I tell you often about my favorite beach… the one I’ve married.
That’s at Los Islotes… on Panama’s Veraguas Pacific coast…
Los Islotes is my forever beach… the one I plan to grow old with… where Lief and I have committed to a lifelong legacy undertaking creating a private escape on a secret shore.
However, Los Islotes was not my first beach.
My first beach was Ambergris Caye, Belize.
My first visit, some 40 years ago, I flew to Belize City then took an eight-seater puddle-jumper over to Ambergris, La Isla Bonita, the island Madonna would eventually bring to the world stage.
I stepped down from the little plane that day onto the sandy runway, threw my backpack over my shoulder, pulled on my sunglasses, and walked across the dirt road to the beach.
I was smitten. It was nothing I could put my finger on at the time. Just a feeling, like falling in love. You know it when it hits.
I was just starting out in my career. I didn’t know much but enough to recognize the value of what Ambergris Caye brought to the table.
This then wholly unsung Caribbean isle was serving up white powder beaches, sparkling turquoise waters, gently swaying palm trees… and, way back then, little else.
When I first set eyes on it, Ambergris Caye was a quintessential, unadulterated island escape…
I was met upon arrival that first visit by a real estate agent who’d offered to show me around. Cory McDermott showed up wearing a T-shirt, shorts, and no shoes.
“Welcome to barefoot paradise,” he said as he shook my hand.
Like me, Ambergris Caye was but a young girl. San Pedro town, the fishing village around which development was just beginning, consisted of three parallel roads, all unpaved. The hotel where I stayed was the best on the island. Amenities included towels in the bathroom, a telephone at the front desk that worked now and then, and a front-line position on the Caribbean Sea.
Over the past four decades, Ambergris and I have grown up. I’ve tromped more than my share of beachfront property in those 40 years.
Still today, the sandy shores of Ambergris hold my heart and call me back. Every time I return, climb down onto the island’s still sandy runway, pull on my sunglasses, and take a look around, I have the same reaction I had 40 years ago when I saw this view for the first time.
It’s a feeling of freedom… a sense of leaving the worries of the world behind. Who’s got time for worry when adventure, discovery, and fun in the Caribbean sun are the order of the day.
The next beach to catch my eye was on the southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua.
I turned the spotlight on this beach. Before I ventured south from San Juan del Sur with friend and scout Bob Fordi, nobody was paying attention to this unsung coast.
That was back in 1992. The Nicaraguan civil war had only ended in 1979. I saw men on the streets of Managua still walking around in khaki and camouflage.
I like places at turning points, and Nicaragua back then sure qualified. The future for this long-troubled point on the world map seemed brighter than it had in a long while.
Bob and I found a finca called Rancho Santana where the views and the surf were dramatic, the sand was sometimes rose-hued, and the price per acre was a screaming bargain. I joined forces with Bob and friends Bill Bonner and Mark Ford to make my first property investment overseas…
Nicaragua’s road from back then to today has not been easy or straight. But I remain a big fan of this land of lakes and volcanoes, cloud forests and tropical jungles, cattle ranches and Spanish-colonial cities, rare orchids, white-faced capuchin monkeys, and spectacular beaches. Its people are resilient and gracious despite their very troubled history, and its beachfront is right now notably undervalued.
You might notice a theme in my beach history. I prize undiscovered and misunderstood and run from the well-trod path.
Your taste in beaches could be something else completely.
No matter. I’d say all of us recognize the appeal of standing at the point where the sea meets the earth… feeling the sand between our toes while the waves caress our ankles…
Staring out at the horizon… where life and time appear limitless…
Warming in the sun’s embrace… delighting in the seagulls’ cries and the palm fronds’ flutter…
Taking comfort in a moment of reflection… a sense of recharging… rebooting… recalibrating…
Regaining perspective.
Our beautiful world is alive with opportunity for retiring better and living well…
Even right now.
And I’d say that, if you’re seeking a chance to walk away from what can feel like an overwhelmingly uncertain future…
Start with a beach.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
