Placencia Town

Placencia was hit by hurricane Iris in October of 2001 and was greatly effected. More than half the buildings were damaged or desroyed and even by the time I got there in March (of 2002) they were still struggling to get back on their feet. But I knew when I was doing my research on Belize that it looked like a great place to go see so I had to make a swing through there. I was not disapointed. In the one day that I was there I could see that Placencia's charm still shines through in all it's suffering. Given a few years to recover it will become the gem of Belize once again.

These were some nice looking cabanas on the beach in placencia. The Tradewinds Hotel. Looking at their website you can see that the trees look a little diferent today.

The boat docks at Placencia. Probably the place you can catch a boat to Big Creek across the lagoon, the place the tour boat leaves from, or maybe points south.

The beach in front of my hotel.

This is the sidewalk in Placencia that is dubbed as the worlds narrowest main street beacause it is really the main avenue that people use to get to the shops on the sidewalk.

Here is some destuction from Hurricane Iris. It looks like it pretty much leveled most of the buildings in this area of downtown. This was a blank space in the downtown.

The airport at Placencia. This is the plane I took back to Belize City. We stopped at every airport along the way. The runways were all narrow and the plane always did a very abrupt 180 degree turn at the end of the runway, gunned the engine and took off.

Aerial view of the Placencia peninsula. The peninsula is narrow in spots as you can see. The bus brought me down the roads you can see there.

Belize City's downtown area from the air. You can see the cluster of boats in the mouth of the river. That is where the Swing Bridge is and the water taxi station for Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye is located.