Placencia Family Business Owners Donate Hottest New Attraction at the Point

By JOLIE POLLARD, Editor in Chief, The Placencia Breeze, pollard.jolie@gmail.com

MUZAMANZIE PHOTOGRAPHS

You may have seen the gigantic beach chairs during your travels to other coastal communities in the world, but in Belize, the 12-foot tall artistic attraction at the Placencia Point stands out among the more ubiquitous painted letter monuments greeting visitors in other local destinations. With the blessing of the Placencia Village Council (PVC), a group of young Placencia men working with their respective family businesses came together to make it happen, and it’s quickly become one of the most “Instagram-mable” photo-ops on the Peninsula.

“It makes me proud to see our Placencia boys take the initiative to take on a beautifying project like this on their own,” said PVC Chairlady Ilsa Villanueva. “We take pride in being a unique tourism destination in Belize serving as a convenient gateway to the country’s inland and coastal attractions. We are looking for ways to show people that here in Placencia, we are different.”

Moreover, Villanueva says the new attraction has an organic feel at the Point. “It’s not something that will detract from that beach location or the events that we host there,” she said. The PVC has been taking advantage of the 66-foot publicly accessible stretch of beach allowed under the Belize National Lands Act. The location was the venue for the 2018 Placencia Lobsterfest, that saw the construction of a permanent boardwalk, as well as the installation of water and electricity outlets.

According to the young donors, with combined labour and materials, costs to build and paint the chair totaled an estimated BZ$3,000.

Twenty-six-year old Justin Linarez of Go Sea Tours first took the initiative to get the project off the ground. “I was just thinking about what could be a landmark for the village and after seeing a chair like this in Roatan, Honduras during a trip with my family, I thought this is a good fit for Placencia,” Linarez said.

The tour company director contacted his close friend, 31-year-old Nelson Griffith, who immediately came on board for construction. Griffith, who manages Sandy Feet vacation rental along with his family, built the chair along with a small crew of workers while Go Sea Tours purchased the lumber.

For the final touch, Linarez contacted renowned Placencia sibling artists, 27-yearold Grayson and 29-year-old Omar Sierra. "There was no reluctance at all on our part to jump on this," Grayson said.

Inspired by one of the most popular snorkelling attractions at the Silk Cayes inside the Gladden Spit and Silk Caye Marine Reserve, the Sierra brothers painted a large swimming loggerhead turtle against a backdrop of blue. With the assistance of 35-year-old Brian Vernon who works with the boys at their family restaurant, Omar’s Creole Grub and along with Grayson during his fishing tours, the painting was applied with acrylic paint and coated with an oil gloss spray for protection from the blazing Placencia sun.

“I like how it looks after the guys painted it,” said Griffith during our cover page photo shoot at the Point. “Teamwork makes the dream work,” Linarez added. ▪

PVC Chairlady Ilsa Vilanueva takes a photo with the young men behind the new big beach chair at the Placencia Point; left to right, Nelson Griffith of Sandy Beach vacation rental, Justin Linarez of Go Sea Tours and Grayson and Omar Sierra of Omar's Creole Grub and Art Gallery.