The arranged cab from the day before let us down, and if we weren’t having a conversation with Paula on the porch, and if she didn’t jump up and drive us to the airport, we would have missed our flight, setting off a series of events that would have sucked.

Our flight arrived in Placencia and we got a cab to our next place, we were on a narrow peninsula with one main street down the middle, addresses weren’t really necessary since you could see everything on each side of the road. One way in and one way out. One thing we learned here was that when a driver honks the horn, it is an indication that they know someone (a greeting) either on the road, residing in the house fronting the street, or possibly working in the hotel that is fronting the street. It is a greeting rather that an assault to the driver in front. Very different from customs in Southern California, here we are rude and loud and meaning to insult a fellow driver.

When arriving at our Air BnB and check in at Placencia, we were aiming for beach front living and let’s be frank, the accommodations are simple, no frills about them. The beds are sharing a space and the only other room is the toilet room. Remember that you are in a developing country, there is no flushing toilet paper, you have to throw it in the trash can provided, and I didn’t feel comfortable drinking the tap water. Everywhere we went, we were buying gallons of water for drinking, < $2/gal so no problem but it was the planning and carrying that kinda sucked.

The location was prime, our porch was private with a hammock, clothesline and chairs and additional chairs on the sand to watch the water which was about 30 ft from our front door. If we walked around the point was another beach next to the dock that the snorkel and fishing boats used and was a great vantage point for sunsets. In the mornings a woman would come by with fresh warm donuts for sale, and a tamale guy came by on another afternoon.

The town was very walkable and everything we needed was within close by, the only time we got a cab was to go to Seine Bight for a Garifuna Cooking class and to take an inland waterfall tour,. We would have taken a dip in the pool beneath the waterfall,but we were on our way to the airport and I didn’t want to sit in an airplane with a wet bathing suit. The site was a previous banana plantation that was affected when something came and infected the crops and was repurposed for swimming, cook outs, horseback riding and zip lining. We bought tamales on the side of the road out of a cooler and they must have weighed a pound each, they contained seasoned masa enfolding a drumstick or thigh, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed.

Each tamale encases a drumstick or thigh and is $1.50 US

The fork is shown for scale Donut Lady

Cooking class taught us fish in coconut milk with mashed plantains.

Here are the experiences of where we ate in Placencia, opinions only.

Dawns Grill -Fresh local food, there was a line outside for both lunch and dinner, we went right before the end of lunch service and didn’t have to wait. We ordered Garlic Lobster and Curry Lobster, both came with rice and the familiar cole slaw. The food was fresh, fast, inexpensive and amazing. We would have gone again had we stayed there longer.