The south is home to most of the protected forests of the country, and the flora and fauna are incredibly diverse. In addition to the thousands of species of flowering plants and hundreds of species of birds, the area is home to jaguar, tapir, howler monkey, ocelot and many other species of exotic animals. Placencia is known among fly fishers as the permit capital of the world. Divers and ecotourists also come here, though not in the numbers found up north. It is a magical place of water and jungle, sun and sand.
Solitude still reigns here as it does in few places so easily accessible to tourists.
The barrier reef that protects the entire Belizean coastline is located much farther from the beach in Placencia than it is on Ambergris Caye. Instead of being only mile from the shoreline, the reef stands about 14 miles out. The water between the shoreline and the reef averages about 100 feet deep. This vast bay-like area is studded with hundreds of coral upwellings miniature atolls and reeflets that create, in aggregate, hundreds of square miles of flats. These small flats, with such close access to the security of deep water, create some of the world s best permit habitat.