However, I know that, for many, the best part about traveling to Belize City is leaving Belize City. We held this week's Live & Invest in Belize Conference here because it's the only place in the country with facilities big enough to accommodate us.
Finally, though, today, after two-and-a-half days in the meeting rooms of the Ft. George Hotel, our conference attendees are free to take off to see for themselves what we've been talking about. The readers in attendance at this week's event have, over the weekend, dispersed to Belize's four corners.
This is where the fun starts.
A large portion of these soon-to-be expats are taking a quick hop over to Ambergris Caye, home to the largest expat enclave in the country. These folks want Caribbean, and they're spending time on Ambergris now, Belize's most developed Caribbean island, trying to determine if this is the Caribbean outpost they seek. This is unadulterated, unpretentious Caribbean...the sea, sand, and sunshine of the Caymans or the Virgin Islands, but without the price tag.
Another group of attendees headed in the opposite direction...and for the hills, the Cayo, where the appeal isn't sand and sea but wide-open spaces, a back-to-basics lifestyle, and really cheap land. Phil Hahn, the developer behind the forward-thinking sustainable community on the banks of the Belize River known as Carmelita, is introducing this group to his favorite part of this country.
The Carmelita plan calls for solar power and community gardens and orchards. The intent is a place where you could live completely independently if you wanted, reliant on no public services or third-party infrastructure.
A third conference contingency has broken off now to head south to explore this country's mainland coast around Placencia. This is another version of the beachfront life on offer when you are considering where to live in Belize. Several master-planned communities are popping up here, catering to those with a higher budget. You'll find marinas and golf courses here alongside large homes within gated neighborhoods. That said, plenty of affordable and charming options exist outside of these higher-end options.
Finally, a fourth scouting party has headed north today, to see the northern mainland Belize coast, around Corozal. While Ambergris Caye is a fully fledged expat community with all the trappings...Placencia offers luxury...Carmelita and the Cayo are all about being off the grid and self-sustainable...Orchid Bay, the most developed of the handful of projects in this part of Belize, is about kickin' back and layin' low.
At Orchid Bay, you're minutes' walk away from the water in a low-density, low-impact setting where the biggest attraction for some is the uninterrupted peace and quiet. Meantime, Chetumal, Mexico, with its 17 hospitals and big-footprint shopping, is only 15 miles away.
Those attendees able to make the time are traveling among two or three or even all four of these spots, to get a better picture of the different lifestyle options Belize has to offer.
Each has its pluses and its minuses. Island living is always more expensive than life back on the mainland...meaning Ambergris is the most expensive lifestyle choice in the country. Most expensive and also most developed and turn-key.
Carmelita is being developed on a river. For some, river views don't substitute for ocean vistas. Others prefer them.
Corozal boasts easy access to Chetumal, which could be a big advantage in case of medical emergency. On the other hand, day-to-day, you'd likely feel secluded here. Maybe that's a plus for you...maybe a minus.
The northern coast around Corozal sees about 50 inches of rain a year. The southern coast, Placencia and south, can see three times that much rain or more each year. Maybe that bothers you...maybe it doesn't.
Big picture, of course, all four of these regions are in Belize...which means the people speak English, the government is typically nowhere to be noticed, and your annual tax bill can be highly controlled.
Kathleen Peddicord
Editor's Note: Now that the final speaker has left the stage, work has begun in earnest to edit the recordings from last week's Live & Invest in Belize Conference. As soon as the recordings (all 32 of them!) have been edited, we'll bundle them with our "Live & Invest in Belize" manual and other key Belize resources to create our new Live & Invest in Belize Home Conference Kit.
Meantime, this one-of-a-kind Belize resource in the making is available pre-release at a 50% discount. Details on the Live & Invest in Belize Home Conference Kit here.
- Searching For The Best Place To Retire In Asia
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"Belize is like Key West back in the day..."
--A Live and Invest in Belize Conference attendee who grew up in Key West
"Forget the golf course! Put in a garden instead..."
--Belize developer Phil Hahn on the vision behind his Carmelita community
"This isn't a consumer culture. This is a conservation culture..."
--Expat Amma Carey on the experience of living in Belize
"Belize is an entire country that feels like a small town..."
--Belize expat Macarena Rose
"The motto of Belize is: 'Under the shade of the mahogany tree we flourish.' In my now long experience doing business in Belize, I've learned that, if ever I can't find a local business partner, it's a good bet that he's under the shade of a mahogany tree somewhere...flourishing..."
--Phil Hahn
"Go slow. We have two cemeteries and no hospital."
--Sign on Caye Caulker, Belize
"There are more than 600 Mayan ruin sites in Belize. It's the greatest density of sites in all the Mundo Maya. In some caves in some parts of the country, you walk past Mayan pottery...actual pots made and used and left behind by the Mayans themselves...just laying around on the ground. There's the chance that the Department of Anthropology will close these caves, but, for now, they're open. You can visit them anytime..."
--Belize expat Jim Hardesty
"In September 1798, the Spaniards had been trying to push the Belizean settlers out. Local lore here in Belize has it that the Belizeans, a rag-tag band of pirates, slaves, and misfits, beat off the mighty Spanish Armada. That's not actually what happened. What actually happened is that the Belizeans annoyed the Spanish into leaving. Those pirates, slaves, and misfits swam out into the ocean and cut the lines of the Spanish ships...again and again. They moved the channel markers and generally irritated and confused the Spanish, who, eventually, gave up and went home.
"This Battle of St. George's Caye, as it's called, is a good lesson for life in Belize. Belize will do her best to annoy you...to drive you away. Don't let her. Life here is worth all the struggles and all the frustrations..."
--Phil Hahn
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. What else this week?
- I recognized the feeling when it hit. I've had it every time I've returned to this little corner of the world--the sensation of escape.
Escape from the obligations of the office back in Panama City...escape from the deadlines...escape from the grind...escape from concern over what's going on in the rest of the world, whatever that might be...
As we continued along the Western Highway, speeding toward the district of Belize known as Cayo, I was less and less distracted by the to-do list I'm forever reviewing in my mind...and more and more distracted by the view outside the truck window...
Fields and pastures, trees and jungle, rivers and livestock. Here and there a small house of concrete block or timber, in the distance the outline of the Maya Mountains. The land in Cayo is fertile. Farmers grow corn and sugarcane, watermelons and citrus.
We passed Mennonites driving horse-drawn carts and children walking home from school. Everyone going about his or her business, not much bothered, I'd bet, by sequesters, fiscal cliffs, or the mounting deficit. Here, in this land of escape, where life is simple, those things don't seem to matter or even to register. Life here revolves around the land and values independence above all else.
To be truly independent in today's world, you need to be energy-independent. That's part of what Cayo offers, too--a chance to take yourself off the grid. This doesn't have to mean living a backward or burdened existence. Thanks to 21st-century technology, the self-sufficient life can also be comfortable, even fully appointed. This was what we made the trip out yesterday to see--progress at the riverfront development called "Carmelita," where developer Phil Hahn is building a community of like-minded folks interested in being, as he puts it, "independent together" and completely self-reliant...
- "What in the world am I gonna' do with her?"
That was Mick Flemming's first impression of me, he admitted years later, as I climbed down from the four-wheel-drive jeep in my linen suit and beige pumps.
I was 23-years-old, a just-starting-out travel writer, in Belize for the first time...
- "Many folks come to Belize for the beach life," explained full-time Belize expat Jim Hardesty to the crowd gathered with us in Belize City for this week's Live and Invest in Belize Conference today. "That's why it's worth pointing out that the entire community of Orchid Bay, where I live, is directly on the water...right on the sand."
Belize is known for sandy beaches; however, those out on Ambergris Caye get most of the attention. The beaches on this country's mainland coast are less recognized but no less quintessentially Caribbean. Because they get so much less attention than the beaches out on the cayes, they can also be much more affordable. This is the case with Orchid Bay.
Another big advantage of Orchid Bay is that it's built. Buy (that is, pay for) what you see, we remind you often. At Orchid Bay, the infrastructure is in, amenities (a dock, a restaurant, a dockside bar, an equestrian center) have been built, and houses have full-time residents.
Now, don't misunderstand. Orchid Bay isn't about flash. When I say that the infrastructure is in, I'm not suggesting that these sandy shores are now backed by parking lots of asphalt, high-rise condo towers, or souvenir shops. The "clubhouse" has a thatched roof. No structure is higher than three stories. Residents get around most often using their own two feet or on horseback...
- I heard last week for the first time of NORCs: Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities.
The example I heard about was a NORC in Fairfax County, Virginia. House prices in this area have skyrocketed over the past few decades (the downturn of housing markets across the country notwithstanding). The current average cost for a home in Fairfax County is US$700,000; few newcomers can afford to move in.
Meanwhile those who live there, mostly government employees with fat salaries or fat pensions, need or want to stay. Voila. With few people moving in, and few moving out, the community ages naturally. It becomes a NORC.
In my experience, you'll find nothing NORC-like in expat communities. In most cases around the world, you'll find nothing like traditional retirement communities, either. Instead, overseas retirement communities are mobile, young and vital.
Why?...
PLUS--From resident global real estate investing expert Lief Simon:
In Belize this week for the Live and Invest in Belize Conference, Kathleen and I took a day to travel out to the Cayo District to visit some development projects that I'm involved in. One is Maya Spring Estates. The idea here is privacy and elbow room. The developer has allowed for just 20 lots, each one big enough to serve as a base for a fully self-sufficient lifestyle. Lot sizes range from two-and-a-half acres up to more than nine-and-a-half acres, meaning you have enough room to build a house and have a large garden or even a small farm. The land in Cayo is very fertile, and this is one of the best places on earth to grow things. That's the attraction for me.
Creating a destination where we could be fully self-sufficient has been a goal of mine for the last couple of years. Self-sufficiency is a growing agenda for many people, and Belize is one place you can easily organize a fully self-sufficient life using solar power to run your house, growing your own food, keeping some animals, and, if you have the inclination, even building your own furniture out of local hardwoods.
Belize is also a good place to be self-sufficient because Belizeans like to take care of themselves. They always have. Founded by pirates, the country prizes independence above everything else (despite having been independent from the U.K. for only about 30 years).
Carrying on in that tradition of independence, Maya Spring Estates will be a small community for self-sufficiency aficionados. The infrastructure will be basic, including roads and electricity (although I'm planning for my house to be off the grid). You could have your own well if you prefer, or you could go with a water catchment and storage system. Modern, efficient wastewater systems will be used for effluent.
Maya Spring Estates' location in the Cayo is near enough (15 minutes) to San Ignacio so that residents will be able to take advantage of the restaurants and shops there, but the property is very much out in the country, meaning privacy and quiet. The small village of Santa Familia is just a few minutes away and the Mennonite settlement of Spanish Lookout is only about 20 minutes away. Spanish Lookout is where you'd go for your farm supplies if farming is part of your plan.
Our plan is to build a house that we'll use for vacation and rental income in the short and medium term. However, as we're buying more than nine acres, we also intend to see if we can find a local farmer interested in leasing it from us to make it productive.
Even if we never grow a single tomato or ear of corn on the property, though, we'll have the foothold in Cayo that we've been wanting for some time. We like it here. Coming to Belize is a chance for escape. The rush of everyday life disappears as soon as you step off the plane. And at Maya Spring, we'll be able to sit on our porch and enjoy the peacefulness of both the location and of knowing that we could take care of ourselves if we had to. If the world were, in fact, to go completely haywire, as some think it will, we'd be fine.
For more information about Maya Spring Estates, you can inquire here. The first three lot buyers get a US$5,000 discount. We've already taken the first lot so that leaves two more available with the discount.
Editor's Note: Now that the final speaker has left the stage, work has begun in earnest to edit the recordings from this week's Live and Invest in Belize Conference. As soon as the recordings (all 32 of them!) have been edited, we'll bundle them with our "Live and Invest in Belize" manual and other key Belize resources to create our new Live and Invest in Belize Home Conference Kit.
Meantime, this one-of-a-kind Belize resource in the making is available pre-release at a 50% discount. Details here.
***
Kathleen Peddicord's New Book "How To Buy Real Estate Overseas" Available Now Pre-Release!
Kathleen Peddicord's latest book, published by Wiley & Sons, hits bookstores April 8. Starting now, though, you can buy a copy pre-release and save 36% off the release price!
Go here now to place your order!
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Fields and pastures, trees and jungle, rivers and livestock. Here and there a small house of concrete block or timber, in the distance the outline of the Maya Mountains. The land in Cayo is fertile. Farmers grow corn and sugarcane, watermelons and citrus.
We passed Mennonites driving horse-drawn carts and children walking home from school. Everyone going about his or her business, not much bothered, I’d bet, by sequesters, fiscal cliffs, or the mounting deficit. Here, in this land of escape, where life is simple, those things don’t seem to matter or even to register. Life here revolves around the land and values independence above all else.
To be truly independent in today’s world, you need to be energy-independent. That’s part of what Cayo offers, too--a chance to take yourself off the grid. Living in Belize doesn’t have to mean living a backward or burdened existence. Thanks to 21st-century technology, the self-sufficient life can also be comfortable, even fully appointed. This was what we made the trip out yesterday to see--progress at the riverfront development called “Carmelita Gardens,” where developer Phil Hahn is building a community of like-minded folks interested in being, as he puts it, “independent together” and completely self-reliant.
The first couple of houses have been built at Carmelita, and they’re charming. Modeled after Tennessee Williams’ home in Key West, these timber structures feature floors and ceilings of exotic hardwoods, long breezy porches, and an impressive attention to detail. They’re completely self-sufficient, with cisterns to catch water and solar panels to generate power...but also, again, comfortable, with washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, and dishwashers, if you want them.
These Carmelita homes are also affordable; you could own one, fully furnished and outfitted, starting for as little as US$100,000.
When Carmelita is fully built out, it will feature a “village green,” at the heart of the community, with space for retail and gatherings. Down at the river will be a small clubhouse and pool. And, all around, will be the wide-open spaces of Cayo.
After we’d toured Carmelita, Phil took us to see two other Belize builing developments he’s involved with--Mahogany Park and Maya Spring Estates. Phil’s vision for Mahogany Park centers around a business opportunity. His idea is to create a riverside restaurant and bar where tourists can rent rafting tubes, canoes, and other gear for river fun. “I think it could be an ideal situation for someone who wants to retire down here but who needs to supplement his or her retirement nest egg a little.” If the idea piques your interest, Phil would love to hear from you.
Maya Spring Estates is for people looking for a little more personal elbow room. The lots in this community are 3 to 9 acres. Many feature creek frontage, and the bigger lots are suitable for hobby farms or keeping a horse or two.
Lief and I hiked around...crossed the creek...considered the views from different vantage points...watched the sun begin its descent for the day...
“It’s getting late,” Lief said finally. “If we’re going to make our dinner meeting back in Belize City, we’d better get going.”
“Yes, yes, ok,” I said reluctantly.
Back in the truck, headed back in the direction of Belize City, I tried to refocus. I reviewed the agenda for our dinner meeting...thought over my opening remarks for attendees at this week’s Live and Invest in Belize Conference, which we kicked off this morning...remembered deadlines I was at risk of missing...
But, all the while, Cayo nipped at the edges of my thinking, teasing me, tempting me, calling me back...
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. I think Cayo was nipping away at the edges of Lief’s thinking, too...
“What would you think,” he asked me after we’d returned from our day out in Cayo yesterday, “of telling Phil that we’d like to invest in Lot 3 at Maya Spring Estates? I keep thinking how nice it would be to try our hands at farming out there. Lot 3 is about 9 acres. We could build a little house...plant some fruit trees...grow some vegetables...maybe even build a small stable and keep a horse for Kaitlin and Jackson. It’d give us a reason to return to Cayo more often...”
“You read my mind,” I replied.Continue Reading:
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I was 23-years-old, a just-starting-out travel writer, in Belize for the first time.
The Belize tourism board had helped to arrange my trip and had organized, as part of it, three nights at Mick's Chaa Creek jungle lodge in the Cayo.
"You should see this part of the country," the tourist board rep had advised. "Everyone is paying attention to Ambergris Caye and the other islands off the coast of Belize City. But there's another Belize, out in the Cayo...a more interesting Belize."
It turned out to be one of the most fortunate recommendations of my career.
Mick met my jeep wearing khaki shorts and carrying two gin and tonics, one for himself and one for me. He ushered me to the open-air, thatched-roof bar, and asked what I was up for.
"So," he said, "do you want the standard tour...or would you like a real taste of this place?"
I've never been one to go for standard if an option is proffered.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked.
"In the morning," Mick suggested, "I'll have our driver take you into the jungle to stay with a Belizean family down on the river. They're friends of ours. You'll like them."
I slept the next night in a lean-to alongside the small thatched hut of Mick's Belizean friends. They lived quietly and happily without electricity or indoor plumbing. The women ground corn for tortillas in great stone bowls and cooked over open fires. They washed themselves and their clothes in the river that ran cold and clear just down the hill.
Only the 13-year-old son spoke English. He asked if I'd like him to show me around. I followed him up the mountainside, in the rain, slipping in the mud, and hacking my way with a stick through the thick jungle growth. The boy stopped near the top of the mountain and pointed to a hole in the ground. Then he shimmied through the hole on his stomach and disappeared. I was to do likewise, I figured, and got down on my stomach like a snake to slide into the tunnel after him.
Just inside was a ledge...and beyond the ledge was a great cavern...and beyond that cavern, a bigger one...and another one...and, finally, one with a cathedral ceiling and a kind of altar in the center of the space.
All along the ledges along the cavern walls were pots and pottery shards. "Why doesn't the Smithsonian Institute or someone come to collect those artifacts?" I asked Mick the next night, back at Chaa Creek.
"There are so many caves like that one and so many artifacts...just so much of that stuff all around these mountains. The Smithsonian comes down and collects pieces and catalogues discoveries, but they'll never find it all."
What were Mick and his wife Lucy doing in the middle of the jungle in the middle of Cayo, Belize in the mid-1980s, before anyone else was paying any attention to this little corner of the world?
They'd arrived nearly 10 years earlier. As Mick told the story:
"We bought some land with the thought that we'd become farmers. Only we didn't know anything about farming. We asked our farmer neighbors for help, and they were happy to show us how to plant and when to harvest.
"Meantime, we noticed that, now and then, backpackers would happen upon us. At first, we'd invite them to unroll their sleeping bags outside our back door. Then we decided to build a hut where they could spend the night. We gave them a salt shaker and some matches...
"Eventually, not only backpackers, but other travelers, too, began finding their way out to this part of the country. We built another hut, a nicer one...and then some more. Things developed organically..."
In the almost 30 years since my first visit, I've been back to Belize at least 20 times. It's one of my favorite places in the world...rugged and undeveloped...an outpost...a country founded by pirates and appealing, still, to modern-day corsairs.
On the one hand...
On the other hand, this tiny English-speaking country blessed with both a long Caribbean mainland coast and, as well, a multitude of small outlying sand-fringed cayes, has made a name for itself among the world's beach-lovers and sun-seekers.
The beachfront property market out on Ambergris, for example, went haywire last decade. Prices catapulted.
But it was never Ambergris that got my attention.
I was drawn, from that first trip, inland, to the jungle and the Mayan ruins, the rivers and the waterfalls, the caves and the rain forest. This part of Belize is largely, blissfully unchanged since I first laid eyes on it...since, even, the Flemmings first laid eyes on it.
Except that, today, you can enjoy the Cayo in comfort.
The first few times I stayed at Chaa Creek, we had no electricity and read by candlelight before falling asleep to the night sounds coming through the open windows...
There was no telephone. Mick had a short-wave radio in his tiny office off the end of the bar....
There were no washing machines, no radios, no televisions...
A stay at Chaa Creek was an absolute escape.
I appreciate the hot showers and air conditioning available now in this part of living in Belize as much as the next girl...but, I've got to say, my fondest memories of Chaa Creek pre-date them.
Kathleen Peddicord
P.S. What Mick and Lucy have built at Chaa Creek, in the heart of the Belize jungle, is nothing short of extraordinary. Take a look at Chaa Creek.Continue Reading:
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One thing that appealed greatly to Monty about Belize during that first visit years ago was how rugged and rural the country was. Belize is still rugged and rural, but today it also offers many more of the conveniences we take for granted and that most retirees considering international living don't want to give up.
Monty returned to Belize last week to see for himself the differences between Belize today and Belize of 18 years ago. He came to the country this time to participate in last week's Live and Invest in Belize Conference. In fact, though, I met Monty before the conference began, by accident. Monty and I both had appointments with the same dentist last Monday! Our dentist, Dr. Huesner, alternated between working on Monty's bridge and fitting me for a new crown.
At the conference later in the week, Monty explained that the major dental work he was having taken care of while in Belize was paying for his entire trip. Monty had done his homework. He'd found that the three bridges he needed would have cost him US$12,000 in the United States. Dr. Huesner did the work for only US$4,000, saving Monty US$8,000. That was enough to cover the cost of the conference and the two-week vacation in Belize, with money left over.
Monty is a special education teacher planning to retire in June. He grew up on a West Texas ranch, so he appreciates solitude and wide open spaces. He thinks he's going to find the lifestyle he's looking for in the Cayo District, in or around San Ignacio. When the conference concluded on Friday, that's where he headed.
Monty has a lot of experience building and remodeling homes, and he did a lot of research related to building in Belize before this trip. He has a grand scheme. He's going to buy a piece of land and then design a simple Mennonite house. Once that's built, he'll live in it and design a larger home. He'll supervise the construction of both homes and hopes to do much of the work himself. Once he moves into the larger home, he'll convert the small Mennonite house into a stained-glass studio.
Then he'll spend time pursuing his hobby, creating stained-glass art.
Sounds like a great plan to me.
Ann Kuffner
Live and Invest in Belize Conference InsiderContinue Reading:
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