After a long series of flights (layovers in Dulles and Miami), Dave and
I landed in Belize City with relief. Our plan was to grab a taxi into
town, and take public buses to Placencia - a long stretch of beach-y
peninsula on the southern coast of the country. Perhaps knowing that
another long, uncomfortable journey wasn't going to be quite as fun as
we had imagined, we revised our plan to stop in Dangriga, the main city
in the Stann Creek District, and about two hours closer by bus than
Placencia.

Then,
the most amazing thing happened. We were approached by a Mayan Airlines
ticketing agent "Any connecting flights ma'am?" We looked at eachother,
trying to read whether the other person was game. I figured it couldn't
hurt to ask, "How much would it be to get to.....Placencia?"

$160
well spent US dollars later ($80 each), Dave and I boarded a tiny 10
seater plane for Placencia. I felt spoiled, but in such a great way! I
have to admit, this was perhaps the best $160 we spent the entire trip.

It
seemed so unreal flying down the coast of Belize. The entire country,
the size of New Hampshire, has only 250,000 residents. Los Angeles has
10 million. It seemed impossible for an entire country to have a
quarter of a million people when the city I live in has 10 million. The
sparse population lives mostly in villages surrounding only a few main
cities. When we flew over the land, it was just that: land. The
occassional road or tropical fruit plantation interrupted the almost
nonstop scenery of dense forested areas and lazily winding rivers and
small ponds that result from Belize's sea-level (non)-altitude. It was
beautiful.

Since there are so few roads in Belize, I would
recommend the splurge on a flight to anyone visiting - it's one of the only ways to see parts of the country. We wanted to take
another flight, but the next stop was San Ignacio and, while it has a
small airstrip, no local planes fly regularly in or out of the airport
there. For visitors not including Placencia in their trip, the other
option for flights is to take a small plane to Flores, Guatemala and
visit Tikal. You will likely be rewarded by very different scenery than
we were, as that flight goes over the Maya Mountains, but I have no
doubt it will be just as beautiful.

Keep up with my blog: The Chick Traveler