A Belizean Paradise and Adventure – Part 1

Tucked just south of Mexico in Latin America lies a largely undiscovered country that is becoming more and more popular by the day. This is due to the rise in flights coming from the United States that arrive daily from United, American Airlines, Delta and Alaska and then seasonally from Southwest, Sun Country, JetBlue and Frontier.

Due to the amount of flights arriving daily from the United States, this offers flexibility on travel dates and keeps the affordable cost. I was trying to get SCUBA certified in the Caribbean and I had heard amazing things about the Caye’s just off the coast of Belize.

In researching the best PADI Certified diving center, I stumbled upon http://www.splashbelize.com that has fantastic Google reviews and I started emailing Ralph that is the email main contact there. I had already taken the online PADI certification test last year when I was planning on getting certified in Maui for my confined and open water dives. You have to go through a PADI certified local location in order to get access to the online PADI portal. I went through https://www.kcdiveshop.com here in the KC Metro at 7300 W Frontage Rd in Shawnee, KS. I never actually stepped foot in the location, but called and emailed John the owner to get met setup online. I decided to do my confined and open water dives spanning two days in the ocean, I mean why do it in a pool locally when you can do them all in the ocean?

The Splash Dive Center in Belize was extremely responsive and helpful in getting me the forms to fill out and return and reserving my spot over Memorial Day Weekend 2023. They focus on a very individual approach where they only allow two trainees per instructor, so you really get that one on one attention. I filled out my health forms/waivers, credit card info to reserve (they don’t charge you until the class is over) and they even pick you up if you are within relative distance to Placentia Village in southern Belize.

After I knew that I was all setup for SCUBA classes, I could get into the nuts and bolts of where I was going to stay, what else I was going to do and fill in the gaps on my solo trip. I always, always start searching on Airbnb first, then I’ll venture to Vrbo and then hotels. I found the perfect Mermaid Cabana owned by a couple Ron and Flo in Placentia Village within seven minutes of Splash Dive Center.

Placentia Village is 2.5 hours south of Belize City where all International flights depart and arrive. So, I had to search for rental cars and found out Costco does not offer rental cars internationally, which was usually my go-to to save about 40-60% on each rental car rate through the travel portion of their app or website. So, I started by seeing who is all available at the Belize airport, and Avis was the cheapest, by far. They were $150-$200 cheaper than Enterprise, Hertz, Budget and others. For six nights, seven days, it was in the mid $400s to rent from Avis. The rental car agencies are directly across the street from the main Belize airport, called Philip S.W. Goldson Airport. The airport is the fifth busiest in Latin America, but you’d never know it. It’s a tiny airport with only a handful of gates. They just extended the runway, but the runway is so short, after you land, you have to do a U-Turn to go back to the gates and deplane. it’s very traditional where you can deplane on both the back and front of the plane and it’s down a staircase directly outside, there are no gate bridges.

The customs area was a little hectic being in a small room with a single guard giving the “go-ahead” to approach the customs agent. It was typical processing and stamping and asking where you were staying in Belize. Super easy to breeze through after that as I always carry-on and sped through the baggage claim area.

They gave me a Mitsubishi Outlander SUV for my stay at Avis and it had only been driven five times they said. So, it was brand new, bright red, and they hadn’t even gotten the license plate yet and the certificate was in the glove compartment in case I got stopped. There aren’t many highway patrols in Belize at all, so “Speed Humps” are the main speed protector in the country. They are mostly around areas of round-a-bouts, bus stops, entering cities and intersections. Especially when you enter the Placentia peninsula, there are over 20 speed humps along the 22-mile span of the peninsula. The main highways, not so much until you approach one of those locations I mentioned before, but villages and towns, yes. There aren’t many highways in Belize, but the ones they do have are paved and perfectly safe. I hear they are slippery when it’s raining and wet, but I never experienced rain and driving but I hear to go slow due to the pavement materials they use that slip. The drivers seemed to obey normal American driving rules, but you’ll see trucks carrying many passengers in the truck bed from time to time as they carpool a lot Gas is about $15 per gallon down there, so it’s not cheap. They get a lot of their materials from Mexico, they have no oil refineries in the country, so Mexico gauges them a bit that they buy from. They also get their electricity from Mexico. I was able to make it to Placentia Village in about a half tank of gas that was completely full when I left the airport. You have to pay a $5 Belize dollar fee as you leave the rental car agencies lot that is a tax they have. For every $2 Belize dollars, it’s $1 American dollar. So this was $2.50 in American money and they accept the American dollar everywhere you go, but just don’t expect to get change in American money, they’ll give you Belize currency for your change.

Try and take the Hummingbird Highway on the route down to Placentia Village, it’s the most scenic inland. I hear that really the only crime in the country is based in Belize City, so to avoid that area and never drive into the city as I hear it’s chaotic. They do have a domestic airline that can fly you in propelled planes down to Placentia Village on Mayan Island Air and it’s around $100 for about a 25-minute flight each way to a small airport and then you can rent a golf cart or moped or car while down in Placentia. I wanted to explore the countryside of Belize, so I opted not to do that, but that is possible and I saw flights coming and going and drove by the airport in Belize many times. Great alternative to those that want to speed up getting to Placentia Village and can find the right arrival and departure times.

Placentia is a peninsula that spans 19 miles in southern Belize. This is the relaxing side of Belize, away from the hustle and bustle of the capital in the north. The capital is actually in Belmopan as they moved it inland in 1970 from Belize City after a hurricane. Belize City is only a few feet above sea level, so it’s very susceptible to hurricanes and flooding. You’ll see a lot of houses on stilts even so far inland as Belmopan. You’ll drive through Belmopan on your way to Placentia Village. This is where a majority of the jobs are located, car dealerships, gas stations, but there are no fast food restaurants. Everything here is locally owned and authentic, which adds to the local appeal and charm. Most of the residents I talked with are from Guatemala that borders Belize to the west, or from smaller, remote villages in Belize. There are 100% blood Mayan residents still in Belize as I bought a jaguar tooth necklace from one of them located near the southern pier and they have their own villages scattered around the country. There are some from Honduras as well that boat over every day for work. Very few actually live in Placentia Village, but they carpool in with others or buses to work everyday.

Jaguars are regarded very highly in Mayan culture as the most vicious predator of the jungle. They have the strongest chomp of any animal in the jungle, even the lion and tiger. They have a 1,500 pounds of force for every square inch due to the shape and structure of their jawlines. This is double the force of a tiger! This is strong enough to break the skulls of their victims and even turtle shells. While most animals go for the neck to kill their victims, jaguars just crush skulls. They are lethal and very territorial. If you invade their habitat area in the wild, they will hunt your livestock on your land since that is seen as their territory still, even if you get rid of trees from the jungle. Many villages had to go through this when the country expanded and they started losing livestock to jaguar maulings.

I didn’t include photos in this blog since it had been so long since my last blog post and I just wanted to get another one out there. Adding photos takes up the most time to upload and insert and takes about two hours to post each post, so I’ll try and do that in the future. This is part 1 of a multi-part Belize adventure I took over Memorial Weekend this year, and I’ll have Part 2 hopefully very soon and the story will continue. Until then, I encourage you to research Belize on your own as well if you get the time, it’s a fascinating country that is growing in popularity every day.