After our ATM cave tour, we decided to head to Placencia for a little more beach time. It was late in the day, so we decided to stop for the night in the town of Hopkins where we were able to camp for the night outside of the Jambel Jerk Cafe.  We were serenaded by a local band with Bob Marley songs.  Across from the restaurant was a laundromat. Clean clothes!

Before Placencia we saw the turnoff for the Maya King waterfalls, a place someone had told Randi and Amy about. We drove in and spent an hour of so swimming in the pool below the second set of falls. Amy got talking to a guide that was there with two older women, and he guided her up a trail towards the top of the falls, where she then jumped from about 10 meters into the pool below!  Being a pilot, maybe the airtime was not foreign and the landing perfect.  Thanks Randi for the great video!

Up the trail they went again, this time visiting two more falls that were above the falls we could see, and again, we got to see her jump off the rocks into the pool.

We continued on to Placencia, a town along a long coastal barrier bar. We drove the narrow spit of land, often only 40 or 50 meters wide, seeing blue ocean out of both sides of the truck at the same time. Randi and Amy were hoping to get out of the tent for a few days. We attempted to find a spot in a few of the hostels around, but were unsuccessful. Eventually we ended up at the Mariposa Hotel and Restaurant, and although the only room available was way out of our budget, Randi and Amy were able to set up their tent under a palapa on the beach and we were able to camp in their parking lot, for free, as long as we ate one meal a day in their restaurant.

The beach at the end of the town of Placencia.

Our beach for a few days.

Piper scoping out the area by the pool.

Moon rising.

Tarantula on our steps into the camper…Belikin beer provided for scale….we wouldn’t have opened it otherwise, but how else would you know how big he was?

We enjoyed having a pool and ocean view for a few days, we visited the very Carribean town of Placencia for an afternoon, and ate some great meals in the Mariposa restaurant, and just generally relaxed.