Placencia is one of the top places to vacation in Belize. Tourists travel from all over Canada and the United States to visit. The people of Placencia are friendly, laid back and speak English very well. That's one of the reasons we went there. We didn't want to learn a new language to get by.
My husband and I found that you can eat from roadside stands pretty economically. We would eat breakfast at our cabana. In the afternoon, we would find a roadside stand that sold inexpensive home-cooked foods. You can eat out for about $6-7 U.S. per person. These roadside stands are plentiful. The first day we were there we bought warm homemade sweetbread and meat pies from a roadside stand that were really delicious. My favorite food stand to eat at was Kendra's. You get a whole meal of chicken, rice and beans, coleslaw and a plantain for about $12 BZ. It's on one of the connecting sidewalks between the main road and the main sidewalk.
The restaurants in Placencia are quite expensive. My favorite restaurant was Cozy Corner, where you get a burrito the size of a baby! Well, maybe a premature baby. I think it was 10-12" long! I could only eat half of it.
Belizian money is twice what ours is. If something is $10 BZ, it is $5 U.S.
Beautiful Placencia Sunrises & Sunsets
Placencia is a small town with only one main road that leads to the Pier at the south end of town. It has a main sidewalk down the center of town. This sidewalk used to be the only way to get to the pier. A main road was added. It runs through the center of town for cars, golf carts and bikes. Just about everything is within walking distance. The beach was within walking distance of our Cabana. We walked to the beach every day. Spending an hour by the water was so relaxing. If the water was rough on one side of the island we would go down to the pier where it was calmer.
We rented a golf cart for one day to explore the north end of the peninsula. The road runs about 18 miles to the north end. Bicycles, golf carts, scooters, and cars are available to rent.
Birds We Spotted in Belize
Other Wildlife You Can Expect to See in Belize
Varieties of Flowers We Enjoyed Seeing in Belize
Two Tours to Take in Placencia, Belize
Monkey River
We didn't take any tours in the first week we were there. We planned to be there for a whole month, and we really wanted to check out the area first. The last week, we decided to do a few adventures. We did the Monkey River Tour and the Snorkeling Tour.
Monkey River Tour - We met at the "Hokey Pokey" water taxi dock at about 8:00 a.m. and traveled down the river and out to the ocean. After a nice relaxing ride through estuaries, we stopped at Monkey Village and ordered what we wanted for lunch, (fresh fried fish or chicken, rice and beans and a salad).
A local tour guide boarded our boat and road along the river with us. He told us about the area and the plants that they use for medicines and teas. The guide was very informative, and he knew all the names of everything. I do remember one that was called the Provision Plant. If you dry the bark and use it for tea, it tastes like Chocolate.
We landed on Monkey Island, which is a real jungle. There are well-worn pathways through the island, that get used regularly by the tourists. We had probably 5 other tourist boats docking there. The guides howl like the monkeys. Banging on the trees with machetes helps the guides to find them high up in the trees. The howler monkeys answer them back. By following the sound and looking up in the trees, we were able to spot a baby monkey and it's mother. They were very high up in the trees and not easy to see close up.
Lot's of Wildlife to See
On the tour of Monkey Island, the guide put his arm down a hole in the ground up to his shoulder. After a few seconds, he pulled a crab up out of the hole! Some of the wildlife he told us we might see was a toucan or python. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn't see either one. We saw a tarantula up close, Jaguar tracks, termite mounds, ant mounds, lots of bamboo, and mosquitos. The mosquitos weren't thick, because it was dry. It can be very muddy after a rain, but we didn't have any issues with mud, either.
Placencia Snorkeling Adventure
We met at the dock at Captain Jaks at about 8 a.m. and took a boat ride with about 5 other couples about 22 miles out to a very tiny island called Silk Caye. It was about an hour ride. (I would recommend sitting at the back of the boat. With the waves slamming the front of the boat, it was very uncomfortable, and my back was pretty sore the day after.) We snorkeled all the way around Silk Caye, which took us about 45 minutes. We saw a good variety of fish, including a squid and a sand fish that was camouflaged in the sand.
After snorkeling around the caye, we got back on the boat and went out a little way out to the reef and looked for larger fish. All that appeared was a large turtle. After everyone was tired of chasing the turtle, we went for about a 20-minute boat ride to MOHO Caye. It was a beautiful shaded island with lawn chairs, volleyball nets and a barbecue cookout. The water is crystal clear and a beautiful aqua color. The ride back to Placencia was only about 30 minutes.. My husband says it was the most beautiful place he had ever been!
All-in-all we had a wonderful time in Belize! The days were warm, about 84 degrees everyday in January, just what we need in the middle of a Michigan winter!
I even managed to fit in a beach session with a family at sunset!
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