Research Mode

I haven’t posted anything in a few days ‘cause I’ve been brainstorming and researching some things. We originally came to Belize wanting to open a restaurant. We were/are open to other ideas, because we knew that having never been to Belize before now, we weren’t sure what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, we did tons of research…online. But much of what we found varied from person to person. We weren’t so naive as to believe online research was enough to equip us with all we needed to know about starting a business in Belize. Now that we are here and have been able to see how things work, and have had the opportunity to ask around, we are much more open to trying a different type of business. Honestly, I see the poor starving dogs here and all I want to do is start a shelter. They don’t really do that kind of thing here. I’m not saying there aren’t dog shelters, I saw a tiny one on Caye Caulker, but there are too many people that are living in poverty for there to even be a concern for animal shelters. Here I am between a rock and hard spot. I want to be of service to the people, but all the needy are in my heart (including animals), and I want my own business too. I figure, God put the desire for us to have our own business for a reason. I’ve wanted to have my own business since I was really young. If He opens the doors for us and blesses this business; which would really be His business not ours anyway, then maybe that would help open the doors for starting a non-profit. Hence all the research; what kind of business do we invest in? There are plenty of restaurants here; they don’t need any more of those. What skills do we have that can best serve this community? A couple of people have told us computers. Great! I enjoy technology, but it’s expensive and the import fees are high. Then there’s my/our passion for photography. We could travel the world and sell the photos of our memories. But the world has plenty of those too! Maybe we could still use it as a write off for our travels and equipment at least right? These are just a couple of examples of what we are thinking of, and researching. Any and all prayers for us are greatly appreciated. I know God will open the right door at the right time. Just wish (and pray) He would tell us what to do now, ‘cause my eyes are going cross-eyed from all the reading :0).

Lamanai

Today we finally went to see some Mayan ruins! We found out that the Copper Horse Inn offers a tour to Lamanai for $65 U.S. per person. They drove us to Orange Walk, which is about an hour drive from Corozal Town. From there we took a tour of the New River and saw Spider Monkeys (see above picture). The guide stopped so we could maybe give the Spider Monkeys a snack. These monkeys are very used to people, and getting snacks from them, so when the boat was close enough one of them just jumped in and walked down the aisle waiting for someone to hand her a snack. The guides usually take bananas, but they forgot them, so he asked if we had cookies or anything to give the monkeys. One guy said he has cookies, and as soon as the monkey heard the zipper to the back-back she went over there to see what he had. I normally don’t agree with feeding wild animals, but I can definitely see why they do it. It made for a really cool experience! Once we got to the Mayan site they fed us lunch before we hiked up to the Mask Temple (see picture below). The High Temple was our next venture. As I’m sure you can tell by the name, this temple is higher and steeper, but once you get to the top…the view is absolutely amazing! I’ve never been that high before (outside an airplane) so I wasn’t sure if I was afraid of heights. I decided to be cautious about it and not look down until I finished climbing to the top. The view was so beautiful and so worth the climb, the fear of heights didn’t even enter my mind. Contrary to what I thought, it was so much easier going down than it was going up. I just stepped sideways the whole way down, and switched sides every 20 steps to get an equal work out on both legs. :0) We also got to see Howler Monkeys, and wow they sound so cool! There were a couple of babies there and they were adorable! The last temple we saw was the Jaguar Temple; we were not allowed to climb that one, but the whole area was really beautiful! I recommend this tour for anyone who hasn’t given it a try. Now I have to talk my husband into taking me to Tikal in Guatemala. It was a Mayan capital and is huge, and from what I hear you can also camp out there and take a sunrise and sunset tour! I can’t wait!

I decided to post some pictures of products that are considered common back in the states. Some of the prices here in Belize are comparable to what you find in the states. I have noticed that junk food, and well any processed foods tend to be considerably more expensive. The prices shown on the products are Belize prices. The currency conversion is pretty easy since it stays at a fixed rate of 2 Belize for every 1 US dollar. So from now on when I tell you Belize prices, just divide by two to get the US prices.

Game Plan

After much prayer and research, and of course finally getting the thumbs up from God, we began to plan out everything we needed to do to leave the states and move to Belize. I’ll keep this short by putting it in list form.

  • started vaccinations (took over a 6 month span)
  • sold or threw away stuff we didn’t need to take with us
  • packed things we needed to take (based on recommendations of other expats)
  • told family and friends of our plans
  • moved into my mom’s house for a couple months to save more $

The things we researched are:

  • what to do about jury duty
  • how to become permanent residents in Belize
  • how to start a business in Belize
  • what to take with us and what to leave
  • places to stay in Belize (location, location, location)
  • diseases and dangerous animals in Belize
  • how to buy property…

I may have missed a few details, but if you’re curious about anything because you are considering moving abroad, or you’re just curious, please don’t hesitate to ask me. Tomorrow I will add some things that I found are lacking in Belize. I’ll try to get some prices up for comparison also.

In the beginning…

It had been a desire of mine to move to a beautiful, tropical place since I was too young to understand what that meant. I remember watching a news segment, when I was about four years old, about all the tourists in some beautiful location (I don’t remember where), and I told my mom I want to be tourist when I grow up. She laughed and told me it’s not a job people have. Little did she know that travel writing and blogging would indeed be a career for some people.  The desire to travel always stayed with me. In fact that desire evolved into a great desire to move to some beautiful tropical place somewhere. I married a man with the same desire. My husband and I have been married for about 3 and 1/2  years now, and we’ve been talking about wanting to move away since we were dating. Once we were married those conversations turned more serious, and thus birthed the plan to move. After about a year and a half of praying, seeking guidance from God in regards to where and when to go, and researching countries and cities to move to, we finally got our answer. Belize was the destination that stood out and really called to us through all of our research. The friendly people, warm climate, great diving, rich culture, and simple way of life in Belize really drew us in.  I knew God would not have placed such a strong desire to move to some far off tropical place for no reason. We just had to patiently wait for the right time, and that time is now!