STAFF BLOG: [DAY 2 OF THE PLACENCIA TRIP]

Hello everyone,  I’ll share the second day of my trip to Placencia.

Day 1

For details on the first day, you can check here

Day 2

Seeking Coffee at a Cafe

Since Central America is famous for its delicious coffee, I decided to start my morning with a visit to a café. The café was located on the second floor of a treehouse. Although it was hot in Belize from the morning, the iced coffee did a great job cooling me down and tasted fantastic. I met an American who had moved here three years ago, and he was there with his dog. We chatted, and he said, “Life in the U.S. and other developed countries is busy every day. I came here because I wanted to live a slower life.” I completely agreed with him, and we had a good laugh about it. By the way, his dog was an incredibly cute small indoor dog,  which is not common in Belize.

Meeting a Guitarist on the Sidewalk

After signing up for a snorkeling tour, I decided to explore Placencia’s sidewalk. I came across an older man with long hair who was playing reggae music on his guitar. He invited me to listen, and he performed several songs for me. He used to be an engineer for the Marine Military but found it boring and switched to music. Now, he teaches music to children and you could feel his love for it. We talked about reggae music, Placencia, and various other topics. He mentioned that this year was unusually hot and that they sometimes have power outages to save energy. To cool down, people often jump into the sea, but even the sea is warm this year. Belize imports most of its electricity from Mexico, so I became curious about the country’s efforts and infrastructure for generating its own power.

Trying My Hand at Weaving

At one of the gift shops on the Placencia sidewalk, I met woman weaving Maya fabrics. I was invited to try it, but it was such a delicate task that I couldn’t do it well at all. It takes about a month to complete one piece of fabric. Thinking about the effort and the people behind each piece increased my respect for the craftsmen. I had bought some woven items from another place when I first came to Belize without knowing this, and now I plan to treat them more carefully when I return to Japan.

Delicious Mangoes

This year seems to be a good year for mangoes, and I was told that the mangoes here in this seaside town are delicious. I went to a local shop to buy some mangoes, and as I was looking at them, someone offered me a taste for free. It was smoother and more fruity than any mango I’d ever had before. If you ever come to Belize, I highly recommend trying the local mangoes!

An Unexpected Reunion

I went to Barefoot Bar for dinner and ordered nachos again. To my surprise, I ran into the older man from the morning. The restaurant had a DJ Party vibe, so he wasn’t playing his guitar, but he remembered me and gave me a signed business card. I realized that my interaction with him could shape his impression of Japanese or Asian people, and I regretted not talking to him more. Thanks to him, I’ve started listening to reggae music. There’s a Bob Marley movie being shown in Japan right now, and I hope more people in Japan will start listening to reggae.

Stay tuned for Day3

Next time, I’ll share about my third day, where I visited Hopkins, a town a little north of Placencia. Stay tuned!