbean Sea. The reviews of Placencia sounded pretty rubbish due to the amount of hotels and American tourists, but we managed to stumble across a hostel (I called it a commune), where we we camped for 5 nights on the sandy beach amongst the palm trees. It sounds idyllic, and it was on nights 2-5 but the first night was the hottest night of my life! I wondered how on earth we would all survive another night but thankfully, the cool winds and rain blew in, and we were able to camp very comfortably from then on. The tent passed the wind and rain stress test with flying colours! The accommodation in Belize is very expensive, around £100+ a night for something very basic, and not what the average Brit would want to stay in, so the tent was our best way of staying in Belize for a few days at £20.

On our first night, we ventured out to a bar called Tipsy Tuna to watch a local Garifuna band, one of the indigenous  communities (African / Indian influence from Saint Vincent before us Brits displaced them all). The band were incredible, with the young boys hands banging on those drums quicker than I’ve ever seen hands move before. It was a great evening and after, Johnny got chatting to the band leader Richard (lots of oh dad, you are so embarrassing talking to everyone from the boys!!). Well it turned out very positively as Richard invited us to his house and to his local community (Seine Bight) the next day so that we could see where they lived and cook some food with them. We said yes, and jumped onto the local bus the next morning. This felt really special as we haven’t really been able to do the tours we wanted to do as Belize is extortionately expensive for travellers, with most basic tours such as a cooking day starting at £500 for all of us. Given how basic Belize is, this is crazy, but with many American tourists on holiday with very deep pockets and happy to pay these ludicrous amounts, travellers don’t stay long, unless they have a tent!! 

We were welcomed to Richard’s home with open arms. He explained that he wasn’t a wealthy man, but what he and his wife and 12 children (!!!) did have, they would love to share with us. To say that his wooden hut that was ready to fall down was basic was an understatement, but Richard appeared to be a very content man, and was as proud as punch of his home and community (this may have been helped by the massive joint he had hanging out of his mouth for a lot of the day!!). The family appeared to live in 2 rooms, with the kitchen doubling up as a bedroom, lounge, everything area with just a mattress propped up against a wall. The boys were very happy to find a working toilet, albeit just a thin sheet separating the toilet from the living area! They did have a shower, but this was just a few corrugated sheets balancing against each other, with a persons head poking out the top whilst showering! 

We had a wonderful day with the family, hanging out with them, playing the drums and preparing our meal of rice and beans, chicken, banana fritters and coleslaw.  We learnt so much from Richard and his family about real Belizean life and the Garifuna community and this was an awesome experience for the boys. This was no glamourised tour, but a true image of how a lot of the world live, and importantly, live very contently. Thanks Dad for being SO embarrassing and talking to Richard!  

As well as our day with the Garifuna community, we had a few relaxed days exploring Placencia. We swam in the sea, wandered the streets and generally began to feel the vibe of this lovely little town. Unfortunately Tristan gave us a bit of a fright as when we went for a swim, he started shouting and crying in the water as he had been stung by something. We quickly saw  that he’d been swiped across his abdomen, chest, under his neck and across his eye by a jellyfish. As we carried him across the beach fearing what on earth it was, someone quickly came rushing over with some vinegar to help ease the pain. Poor thing, it was so sore for about 10 minutes, but in true Tristan style, he was SO brave, but it certainly frightened the life out of the rest of us. The brave little man has been back in the water since so no long-term damage done thankfully.