Placencia

Hi friends and family,
We have spent our last week in Placencia, Belize. Placencia is a small village on the southern tip of a long narrow peninsula. To the west there is a lagoon full of many types of mangroves and to the west is the Caribbean and nice sandy beaches on the west side too! We found a great beachside cabana to spend the week in. The village has an interesting mix of cultures- Garifuna, Creole, and Mayan as well as its fair share of ex-pats from all over the world. Its "main street" is a sidewalk that runs a couple miles through the village. Apparently its listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the narrowest main street in the world. It's a small enough place that in just a few days we have come to recognize and know by name some of the local business owners and they also recognize us. Everyone is very friendly here- always a warm greeting. We have been spending the bulk of our time laying on the beach and swimming in the ocean and making daily trips to get good veggie food at a local restaurant called The Shak (and it is spelled without the c for the spelling police among us:) and also very pleased to discover the local ice cream shop that makes all its ice cream with soy milk! Rum raisin has been our favorite flavor so far.
We did a day trip boat ride up "Monkey River"- aptly named for its large population of howler monkeys. ...and we did get to see many that day. We also got to see quite a few crocodiles as well as lots of different birds. We will post some photos later.
Sadly, one of the activities we were looking forward to doing- snorkeling- has not worked out due to very windy weather that made it too dangerous to go out in a boat. Its been canceled on us two days in a row. In fact today its pretty overcast and windy and a chilly 75 degrees. I know 75 ain't that chilly but it is to us after 4 straight weeks of 80 plus weather! Tomorrow we will be in for a harsh re-entry to Seattle's rain. We hope the snow that Seattle got earlier this week will have melted by then!
We are sad for vacation to be over but looking forward to seeing you!

Mike