Descripive Scene of Placencia Village

Descriptive Scene of Placencia Village

(I have decide to try my hand at writing a novel while here. This is my attempt at exercising one piece of this art by doing a detailed description of a setting as one might be asked to do in a creative writing class. If this seems like a laborious description, it's for the purpose of cultivating my ability to turn what I see into written language. I make no apologies for this effort. In otherwords, if you don't like this...take a flying leap off a short pier!) In any event, I trust it will give you a flavor as to what this small village looks like to a novice writer intent on spending a year here.

Placencia Village has a concrete pier at the very end of the southward tip of the pennisula before it bends westward toward the harbour and the Belizean shoreline of its mainland.. From the air, it looks like a backward “L.”

As one comes down Main St, the pier sits about 100 feet or so from the end of Main St. As you approach this centerpiece of downtown Placencia, you walk past many small gift shops, a coffee house called Above Grounds on the left, that is literally a Belizean styled house on stilts. Many such buildings are along this main avenue of narrow streets and speed bumps, such speedbumps are unbiqitous in Belize, designed to keep speeders from running over the many people that walk the roads.

On the right side from about ¼ mile out are makeshift buildings and open areas for parking. These buildings are shack-like and seem to house mainly tour operators. On the left side at this point, moving into town is Walden's Hardware, a larger concrete warehouse containing a wide variety of hardware for the builders in the area. Walden's, owned by an American, also has a two story older rustic building adjacent to the hardware store, that contains a grocery store on the first floor. Going up the steps leads you to the Pharmacy, where a woman named Nina is the licensed Pharmacist. To the front of this Pharmacy and above the grocery store, is an Italian Restaurant that opens at 5:30 daily. Stepping in the restaurant by mistake, as Iws in the mood for Italian for lunch, I noticed it has about dozen nicely appointed tables with actual cloth spreads. It's a classy place with a menu to die for and prices a bit above the average fare for the Village. The Walden complex looks like it is going to collapse as there is very little of its original paint, so it's looks rather shabby, but then again, most places in town look this way.

Behind Walden's and I guess adjascent to it is a divine little restaurant called, “The Secret Garden.”They have their own vine covered archway with their sign above the arch. This is mostly an outdoor eatery with a nice lunch menu of sandwiches at a reasonable price, about $10-$17 BZ. The seating area has perhaps a dozen tables mostly with umbrellas, and a hand washing fountain by the main entrance to the building. Also part of this operation is a massage parlor and a Spa. It was a lovely setting in which to enjoy yet another of the wonderful hand squeezed juices popular in Belize. I enjoyed a sandwich called the Roasted Cuban, a mix of chicken and hot sauces. I will frequent this place as I want to try more of thier lunch menu.

Next to this building still on the left is a combination building with a resturant called “Vino and something” eatery and a commercial business on top. To the right at this point is a soccer field, where kid teams play usually after school after the heat of the day. Toward the end of the soccer field is a fruit and veggie stand, a common place to stop at daily to pick up fresh fruit and veggies. This stand is just a small open front building wit usually three ladies working the place. One usually weighs and gives the price to another, probably a daughter, who calculates your order. The husband is usually hustling a fresh shipment of meons or bananas.

On the left side of the street, across from the veggie stand is a Gelato store on the first floor of a newer styled building that also houses the Belize Bank loan department on the top floor. This modern appearing building is fully air conditioned. The owner of the Gelato stand is a French woman.

Moving further closer to the pier is a new realty building modern in all respects. Next to it are a couple of older style Belizean stilt houses converted into gift shops. These are brightly colored affairs. Across the road is the Sunset Point road I live off of. Next to them, proceeding into town, is the Above Grounds coffee shop. They import organic beans from Guatamala and grind them on the premises and bag it for sale. Thier lot is about twice the size of the others filled with nice shade trees. Across the street from the Above Grounds, to the right side of Main St is a couple more eateries and gift shops, To the right of these buildings, and on the corner of Main and Sunset Point, is a Chinese restaurant. To the other side of the gift shop and directly in front of Above Grounds is a nice creole restaurant called Wendy's. It is a two story building, much more modern that most other structure there and appears to have apartments above it. It stands out as it is a freshly painted white building with a peach trim with an inviting porch on which to eat. It's on my list of places to try breakfast, lunch and dnner.

Past the Above Grounds property is a narrow dirt side street with the Plcencia Office Supply. It too is a two story affair with apartments above. It is another of those buildings that could use a paint job. This is where you recharge your WiFi time and the D'Tab offices of Eric are located. He is the electronics whiz-kid in the Village. A really nice friendly fella, who after three days gave up trying to unlock my phone, even with my usual positive encouragement.

Directly across from this dirt side street is the Nang Nu Chinese run grocery store. The next building back to the right appears to be a closed thrift store. These old and dry looking buildings could go up in flames if the conditions were right. This grocery store is not air conditioned and is a miserable place to spend much time inside. It is a very popular place however and does a booming buisness morning till night.

At this point we are about one block away from the Village pier.

Main St. snakes down toward the pier. Once past the Chinese run grocery store, on the right is a series of small shops, including a barber shop, usually with a line of guys waiting for their cuts. On the left side is another series of connected shops. The first one is a marketing location for one of the larger resorts up the pennisula. As a resident at the resort, you can catch a ride in a corporate van free of charge.

This brings up an important reality in the Village. There are a lot of people who run independent taxi services. With the influx of resorts in the area means, not more work for the independents, but less work, as the resorts buy and hire their own vans and drivers to service their resort clientele. This is having a negative effect on local taxi services. I talked with a woman down by the pier for whom this has an negative effect. She has a loan on her van and some days only can get two fares a day. She cannot get enough business to make her van payments. The market is changing. My observation is that this woman needs to join a resort as an employee or as a contractor to make ends meet. This perception is based on economic reality. As much as she wants to run her own life, if the marketplace is changing, she needs to adapt to the change. She has two children in college, one who is working on a degree, ironically, in resort management. Is this a result of not being aggressive enough in securing fares, a problem in figuring out a way to market her services more efficiently, or an unwillingness to see and understand the market as it is changing and to change to accommodate the market? Major change is definantely coming to this quiet Village.

Back to the description of the Village. Still on the left is a Belize Bank with an ATM (where I withdraw my funds) and an another building, a two story, that workmen are doing some intensive work on the top, which is an open space, I assume will be a restaurant. It faces directly into the harbour. To the right is a vacant gas station that now serves as parking for people coming to the pier.

At this point in our journey, we are now 50 or 60 feet from the water in the harbour with the pier another 100 feet to the left. Right on the edge of the water are two tent/wooden structures. This belongs to Brenda, a sparkling black woman who took to me right away (for business of course!)

I asked about her connection to a retire Colonel nurse who does a lot of giving back to this community. She apparently sponsors all kinds of groups to help the locals deal with the usual dyfunctions of life. Brenda, did not give me a referral to Diane, but did give me a referral to a man, named Stephen, who is known as an AA speaker, and is also an insurance man in the area. Her cohorts tracked down his name and number for me. I also like to connect with this Colonel as her work sounds like it parallels my life work as a social worker. Both of these people may be the ones I need to connect with to fulfill part of my mission while in Belize.

Brenda fixed me up with this delicious mix of fried coconut chunk, absolutely delicious, with some banana slices and orange slices, plus a lime drink ($10BZ) I asked her what else she served from her stand, and she was marinating chicken and pork in a BBQ sauce. I will stop by again to feast on her cooking! She cooks over coals and her helper a funny black guy was grating coconuts for their menu.

Another side story here. Brenda used to have a place further down the pennisula, but was burnedout by a fire. The village gave her the right to this harbour side location temporarily. Unfortunately, as the cruise ship industry is coming to Placencia, she will find her location taken over by a harbour redesign plan that will necessitate her losing her favored spot.

To the right of Brenda's stand is a small clump of trees underwhich serveral locals just hang around and drink and smoke. This is next to a fairly large bar that sits right on the edge of the harbour, with water splashing up on the concrete pilings at the edge of the covered deck. From here, you look out onto a small wooden pier wit a boat anchored on the left side and a small shack, that is a diving excursion office.

I sat on this deck for about ten minutes, observing the harbour. Out in the water I counted 10 sailing ships anchored at different spots in the harbour, some really nice catamaran sailing ships. In the sky were a dozen or so sea gulls some diving into the water to snatch a morsal, others coming in swooping close to the water checking for a morsal to catch their next flight over. Over by the concrete pier was a seagull sitting majestically on the top of a sailboats main mast, looking relaxed and in no apparent hurry to go anywhere. To the left further is the concrete pier. The pier design is very modern, with sweeping curves streching out into the bay. On the pier are four small shacks used to sell tourist trinkets and drinks. For the time I sat there no one was manning those shacks.

Tourists and small kids dive off the pier on its left side to swim, and there is a small beach area for swimmers and sunbathers to congregate. This small beach area is fairly well protected from the winds. Once you go to the far point, the winds coming off the Caribbean are quite strong and the winds blow up kelp and other material that looks like tree mulch. Also, once past the point, bags of litter are being pulled out of the shoreline. Yes, human litter is here in Paradise, but the Village employees do their best to keep up with it.

Back from the beach area, is a small place, an open air cabana called “The Shack.” Here you can purchase cold drinks and meals. It's a very comfortable place to sit and harbour watch. Fans are strategiclly placed to create a nice breeze. What is their most popular menu items can be decerned from the 26 varieties of smoothies. I've started at the top of their list and plan to try each and every one of them! Here as elsewhere the juices are flowing, from lime to watermeon to Papayra and one that tastes like grapefruit. This small shack has perhaps a dozen tables in it. This place sets right to the left of the base of the pier. Along side the Shack is the beginning of a mile and a quarter long, four foot wide boardwalk that separates the coastal frontage properties from the rest of the Village. No bikes allowed, it is for pedestrian foot traffic. It is a concrete formed boardwalk with 3 inch wide slates covering the entire distance of it stretching back north through Placencia Village.

The bordwalk has many more shops, some sell wood carvings and hammocks, another eatery called “The Village” yet another outdoor cabana styled restaurant. On the right, diagnonally acroos the board walk is a two story place called the “Swiss Cafe” with a more Americanized menu with Pizza! I haven't stopped there yet, but they also serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This boardwalk is also lined with palm trees and other more leafy trees giving one a break from the intense heat of the day. A lot of locals who still live in Belizean styled homes offer a laundry service right along the boardwalk from their homes.

A good ways further on is a beach complex called, “Tipsy's Tuna.” Tipsy's is the drinking capital of the Village area, with wide open beach vollyball courts and the ever unbiquitous bars. They have a lot of humorous signs posted, all about drunks. This is obviously the hangout of young tourists, here to drink and have fun.

Further up the boardwalk you come across a small resort called Seaspray motel with rooms facing the beach and side. Right next to this is the DeTatch seafood restaurant, which is probably the best and most expensive eatery on this part of the shoreline. It is also a cabana style eatery. This is where I had a delicious Coconut Curry Snapper dinner. I visited this place as part of an early evening walk I took to take in the early evening life of the Village.

Well, that's enough of the sightseeing tour of Placencia Village. Perhaps you can tell it is a mix of old and new, richly culturally diverse, with ordinary Belizeans living juxtaposed mostly white tourists, but also many from Guatamala as well. As is usual, poor locals living amongst a growing wealtier tourist population with many foreigners buying up property for development and living.

Coming next. My description of the road I live off of, Sunset Point and the canal I talk so much about.