New Friends From the Home Lands

We were officially checked into Belize and ready to explore our new base of operations for the next couple weeks. Placencia had a very different feel from the Honduras we had grown used to over the past two months. The anchorage just off the town dock had at least three times the amount of boats we had seen in French Harbor, and we were going to have to get used to having neighbors. Some of our new neighbors were bare-boat charter catamarans, which we were definitely not used to. They were mostly on the outside of the anchorage and seemed to be on the move to the outer reefs, so we decided to stay well inside and out of their way. The holding ground was strong, so we felt secure leaving Leap for a few hours and heading into town.

Site of a previous posting

We found a nice treehouse-style coffee shop and spotted a few very promising restaurants. Placencia was definitely shaping up to be more of a typical Caribbean tourist destination than Honduras. The coffee was great, but we were actually experiencing a little culture shock from all the Americanization. It was actually fairly strange that everyone we interacted with daily was completely fluent in English. We had grown so used to getting along with a barely-adequate but ever-increasing supply of nautical Spanish that it was vaguely unsettling to suddenly have no use for it. We were sure we would get used to it. In the mean time, it was time to hit the town for a stroll.

Placencia town was actually very pretty, with many small restaurants opening onto a walking path through the middle of the tourist district, but naturally I didn't take any pictures of that. We spotted a few bars right on the beach and picked one to come back for a sun-downer.

Not this one.

The most popular bar among all the cruisers was Yoli's. It was a beautiful tiki house with a huge dinghy dock right in front, a whole host of regulars, and a reputation for throwing great parties. We found that we didn't care for a number of the regular clientele. The place had a "Puerto Ricans use back door" sign pointing off the dock, and it didn't seem to be a joke. We did not go back.

We found the Barefoot Beach Bar instead. It was colorful and lots of fun, with a lower bar area right in the beach. We sidled up and had some great burgers for lunch. I won a dirty joke contest and gave away my key-lime-pie-shot prize. We hung out on the beach for most of the afternoon and had ourselves a real Caribbean vacation day.

We were still hanging around the Barefoot Beach Bar when night fell and the place filled up fast. We had returned to the lower bar, and people were continually going to the little open space next to us for drinks. I was talking with my hands like I usually do and ended up elbowing a young woman pretty hard on the shoulder. I apologized profusely and she was very nice and shrugged it off, and soon we got to chatting with her and the guy standing with her. Her name was Liz and his was Jimmy, and we soon discovered they were Badgers! They were part of a big group of Physician Assistant students who had gotten placed in Belize on a rotation for rural medicine. They were incredibly friendly and we got along so well that we invited them out for a little day sail on Leap the next day.

Pictured: The next day.

There were six PA school Badgers waiting for us at the dock with water-spouts about a mile away to the South. I ran to the dock and carted them all out to the boat and we waited for the system to pass. The weather cleared up soon after and we decided to head for the closest group of islands in the inner reef. Everyone was incredibly nice, and wanted to know all about our cruising lifestyle. We talked a lot about sailing, taught them a few things, and recommended they all head down to the Hoofers to further their sailing education once they returned to Madison. We had a blast recounting all our adventures, and everyone was having a great time doing some driving and learning how to trim a large-bellied roller-furler jib. We made it to the islands in 1.5 hours and set the anchor for a swim.

We tried a few halyard swings and splashed around for a while before it was time to head back. The breeze was perfect for a comfortable beam reach straight back to Placencia, and the weather could have been made for an ideal sailing day. We told Andrew, Brian, Liz, Jimmy, Laura, and Kay how much we enjoyed hosting and taking them out for the day, and they thanked us profusely for the completely unexpected bonus sailing day. They were heading up into the mountains the next day for another shift at practicing rural medicine, so we promised to keep in touch and meet up again when we were all back in Madison. I dropped everyone off at the town dock, and there were Joyce and Claire waiting for us!

Next Time: The great coconut-shrimp comparison quest