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Trips from Placencia can include anything from an afternoon on or under the water to a week of camping, fishing, snorkelling and sailing. Placencia lagoon is ideal for exploring in a canoe or kayak (US$15-30 per day from Dave Vernon, tel 523-3207); you may even spot a manatee. Diving at Placencia is excellent, with fringing and patch reefs, but bear in mind that the distance to most dive sites means that trips here are more expensive than elsewhere. Aquatic Adventures (tel 523-3182, glenmar@btl.net ), at the dock in front of the Paradise Hotel , offer the best diving instruction, excursions and equipment rental. For snorkelling or manatee-watching check with Nite Wind Guides (tel 06/23487) at the end of the sidewalk. Trips commonly include a visit to uninhabited Laughing Bird Caye National Park , beyond which lie the exquisite Silk Cayes , where the Barrier Reef begins to break into several smaller reefs and cayes; nearby Gladden Spit is now a marine reserve created to protect the seasonal visitation of the enormous yet graceful whale shark. One of the best day-trips from Placencia takes you by boat 20km southwest to the almost pristine Monkey River , which teems with fish, bird life and, naturally enough, howler monkeys. The best tours to the river are run by Monkey River Magic (tel 523-3330 or 014/4452; US$45, minimum two people), led by Evaristo Muschamp, a very experienced local guide: a thirty-minute dash through the waves is followed by a leisurely glide up the river and a walk along forest trails. You can get a meal in Alice's Restaurant in Monkey River village, and if you want to stay there's the Sunset Inn (tel 520-3028; US$10-15) on a tiny bay at the back of the village, a two-storey wooden hotel with comfortable beds, private bath and fan.
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