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When I first visited Placencia, it was August 1994. I remember on the bus from Dangriga south there were two Italians who spoke little English. They were getting off the bus on the Southern Highway at the junction to Hopkins. “Hopkins?” I asked, “are there any places to stay?”. "Yes" the Italians assured me. They had heard that Hopkins was very nice compared to Placencia where there are “too many tourist”, for their taste.

A while later the bus turned left and stopped in front of a large metal gate to wait for someone to appear from the nearby house to open it. There were two-storey buildings, accommodations for plantation workers, that looked like they were right out of Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’ . Once the bus passed through the gate, it entered a huge banana plantation through which the dirt road made its way east onto the peninsula. I had never seen that many banana trees in my life. The green colour of the leafs in the bright blue sun remains clear to me until this day.

The paved road leading into Placencia Village.

The Placencia sidewalk, still the smallest main street in the world.

Then the bananas disappeared from the view out of the bus window and in front of us were coconut palms, white sand beaches and in between the trees, a first glimpse of the Caribbean. The bus turned right and the road went south, it was palm trees and beaches from there on. I really thought this was the most beautiful ride I was ever on. We passed Seine Bight, a Garifuna Settlement and headed south to Placencia. I might be wrong, but I believe there were no places to stay at all along the peninsula until Placencia village, maybe one place near Seine Bight.

Bank in Paradise - Caye International Bank

Caye International Bank Ltd. - Bank in Paradise

I fell in love with Placencia, walking the sidewalk up and down, meeting the nicest people sitting on the beach and just doing nothing. I remember staying at ‘Lydia’s’ in a single room downstairs for BZ$11. I mostly ate at Omar’s - chicken burritos. In the evening I enjoyed a rum and coke drink swaying in the hammock on the beach in front of the De’Thatch bar, and talking to bartender Greg from America, before I headed over to dance to good Reggae music at the Cozy Corner Disco, a large wooden shack on the beach near the ocean.


Brand new apartment buildings emerge everywhere on the Placencia peninsula.		On some of the older buildings the damage caused by Hurricane Iris is still visible.

When I had to leave five days later, I splurged in order to be able stay just a little bit longer and paid for the plane ticket to take me all the way to Corozal. That morning, I walked up to the airstrip around 6am while the village was still asleep. There was only a thin wooden bench on the south side of the airstrip with a little roof over it. I tried to lay down on that bench while waiting for my airplane wondering if it was going to come. There was no traffic on the road and I was in the middle of nowhere. The plane came, it was probably the smallest craft I have ever flown in, maybe a four-seater. When I climbed in, I made a dent in the beam that holds up the wing, just to read the sticker afterwards that said ‘Do not step here’. I was hugely embarrassed, but the pilot waved it off. When we flew away, I looked back onto the Placencia Peninsula, hoping that I would be able to return some day.


Placencia village from above in the spring of 2004.

As luck would have it, I have returned several times since then, and I have watched the place change. Of course the impact of Hurricane Iris in 2001 was enormous. That wooden building that used to be the Cozy Corner Disco, was lifted up by Hurricane Iris and put back onto the ground over one hundred yards east, on the other side of the sidewalk. Many of the large palm trees were torn out which changed the look of the village a lot.


Long stretches of white sand beach mark the Placencia Peninsula.


Barefoot Perfect, the beach at Point Placencia, prestine and absolutely beautiful!

My last visit to Placencia was in the spring of 2004. I must say the peninsula appears new, shiny and still as happy and relaxed as it used to be. What the hurricane tore down was rebuilt bigger and stronger. There are new bright painted signs everywhere. Of course, the paving of the road in the village has changed its look, and the sidewalk is completely repaired, but seemingly not an inch wider than it used to be. Lydia’s Rooms are still some of the most economical in the village, Omar still serves great breakfast burritos and the De’Thatch bar is now a full bar and restaurant, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Greg from America now operates an Italian Trattoria and the Cozy Corner Disco is a concrete building that has a hotel attached. The airstrip boasts an office for both Tropic Air and Maya Airline where passengers can await their planes on comfortable sofas in an air-conditioned room.

The bus ride from Dangriga no longer ventures across the banana plantation anymore. It's been several years ago now since a new road has been cut, north of the old turn. It passes Riverdale, a settlement on the north end of the peninsula, then it goes through Maya Beach and Seine Bight with accommodations for tourist available left and right. The beaches on the peninsula are still some of the best: long, white, palm fringed with the Caribbean ahead and the barrier reef not too far in the distance. They now refer to Placencia as 'Barefoot Perfect, and you know, they are probably right. I know still love it!