Placencia and Good Friends

This was the sunset at Blueground Range. We found the camera!

We sailed from Blueground Range to Placencia on July 28th so we would have a few days to get ready for Sammye and Grouper's arrival on the 31st. It was windy and choppy on our way in but once we turned into the anchorage all was well. Placencia has two good anchorages. We opted for the one in front of Yuli's, a thatched roof bar out over the water. We were also close to the City dock and the famous mile long sidewalk. We had to refuel and fill the water tanks plus there were bills to pay, a boat to clean and marketing to do (Placencia is a good place to provision, several grocery stores with good selections and prices plus great fruit & veggie stands).

Placencia is not an island, its on a long peninsula in Southern Belize. There's a lovely long curving beach which fronts the sea. The reef here is miles away. There are two safe anchorages. One is in the lagoon on the backside of the peninsular. The one we choose is at its southern tip but with a nice little island to tuck behind so that you are out of the wind. (closer to the bars and charms of Placencia)

Dolphins swimming with Wahoo

Taking on fuel and water is always an event. This time it basically took us a whole day. We had to sail over a shallow bar in order to get into the lagoon which leads to Mango Creek and the commercial port of Big Creek. We aimed for high tide and only touched bottom once. It was slow going as the lagoon is not charted very well. After more then enough hours we made it to Robert's Grove Marina at the other end of the lagoon. This is also where the Moorings keeps its large charter fleet of catamarans.

Each day we got a few more chores done and Roy was in 7th heaven when he found a guy that made meat pies like he remembered growing up. He ended up with a standing order of a dozen, the man LOVES his meat pies!

St Pauli Girl surprise

The big day came and we went to meet Sammye and Grouper at the airport. It was so much fun to have friends with us again! Sammye did not disappoint as she arrived in a Hu-Dat?! T shirt with an image of  a Hubig Pie on the back. For those of you who haven't heard, the Hubig Pie factory in the Maringy burned down at the end of July. It was Sammye's birthday and we had a surprise for her back at the boat - and it wasn't the lobster dinner we'd cooked.

Famous Placencia sidewalk - that's Roy & Grouper peeping out  behind Sammye

Swimming off Wahoo

Beach Bar

Their first full day we spent swimming off of the back deck, hanging out, visiting all the Mayan gift shops plus several of the bars along the sidewalk.

Ball Court at Nim Li Punit ruin

Howler Monkeys

Belize is so much more than beautiful waters and pleasant sailing among pristine cayes. So the next day we headed inland hoping to see the sights and maybe hear some monkeys. We drove south towards Punta Gorda(PG), a small Mayan town nearly to the Guatemalan border. We stopped and visited a Mayan ruin, had street food in PG and visited a chocolate factory before heading to Hicattee Cottages where we would have dinner and spend the night.

Trying to get to the cave at Blue Creek

Pool at Hicattee Cottages

A lovely place, and the area around Hicattee is home to 12 troops of Howler Monkeys!

Howlers, are native to Belize. They are the largest New World monkey and the noise they make sounds more like a lion than a monkey. The next day after a lazy morning and a lovely breakfast we set off to visit Blue Creek and its Cave. Little did we know it would be an endurance trek through the rainforest. Roy was the only one to finish and brought us back some lovely photos. The trip inland led us through the Toledo District of Belize into parts of the Maya Mountains. All along we saw Mayan villages with a few thatched roof houses, laundry on the line and a much more primitive existence then we know of.

Waterfalls at Blue Creek

A celebration at Roy's Cool Spot once we had completed the cave trek.

Worrying about Ernesto takes many Belikins

We were aware that Ernesto had Belize in its sight and were being careful to keep up on its course. Thank you to everyone who emailed their concern. As we didn't have good internet service Lindy Brown and John Edward kept an eye on the storm and texted or emailed important updates. Once back in Placencia we decided to cut our visit to the cayes down to 1 overnight, getting us back on Sunday instead of Monday.

Laughing Bird Caye - Wahoo between the palms

On Saturday morning we motor sailed out to Laughing Bird Caye to snorkel and spend the night. Laughing Bird Caye is a sand and palm tree caye and is part of Belize's National Park. Our first snorkel spot was right off the caye in shallow water. We also found a lovely and healthy coral garden in 12 ft of water on the back side of the caye. A great snorkel adventure!
Grouper even found some lobsters but this is a Park island and so a "No Take" zone. :((

The caye is small and doesn't offer very good protection, so we had a rolly night. The next day we motored 5 miles keeping a bow lookout as Roy maneuvered Wahoo between shallows and coral to Long Coco Caye. We took the dingy and visited a construction site on this caye to let Grouper and Roy apply for jobs. No luck, but fortunately we didn't need a paycheck to have conch ceviche for lunch. We found some shallow water snorkeling over beautiful soft corals, starfish and sand dollars before heading back to Placencia.

Grouper getting a closer look at the lobsters

It was a tough call but Roy and I decided we needed to move the boat to Rio Dulce. Hoping it would survive them, we reluctantly left Placencia to the mercy of Sammye and Grouper for a night. They were heading back to New Orleans on Tuesday and we would be on the Rio Dulce by then. All of us are safe from anything Ernesto might throw at Belize.

Of course, as it turned out the storm went more north then expected.

10 NM Placencia Anchorage to Laughing Bird Caye
Placencia Anchorage  16 30.66N   88 21.92W
Laughing Bird Caye Approach to anchorages   16 26.67N    88 12.02W
Long Coco Caye anchorage   16 29.93N   88 12.68W