Our boat ride from Corozal to San Pedro. As you can see from the weight in the boat, we only had about 6 inches between living and drowning. You can pick me out pretty easily. I'm the only "non-Belizean" in the photo.
While vacationing in San
Pedro Town on the beautiful island of Ambergris
Caye in Belize, my boyfriend Roger and I bought
a house. Now this wasn’t
the most thought out plan I’d ever had.
After all, Roger and I had only been dating a
few months; I’d been at the same job for
13 years; all my friends and family live in the
States. I mean … what was I thinking?
But, there was something about this little town
and the friendliness of the people I simply couldn’t
resist.
It was Roger’s first trip to San Pedro
but I had been here a few times before. We were
staying with a friend in his condo at the Belizean
Reef, a quaint little hotel just south of town.
Upon arriving in San Pedro, we were immediately
taken in by the laid back feel of the town and
the friendliness of the locals. We couldn’t
imagine a nicer place to vacation. After a few
days on the island, we found ourselves asking
each other, “Wouldn’t it be great
to live here?”
Five short
days later, our vacation was coming
to an end. We had an early flight off the island
that morning. Our bags were packed by the front
door while we enjoyed a cup of coffee and one
more breathtaking view from our seaside veranda.
We found ourselves being pulled back to this
place we hadn’t even left yet. After a
few short minutes of deliberation, we decided
to stay just one more day. We quickly unpacked
our bags and made a few phone calls to change
both our local and international flights. It
was easy changing the local flights (after all…this
is San Pedro). However, to change our international
flights we were told it would cost us $100 each.
Well, to us it was worth it. We had one more
day in paradise.
After settling back into “island time” (which
didn’t take long), we rented a golf cart
and “hypothetically” looked at real
estate. We thought, “Why not? What could
it hurt?” As we drove around the island
looking at different houses for sale we just
didn’t get the right feeling about any
of them. When we eventually pulled up in front
of the house that we currently own, Roger and
I looked at each other and at the same time said, “This
is it!” We just felt it. The current owners
were a couple about our age originally from Alabama.
They had built this house six years prior and
were selling it to build a new house in an adjacent
lot next door. After visiting with them for over
an hour and hearing their story about how they
moved to paradise and what island life was like
for them, we felt even better about this place
and this house that we were about to buy. We
also knew we had made lifelong friends of Bobby
and Mandy.
We left the house that
afternoon with a feeling of euphoria. We were
so excited about this life-altering decision
we were about to make, but we knew there had
to be a catch. I mean, what are we talking
about here … buying a house and moving
to Belize. I mean this is a Third World Country
after all. What will our parents and friends
think? What about our jobs? After walking the
beach for hours trying to figure out a good reason
not to do it, we couldn’t come up with
one. So we went back and signed an earnest money
contract on the house that night. Needless to
say, I was a little bit excited and a lot scared.
After all, here I am buying a house and moving
to a foreign country with a man I’m not
even married to. And, I haven’t even told
my mom yet (Yikes! She’s going to kill
me.)
The next morning, Roger
and I did finally leave on an early flight
from San Pedro. We were flying TACA Airlines,
who had the previous day told us we would have
to pay $100 per person to change our flights.
When we arrived in Belize City, the very nice
young lady at the counter never mentioned the
penalty fee. She then surprised us with the
news that she only had first class seats available
on the flight and would have to upgrade us
at no additional cost. No penalty fee, complimentary
upgrade to first class … we
took it as a sign that this was absolutely meant
to be.
When we returned to “the real world” in
our hometown of Houston, Texas we began telling
everyone what we had done. There was a lot of “No
way!” and “I wish I could do something
like that!” and tears shed (mainly from
my mom, but she’s since gotten over it
now that she has a bi-annual vacation spot in
sunny San Pedro). We resigned from our respective
jobs, sold our house (furnished), sold my car
and Roger’s Harley Davidson (yeah…that
was a hard one, but you certainly can’t
have one of those on an island that’s only
six miles long…and the trade off was well
worth it).
Our home in Belize
We began our trip to Belize
leaving Houston at 9am on the morning of August
17th, 2001. We had everything we owned packed
in the back of Roger’s car. Even our bicycles were strapped
to the back. Every box, bag, container, suitcase,
was labeled and inventoried for the border crossings.
I’m such a Girl Scout and wanted to be
absolutely sure that we didn’t run into
any problems along the way. When we set out on
this journey, Roger and I made a promise that
we would not get mad at each other no matter
what happened. And believe it or not, we kept
that promise. We actually had a great time on
this adventure. Neither one of us speaks Spanish
very well, so we brought along Spanish language
CDs thinking we would learn the language along
the way. But this idea turned out to be futile.
Between me constantly checking the map to make
sure we were headed in the right direction and
Roger “white knuckled” on the steering
wheel because of the conditions of the roads,
we never even listened to the radio much less
a CD. All I can say is, thank goodness this car
had a compass!
The seven-day drive was
long, but amazing! We mapped out our trip traveling
from Houston, Texas to Corozal, Belize through
Mexico along the coastal highway. We decided
to only drive during the day (which was very
smart…don’t
even attempt to drive in Mexico at night). We
overnighted in Brownsville, TX, Tampico, MX,
Veracruz, MX, Villahermosa, MX (spent two days
there due to Tropical Storm Chantal), Chetumal,
MX, and Corozal, BZ. Crossing the Texas/Mexico
border on a Sunday wasn’t the smartest
thing in the world to do, but we eventually got
across. And, be sure you stop at the place to
get that little sticker for your windshield.
It means a lot to the border patrol a few miles
down the highway. He doesn’t care that
you didn’t know where to cross, or where
to turn, or that it’s Sunday, or that you
don’t speak Spanish … Vamos! Turn
around and do it over! (Okay…I don’t
know how to say that in Spanish, but that’s
what he was saying in very mean Spanish and he
was none to happy with us. Absolutely no sense
of humor whatsoever!) When we finally got all
of the appropriate stickers, we were on our way
(five hours of attempted border crossing later).
The northern countryside
of Mexico after we crossed the Texas/Mexico
border was very flat and barren. However venturing
further south, the landscape became more lush
and tropical … lots
of trees and mountains. It was such a scenic
drive. There were a few scary moments along the
way. Namely, the conditions of the highways – teeth
rattling; the “kamikaze busses” – yes,
they will run you over and try to kill you just
because they can; and military checkpoints manned
with 16-year-old Federales armed with machine
guns – a little intimidating.
We didn’t really have any accommodation
plans along the route. But, I must say that the
Holiday Inn chain of hotels came through with
flying colors. We had everything we owned in
the back of the car so security was a major priority.
We had looked online at a couple of hotels before
we left, but when we arrived at these establishments
we realized that they just weren’t what
the website proclaimed. We found that there was
always a Holiday Inn hotel nearby with excellent
rooms, night security, and fortunately for us
open late (we got lost a lot).
When we arrived in Corozal,
Belize, George Morales, border crossing agent
extraordinaire and all around good guy, took
excellent care of us. We were able to get through
customs and immigration with all of our belongings
and our car in a matter of about five hours
(record time if you ask me). We spent the night
in Corozal and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner
with George and his wife, Esther. Afterwards,
we went to bed as we had a very early morning
boat to catch. Since we had 13 containers,
plus our bicycles, we knew it was going to
be a tight squeeze to get everything on this
boat. Especially since it’s the only daily boat
to San Pedro and there were 28 other passengers
traveling with their wares. We finally got most
of our belongings on the boat (thank goodness
for George who shipped the rest of our containers
on the next available boat to the island) along
with our bicycles. Roger was the last one on
the boat and ended up sitting on the bow unprotected.
Not good, since we encountered a major squall
about 30 minutes into the trip. At one point,
I pulled my head out from underneath the blue
tarp (yes, this is the form of protection from
the elements when you’re traveling on a
28-foot skiff) and said to Roger, “We made
it all the way across Mexico and now we’re
going to die crossing the lagoon to San Pedro!”)
When we finally landed
in San Pedro, Nick the taxi driver met us at
the terminal. Now this was the first time we
ever met Nick, but he seemed like a nice enough
fellow. So we loaded up our belongings into
his taxi. Obviously our bicycles wouldn’t fit, so we decided to ride them.
We explained to Nick that we bought Bobby and
Mandy’s house in the San Pablo area of
San Pedro. He knew the place well (actually,
everyone knows everyone in this town). We sped
off to our new house and met Bobby and Mandy
outside. After visiting with them for about 30
minutes, we realized that this Nick person who
we had never met before, had yet to arrive with
our belongings (yes…everything we owned).
Shortly thereafter, he arrived. We were dumbfounded.
Of course, we learned then (and would take this
lesson to heart) that Nick just stopped for a
bite of breakfast along the way. He knew where
we lived and would eventually make it to our
house. That’s just the way things work
here in Belize.
A few days later, after
checking with the water taxi terminal daily
for the rest of our belongings (manana they
kept telling us…tomorrow),
Nick the taxi driver pulled up in front of our
house. We hadn’t seen him since the day
we arrived but he just happened to be at the
water taxi terminal that morning and saw that
the rest of our containers had arrived from Corozal
so he thought he’d bring them by.
Our methods of transportation - a bicycle and golf cart
That night, we sat out
on the veranda of our new house with a cold
Belikin in hand (the beer of Belize) and realized
that manana means a lot of things in San Pedro…tomorrow, next
week, eventually. But more than anything, it’s
a way of life. And we wouldn’t have it
any other way.
Roger and I “retired” for the first
year after we moved to San Pedro. We decided
to ”get a feel” for the island before
we jumped into anything. During our retirement,
we read a lot of books and spent endless days
on the beach. It was a really nice change from
the hustle and bustle of corporate America. However,
all good things must come to an end and to be
perfectly honest, we were both getting pretty
bored. So, I happened into a management position
at Xanadu Island Resort, where we got married
on the beach in April, 2002. Roger started a
property management company called Ambergris
Vacation Rentals.
I ride my bike to work
(which is my preferred mode of transportation)
and Roger has a golf cart (so he can meet and
greet guests as they arrive on the island).
In my opinion, we definitely traded up. I have
a five-minute bicycle ride to work every day,
much better than the hour-long ride spent in
bumper-to-bumper traffic in Houston. I go to
work in shorts and flip-flops (hello…can
you say, “no pantyhose!”) And, I
don’t think Roger has had a pair of shoes
on his feet since we moved here (no shoes, no
shirt, no problem!). Yes…life is pretty
good living in paradise!
