We Got Social in Placencia

First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!

It's Emily's birthday today, please celebrate with us and show your appreciation by posting comments... it's weird to celebrate far from home. We miss you all!

We've mentioned some folks we've met here and there in our journeys, but until we left San Pedro, Belize you could say we were "honeymooning". We're back in exploring and adventure mode, and made some new friends in Placencia.

Like the movie credits, we'll go in order of appearance. Omar own's Omar's diner and guesthouse, right in the middle of Placencia. We woke him up from a nap in his hammock and asked if he could make us lunch. We got some amazing seafood burritos from him and learned that he catches all his own fish, or gets it from his buddies if he can't find someone to watch his hammock while he's out fishing. Omar is what you might call a character, tells a lot of jokes and keeps you on your toes. He said he's been in Placencia thirty years or more.

Our second time at Omar's (dinner this time), we ran into a couple of Omar's customers - Jerry and Judd from Louisiana. These were some good ol' fly fisherman from waaaaaay south, and they were characters of a different sort. These two are hard to describe, but we'll leave you with a quote... Jerry was describing his wife's cooking, and when asked how good it was, he exclaimed - "Make you slap yo' momma!" He went on to explain that you wouldn't normally slap your mother under any circumstances, unless you tasted his wife's cooking and then reacted by slapping your own mother for not cooking as well.

Jery and Judd


While at Omar's for the third time (breakfast), I saw our friend Luke walking past on the sidewalk. We knew our friends Luke and Molly from Portland would be in Belize, that in fact they were in Dangriga the day before. We had no idea Luke would be wandering around Placencia, so I tackled him. Apparently this is very uncommon in Placencia.

Later we got to experience the way the locals catch dinner (see Luke and I below). Good thing we could also buy dinner from locals who were somewhat more successful than we were.

spear fishing


We really got out and about in Placencia, taking a snorkeling trip and a jungle trip before meeting up with Luke and Molly... then we made our own custom trip, getting a boat for the day and visiting three islands out near the reef. Two of the islands were in the Silk Cayes and were stunning, the third was equally interesting but just known as "The Sandbar", which was sand and a few million conch shells previous fishermen had left.

island


boat


glamour


We said goodbye to Jerry and Judd a couple of days ago, Luke and Molly yesterday, and Omar came with us on the water taxi part of the way to Livingston so we said goodbye to him last. We took a water taxi, a regular taxi, a bus, an international water taxi from Belize to Guatemala and a "private charter" to Livingston where we are now. The private charter was a boat that our stuff got thrown into as we arrived in town, and because we had six people going in the same direction we got a group deal. The normal ferry goes at regular hours but apparently takes a lot longer.

Now we're back in Guatemala, a bit of an adjustment after Belizean beaches. We hiked through the jungle all day today, seeing some incredible views and some tiny towns. We ended in a pool of 7 waterfalls, not quite as high as those our homeland boasts, but with beautiful smooth rock formations. When we reached la ultima, our guide stripped to his smiley face undies, climbed to the top, and jumped in! After a moment of hesitation, we joined and it was fabulous and quite refreshing after the muddy sweaty hike. We even went for a second leap and got a pic at the top.



Tomorrow we're going to try and make it to Rio Dulce, a town at the head of the river we're exploring. Maybe we can get some kayaks and go with the flow, come back here and then on to Honduras!

Here are some pics from San Pedro that have been on backorder.

dragonfruit-a new fave


balcony of our honeymoon suite

golf cart-we got wheels!!