Placencia, Belize: Charm, Food Eaten and Eating Opportunities Missed, The End

This is becoming quite the long drawn out post about Placencia.  There was Part One:  Good Eats, Placenca Belize, Four Meals A Day Is Just Not Enough and then Part Two:  Charm, My Potential Pulitzer, Best Coffee in Belize and Good Eats.  But for a tiny village, there is a ton to see.  Now let’s finish this off.

Belize is on the second (or is it third?) day of now two tropical waves giving us rain and grey chilly weather (by chilly I mean low 80s), won’t it be nice to look at sunny pictures of Placencia.

(Picture from Wunderground.com plus my scientifically placed indicator – me sandwiched between storms.)

But you can see that there is quite a bit swirling about.

So let’s head down to Placencia and think of pleasant things like sunshine, candy colored buildings and coconut flan.

While I did do a ton of eating there were a few places that I didn’t get to try…

Just general Placencia cuteness.

Back to the restaurants.

I heard fantastic things about The Secret Garden.

And even better things about Rumfish y Vino…it’s quite famous around here.  But closed for a bit during the slower season.  It’s a definite try on my next trip.

There must be a story behind this name.  Or perhaps the owner is trying to maximize t-shirt sales?
The fact that this is a fishing village is so apparent.  EVERY restaurant features fresh seafood first and foremost.

All of those restaurants are on “The Street”.  Now to “The Sidewalk”…those are your two location options in Placencia.

I stopped in the VERY popular and very large Barefoot Bar and Restaurant to take some pictures.  This place has recently moved to the beach side and it is super cute.  Exactly the colors you’d want in your Caribbean barefoot bar.

Good view.

Right next door on the beach is the Tipsy Tuna, the other “hotspot” in Placencia.  Closed for a bit…

A little walk along the sidewalk.  The very cute Town Council building.

 

Beautiful Mayan masks for sale at a gift shop.

 

And finally, a small breakfast spot at the very end of the sidewalk by the strangely huge and modern new municipal pier.  But first the cute place “The Shak”.

Seaweed shakes are huge down south.  And for the most part, you don’t taste any seaweed…it’s more like a smoothy that’s just extra thick.  Like many things in Belize (like conch and Guinness stout), seaweed is said to be “good for the backbone”…or a boost to mens’ vigor and verve.  Awwww lawd…just what Belizean men need!

Each shop does the shake differently and I tried none while in Placencia.

I’ve had a few bad experiences buying them in Belize City…warm and gelantinous…I’m going to wait a while before I go back to them.

I wanted to snag this “The Shak” sign and put it in my purse.  LOVE WOODEN HANDPAINTED SIGNS.

I had a fun (and heated) discussion with some local guys about San Pedro.  They insisted that Placencians were better fishermen and that the Peninsula paid more taxes to the government than San Pedro.  Pffffttt…

Though I do love civic pride, even if it is misguided.

I order a delicious bowl of yogurt and fruit with a giant glass of lime juice.  Good and cheap.

Now let me show you this bizarre municipal pier slapped on the end of this cutie pa-tootie pastel beach town.  Just a few steps away from The Shak.   A concrete monolith brought to you by the Government of Belize.

Apparently SOMEONE has been anticipating cruise ships coming to the area for quite some time.  (Read my post about the cruise ship industry coming to Harvest Caye, less than 3 miles from here! )

Empty, ugly, the wrong fit for the village and just strange.

After only two days, I was reluctant to leave Placencia.  It felt like being on a real sleepy beach vacation.  This town is so quaint with so much local pride, so much character and so much great food, I selfishly almost hope it never changes.