PLACENCIA UPDATE:

NEW AND RECOMMENDED SPOTS IN PLACENCIA

By PETER ELTRINGHAM

With Additional Research by Alex Arnesen

In Vol. III, No. 1, BELIZE FIRST ran a series of articles on Placencia and Southern Belize. This article, by Peter Eltringham, co-author (with Mark Whatmore) of Guatemala & Belize, The Rough Guide, with additional research by Alex Arnesen, provides additional recommendations on hotels, restaurants, and dive operations and highlights several new spots. It is based on research in Placencia in late 1995 and early 1996.

Shaded by palm trees, cooled by the Caribbean breeze, Placencia is perched on the tip of a long, narrow, sandy peninsula. Fifty-five road miles south of Dangriga, and accessible by air, boat, and a dirt road, Placencia is light years away from the hustle and hassle of Belize City.

The Placencia peninsula begins at Riversdale, a small community of wooden houses on stilts at the edge of the sea where the branch road from the Southern Highway heads south. From here, Placencia village is 16 miles away. You're almost always in sight of the water, the Caribbean on one side and the mangrove lagoon on the other.

Maya Beach, about halfway between Riversdale and Placencia, has some fine accommodations. Singing Sands (already covered in the article in Vol. III, No. 1 of BELIZE FIRST) is one. Another is the newly completed Green Parrot Beach Houses, owned by Canadians Ray Twanow and Colleen Fleury, in a beautiful location. Design at the Green Parrot has been a prime consideration. There are true beach houses on stilts with a spacious deck outside, a superb kitchen downstairs, and a loft bedroom with a queen and a single bed upstairs. The living room couch also becomes a bed, so each house can accommodate up to five people without being cramped. The restaurant also has well-designed, locally built furniture and looks promising, although it wasn't quite ready when I visited. The Green Parrot's rates are a welcome change from the generally over- priced peninsula: US$85 per house for up to five. To book, phone or fax 501-6-22488.

Further south, in Seine Bight village, a new small hotel offers some of the best value accommodation north of Placencia. Owned, designed, and largely built by an English couple, Mike and Pamela Hazeltine, the Hotel Seine Bight (tel. 501-6- 22491) has only three rooms, ranging from a budget US$25 for a comfortable downstairs double room around twice that for a spacious upstairs room with deck. The building is a series of connected octagons, constructed of hardwood with thatched roofs. The largest of these is the restaurant, with the main seating area on the ground floor and a couple of tables at windows upstairs for more intimate dining. Pamela has promised a full-service international menu, with plenty of fresh vegetables and home-baked breads and desserts.

Kitty's Place (tel. 501-6-23227; fax 501-6- 23226) is a long-time favorite of mine. The range of accommodation is excellent, and it's all very well thought out. You have the choice of the Colonial apartment, beach cabaû as, Colonial and Garden rooms, a studio apartment, and a couple of budget rooms. Prices are from US$108 down to US$43 double. The restaurant is now under the professional direction of a young, well-traveled American called Jay. The menu reflects the places Jay has visited, offering delicious Belizean and international fare.

Kitty and her partner, Ran, offer a great sea kayaking trip to French Louis Caye, a tiny island fringed with mangroves 8 miles due east from the resort. You can paddle a kayak from Kitty's, using a map drawn by Ran, camp on the caye overnight (using your own equipment or sleep in a hammock in the two-story wood house if no one else is using it) with plenty of food provided for three meals -- all for US$50 per person, including snorkeling gear. In the house is a kitchen with gas burners and pots and if you want exclusive use of the caye it will cost US$150 for two people, including transport from Kitty's and snorkeling equipment. If you don't want to cook for yourself, Kitty can organize someone to cook. The resident caretaker on the caye is in radio contact with Kitty's and even if you're on your own the radio will be there for emergencies.

The center of the caye is sand with a few coconut trees. Ran plans to put camping platforms among the mangrove roots. Mosquitoes are not a problem as there's no open fresh water. All around is great snorkeling, with lots of hard and soft corals, sea anemones, and huge schools of tiny fish among the mangrove roots. There's even a resident pair of ospreys, nesting in a mature white mangrove, successfully rearing chicks every year.

Ranguana Lodge, in Placencia village, is the jumping-off point for Ranguana Caye, another privately owned island 18 miles southeast. The lodge at Placencia consists of five beautiful white cabaû as with varnished hardwood interiors, all with hot water, fridge, and coffee maker, for US$60 double in the high season. Three of them are right on the beach, and the two behind are located so all have views of the sea. Each cabin has a balcony with hammocks for relaxing and the whole place is very friendly and well run.

On the caye, Ranguana Reef Resort has three cabins facing the sea and enjoying the constant breeze on a jewel of an island only 120 yards long by 20 yards wide. The cabins have a bedroom with two very comfortable beds and a well-equipped kitchen (bring food.) Water is from rainwater vats, pure and fresh. It looked to me like there was enough storage for a dry year, never mind a dry season, but there's also a desalination plant just in case. The showers and toilets are immaculate, and there's even hot water. Wind generators and solar panels provide electricity for lights, with back-up provided by a gasoline generator. The cabins are US$45 double or you can camp with your own tent for US$7. The sand is much softer and the palm trees are taller and more stately than in Placencia. Sunset silhouettes mountain ranges in Honduras and the Maya Mountains in Belize. Splendid isolation, indeed. Ranguana Caye is surrounded by patch reefs, and for divers the shelf and drop-off down to 2,500 feet begin half a mile offshore. Transport is not provided in the price -- a boat for four people will cost US$75 each way, so you'll need to calculate this in the total. Your boat captain will probably be Mark Leslie, a very experienced guide, who's guided both EcoSummer and Island Expeditions sea kayaking tours. Kayaks are available for rent on the caye.

To book either Ranguana Lodge or Ranguana Reef Resort, call or fax 501-6-23112.

Coconut Cottage (tel. and fax 501-6-23234) is another new hotel right on the beach in Placencia. In this case, the description "cottage" is entirely appropriate. It's a gorgeous cream cabin with green trim and deck offering two immaculately clean and beautifully decorated rooms equipped with fridge and coffee maker and a hot shower. Quiet, romantic, and highly recommended, it's run by Kay Wesby, whose husband Joel is an expert fishing guide. US$55 double.

The Barracuda and Jaguar Inn (tel. and fax 501- 6-23250), set in rich tropical gardens, has two varnished wooden cabins and a thatched restaurant, Pickled Parrot Bar & Grill. The cabins have two double beds and plenty of storage space for clothes. The large deck has lounge chairs and a hammock. Run by Canadian Wende Bryan and Englishman Anton Holmes, the bar is a great place for travelers to exchange information, and Wende is a great cook. The cabins are only US$48 double, including breakfast, one of the best values around. You can also book any of the trips around Placencia with confidence from here, both offshore and inland, and also flights within Belize.

A great new apartment right at the south end of the village between Brenda's Restaurant and Paradise Vacation Hotel (a recommended place to stay if you're on a budget; from US$12.50 to $22.50 double) is Marlene's. It is named for its owner, a friendly and hard-working Placencian lady who's also a great cook, which is why she has her restaurant below the apartment. This is the best studio apartment in the village, with a double and a single bed, a kitchen with a huge fridge, a new stove, and a large sink. Outside a balcony runs along the front. You can watch the sunrise over Placencia Caye. The price is US$55 double, including a delicious breakfast. Marlene's Restaurant is usually the first to open for breakfast. It serves good coffee and fantastic home-made bread and cakes. Lunch and dinner are equally good, but the place is so tiny you have have to book ahead. For both the apartment and the restaurant, call 501-6-23264.

Finally, a brief word about the best budget place in Placencia, Dave and Debbie's Last Resort (tel. 501-6-23207). Lovely clean rooms with wood walls and floors at only US$18.75 double. No private baths here, but the bathrooms are spotless, and you do get hot water. Dave and Debbie's Last Resort is sign-posted right by the road on the way in to the village, easy to spot if you're arriving by bus.

Since many people come here to dive, I would like to recommend two of the best diving operations in Placencia: Deep End (tel. 501-6-23294 and fax 501-6-23295), located on the lagoon across from BJ's Restaurant, near the north end of Placencia village, offers the best prices, along with friendly, competent service and good dockside facilities. Also in Placencia is the long-established Placencia Dive Shop (tel. 501-6-23313, fax 501-6-23226), located at the south end of the sidewalk by the main dock. They offer full-service diving and equipment rental. Both dive shops offer full certification courses for around US$350.

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