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Home Countries Belize

Cayo, Belize Is A Great Escape For Expats

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Sep 25, 2016
in Belize, In Focus: Belize, Travel
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Eva's Restaurant Cayo Belize
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If I Were To Run Away, This Is Where I’d Go…

In my office in Panama City, hanging on the wall opposite my desk in a place I see every time I glance up from my laptop, is a photograph of the entrance to Eva’s Restaurant in San Ignacio, Belize. I came upon the photo four years ago in a café in Boquete, Panama, where I was having breakfast one morning. I looked up from my fried eggs and noticed, across the room, what looked to me to be the front door to a place I’d been frequenting for more than two decades. I got up, walked over, and confirmed that, indeed, it was Eva’s.

“Is that photograph for sale?” I asked the waitress.

“In fact, it is,” she replied. “All the art on the walls is for sale…”

I discovered Eva’s Restaurant about 30 years ago during what was not only my first trip to Belize but also my first press trip. I traveled from Baltimore, Maryland, my home at the time, to Belize City and then onward to Ambergris Caye, Placencia, and, finally, inland, to Belize’s Cayo District, all courtesy of the Belize Tourist Authority. I spent three days in each region and enjoyed them all, but it was Cayo that got under my skin. Cayo, Belize, I realized, was a place for disappearing.

One afternoon I broke away from my guide and wandered through the jungle to the river, where I sat down on a giant fallen tree. I listened to the birds and the monkeys, watched the women doing their laundry on the rocks downstream from me, and wondered how long I could get away with hiding out in this glorious spot. I’ve thought of that afternoon often in the years since. Sitting on that log in the middle of nowhere Cayo, Belize, I felt as free as I’ve ever felt.

Later that day, my guide took me to San Ignacio, Cayo’s biggest town, to a hole-in-the-wall bar-restaurant-café known as Eva’s. Eva’s was, even then, a legend among travelers in this part of the world. If you wanted to meet up with fellow expats in Belize, Eva’s was the place. You’d find some sitting at the small wooden tables or hanging out around the bar, and, if you were looking for someone in particular who wasn’t around when you stopped by, you could leave a note.

This was pre-Craigslist, pre-internet. If you wanted to communicate with another human being, you had to get out a pencil and a piece of paper and write out your message. Eva’s supported the effort with a giant message board. Looking for a travel companion, a roommate, a room to rent? Have a truck, a canoe, or a house to sell? Jot down the details and thumbtack the note to the cork board at Eva’s.

Anyone interested in whatever you were buying, selling, or seeking did likewise. Next time you were in San Ignacio, you could stop by Eva’s to see reply posts, similarly tacked to the cork board. It was a zero-tech, real-world Facebook.

Over the years to follow, I spent many pleasant and memorable afternoons and evenings at Eva’s. It was the kind of place where everyone knew your name within a few minutes of your arrival and you never had to worry about drinking alone.

I don’t get back to Belize’s Cayo District or to Eva’s Restaurant nearly as often as I’d like. When I’m up against a deadline, though, or dreaming of disappearing, just for a little while, that’s where my mind wanders.

If I’m in my office in Panama City, as I am today, when the urge to disappear takes hold, I look over at my accidental photo and imagine myself walking through those swinging saloon doors, taking a seat at the bar, and ordering a cold Belikin beer.

Inside Eva’s, all is always well.

Kathleen Peddicord

French Course Online

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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