10/9/11 Day 8, Corozal to Placiencia, Belize, 229 miles

Beautiful Day in Belize!

This morning Kris spent an hour getting back to the Mexican border so that we could get our $200 vehicle deposit back. It was quite an ordeal.  He had to pay to leave Belize and then deal with Mexican customs. Turns out we should have stopped on our way yesterday and took care of it before we entered Belize, oh well. He did get it all worked out and we decided to head down toward Placencia and see more of Belize since there wasn’t much to Corozal. We found a possible house for rent in Placencia while we were home in the states, so we wanted to check out the area and see if we liked it before committing to rent a house there. 

The drive took about 5 ½ hrs which seemed pretty easy after logging 12 and 13 hr days while driving through Mexico. We saw quite a few people on bicycles and lots of buses. We were so blessed to have our own car and could travel with air conditioning. It was very hot and humid! There are a lot of small stores run out of peoples’ garages (with their living areas located upstairs). We’ve seen cows and horses tied up along the road grazing just like in Mexico. 

Belizean sign for topes

Belizean bridge

The roads here are in pretty good shape, not as great as the nice roads in Mexico but certainly not as bad as the bad Mexican roads either. We were able to travel along at pretty good speeds. We saw topes, but here they are called pedestrian ramps, speed bumps, or speed humps.We were stopped at 2 police checkpoints, they checked to make sure we had insurance (which we did). At the second check point we asked the officer which cell phone provider he had (the whole country has only 2- Digicell and Smart), and we asked him if we could get a phone in Belize City. He said yes but not today because it was Sunday! This was news to me because I woke up wondering if it was Friday or Saturday! Turns out I’d lost a whole day- I guess 7 days of driving in a car can do that! It made more sense because I’d seen people dressed up in nice clothes and kids everywhere. We came across a car on the side of the road and a man flagged us down. Their car had run out of oil and did we happen to have some that we could share? Well considering one of the major issues with the suburban before starting this adventure was an oil leak, we’d brought a good amount of oil just in case, so we gladly shared some. They wished us a good holiday… turns out the next day was Columbus Day (which is celebrated here too since Belize is a British settlement)… so everything would be closed on Monday too! “Get Cell Phone” was moved to the Tuesday to do list.

Statue in Belize City

Through the jungle

In 90 minutes we were in Belize City, not much to see considering everything was closed up. But we did pick up some ice, $2US to keep our food cold in the ice chest. Then the road turned inland and we headed through the jungle. It was overcast and oh so beautiful! Hills full of banana trees and other lush bushes. We bought some of what we’re calling “spikey plum” fruit from a native selling it along the roadside, a medium bag was $0.50US. It tasted sweet too.

Lush jungle vegetation

Drums of our Fathers in Dangriga

Pine Trees!

After Belize City came Dangriga.. here we were not impressed. But we stopped at the only thing open, a Chinese grocery store (there are many Chinese people here) to make sandwiches. As we headed out of the jungle toward Placencia, the terrain changed again. This time we saw nothing but pine trees! It looked like the hills of Mountain Ranch!

fancy house in Placencia

Our room

We pulled into Placencia around 5pm. The first section of town you see is extravagant…  the Placencia Hotel and Condos, goodness! I haven’t seen homes this big before! We found the touristy area and saw a hotel that was offering a discount for walk-ins. It was called the Nautical Inn. We paid $50US for a room that had 2 queen beds and a shower… but it was mere feet from the ocean! The smell of the water… the sound of the waves, the sun setting behind the hills- it was magical! 

Aaron passed out

Look! The Ocean!

Aaron had fallen asleep in the car so Kris brought him right in and laid him down on one of the beds. Much to my surprise he stayed asleep! Kris and Jonathan immediately changed and went swimming in the ocean. I washed some laundry in the hotel sink and hung a clothesline outside our room. When Aaron woke up we joined Kris and J in the water. Aaron was a little intimidated by the ocean and the waves were pretty choppy, so I just held him in the water. He loved it. 

J digging in the sand

view of our door, on the right

Happy Ocean Swimmers!

Ocean & Pier (by Kris)

Aaron loving the ocean

Just as he was loosening up, Jonathan let out one of those I’m-really-really-hurt-help-me-right-away kind of screams. He ran out of the water saying that his leg hurt, that something had bit him. He was shrieking and yelling so loud. I looked at his leg and noticed a faint red mark near his knee. The caretaker from the inn came out to see what was wrong (oh and Aaron had started screaming too b/c he was scared).. turns out J got stung by a jellyfish! Poor guy! Thankfully Kris (from previous experience in Mexico) knew just what to do- you fight the fire of the jellyfish sting with the fire of hot water. He put J in the shower and ran hot water on his leg. After about 15 min the shower he said it stopped stinging. We gave him some ibuprophen and put some aloe vera on the bumps that had raised up on his leg. Then we headed off to explore more of Placencia and find some dinner.
 

Jonathan 20 min. post jelly fish encounter

Sunset on the ocean (by Kris)

We’d parked in between these two shack-like restaurants and then Kris asked a passerby which one he’d rather eat at. The guy said neither, but to go to Wendy’s down the street. I told Kris I’d laugh if we got down there and it was a Wendy’s fast food restaurant! It was not- but instead was a beautiful two story building. Wendy herself seated us outside on the deck (it was nearly 7pm and had started cooling off outside with a gentle breeze). The boys shared a quesadilla, Kris had a porterhouse steak with French fries and a salad. I had Carribean chicken, coconut rice, and a salad, oh Kris had a couple beers and I had a cocktail- for $76.70, certainly one of our more expensive meals, but it was soooo tasty. The boys liked watching the live lizards climbing and running all over the walls and ceilings! We told the boys that after dinner we could go back to the hotel and go swimming in the pool (yes the hotel had a pool, even though the ocean was only feet away)… but believe it or not they actually turned down the pool and said they were too tired and just wanted to go to bed. So that’s just what we did. After the boys went to sleep, Kris and I sat at a table outside our room and were able to use the internet a little bit to catch up on life back home. The mosquitos and sand fleas were awful. I finally went in and got the repellant, but it was too late. We both have tons of red bumps on our legs and arms, and man do they itch like crazy! Thankfully I brought lots of anit-ich stuff. He took some fantastic pictures of the hotel grounds earlier in the day before the sun set, we looked at those and then turned into bed around 1am.