We woke up at 6 am in order to catch an early water taxi into San Pedro. We were leaving on our first trip to Placencia, in southern Belize, so this was going to be a long and busy day. We would be attempting to travel "on the cheap", using ferries and buses for transport rather than flying, and carrying only backpacks.
Our morning schedule was rather tight, since we had to catch the 7:40 water taxi, get Paisley to Pampered Paws for boarding, then take an 8:30 am ferry to Belize City. With so little room for error, I was nervously hoping everything would go smoothly and there would be no unexpected delays. It started raining soon after we got up, but thankfully had tapered off right before we locked the door on our condo to head out to the dock with Paisley.
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When we arrived at the bus terminal in Dangriga, we crossed our legs to avoid the $1 BZD bathroom fee. We had a 45-minute layover there before catching our next busy, so Barry walked around taking photos, and I read my book. We had brought homemade oatmeal cookies and granola bars along, so ate those in lieu of lunch.
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We took the 2 pm Richie's bus to Placencia. We got better seats this time and were able to get our packs onto the above-head luggage rack since the bus was not as crowded, but with many stops to pick up folks along the way, it did get to be standing room only over time. Some of the bus stops were in incredibly remote areas; you couldn't even tell where people would be living. But a smattering of locals kept getting on and off the bus all the way south.
Once we got settled in, we walked to Placencia Village, about a half a mile from Casa Placencia. We immediately fell in love. Although there are cars and trucks around, it's not nearly as congested with vehicles or people as San Pedro. Unlike San Pedro, you can walk by vendor's stands without them calling out to you and hitting you with the hard sell. In all our time in Placencia, only one vendor approached us as we walked down the beach; in San Pedro, you can't walk down the beach or sit in a seaside open-air restaurant without vendors coming up and trying to sell you necklaces or wood carvings. And they call to us from their bicycles as we sit on our veranda eating a meal. Placencia just felt very laid-back and relaxed to us, and the stresses of the long travel day drained away.
Click here to read LOTS MORE in the rest of this excellent article and see LOTS more photos on the BeBelize Blog