Placencia, finally

January 1st!!! And it looks like rain. Dangriga is just as shitty in the daylight. The bus station attendant is “not sure” if there will be a bus down to Placencia, so we pay for a taxi. As my mother is fond of saying, “You can always throw money at your problems.” Jon, our Indian (dots) taxi driver, is a fantastic narrator and tells us in no uncertain terms that there is nothing to see in Dangriga. He also compares Mexican/Spanish work ethic (great) to Garifuna laziness.

We arrive in Placencia and think: FINALLY! VACATION! PRETTINESS! LUXURY! Our bathroom is tiled! The sink is secured into a cabinet! We have a jute rug! There is a television in the room! There is a bathmat on the floor of the bathroom! The ocean is right outside our door, the water is bright turquoise, the sun is shining, and our hotel aims to please.

I unpack ALL of my things into neat little piles. My mother keeps hers all scattered in several places in the room. I eat fry-jacks for lunch, which are fried squares of dough and DELICIOUS. I also find an idiot chic lit book in the lounge which will be my next read. I take a soooooooper deep nap, you know, WITHOUT AN ALARM CLOCK, and end up sleeping 2 ½ hours before my mom wakes me up and drags me outside. And then it starts pouring rain. We have an unmemorable dinner and walk home with more pouring rain.

As I write this in bed, the rain is pouring down outside, and we are cozy up in our little room, with clean sheets and an area rug and tiled bathroom. We are inside! We are in a pretty area! We can sleep in!

What a lovely way to begin 2012.