We boarded the plane bright and early during the last week of summer, before school started. The Dino dude immediately fell asleep as we wound our way around the runway. I watched the morning sun pass over his face with each turn of the the metal bird we were sitting in. It was his first time to leave the country.
We flew into Belize City and went thought the fastest customs I have ever seen. The town is no bigger than Cheyenne and Belize has less people in it than Wyoming does. We landed on an airstrip and had to walk off the plane and into the airport with a rasta band greeting us. Little did we know that an hour later we would getting onto a tiny little plane seating only 12 people. My son has always been pretty blasé about planes until this little one. It flew close to the ground and we could see ourselves going through clouds. There were no safety instructions, we just jumped in and away we went!
We arrived at a thatched hut for an airport,which didn’t surprise me too much, as the airports in Costa Rica are lean-tos with a cooler in the middle of a cow pasture. But, that was just a drop off for some other folks, we then took off again to land at a tiny building for our airport. Apparently the little airplanes there are treated a lot like bus stops. The luggage claim was just a ledge where things could sit….with only three suitcases. Ours.
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We arrived at Roberts grove. A very large property with a marina on one side of the road and gardens and swimming pools on the other….and the warmest ocean my toes have ever touched. Dino dude was in his swimming suit within 5 minutes of arrival. We ate a little supper at Sweet Mammas, one of three restaurants on the property, and headed to bed.
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I woke up bright and early the next morning, I couldn’t wait to explore. It had rained hard the night before. The little pier with a hut at the end of the ramp was beautiful with a purple/pink sunrise behind it. It lured me to it. My favorite part of the day…coffee in hand, feet dangling over the ocean, so clear I could see the fish swimming.
We took bikes to town, but in true Koerwitz style we ended up going in the wrong direction. We rode 6 miles in 100% humidity. Needless to say my 7 year old went from “this is the most awesome bike ride I’ve ever been on!” to “I think there is a possibility I might die.” when we made it back to Roberts, we rented a golf cart and went the right direction.
Placencia is a very. Tiny town, with not much to it. A couple “supermarkets” and a few gift shops and a handful of places to eat. People are crazy friendly. We picked up a few necessities, like beer and wine and water a Tshirt or two. Then we ate at the Purple Space Monkey, which had really great and spicy food. We had banana chocolate frappuccino at their “Starbucks” (that’s what the little man called it) and then headed back to Roberts where we promptly napped and read and then played in the infinity pool the rest of the day. For dinner we got to have an awesome beach BBQ, with lobster and pig cooked in th ground. There was a live band, that put a reggae twist on every well known 80’s song ever made… I loved it. It was by far the best beach food I’ve had.
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