Belize Update

I rode over to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday to have dinner with G and collect my oldest daughter, S. Friday afternoon, the girls and I drove him down to Miami International, and I finished up some business loose ends for him, staying at his place for the night. He called last night to say he arrived safely. Today I'm imagining him meeting with the owner and realtor and maybe dropping in to our friends' house for a surprise visit or catching them this morning in town at the market. We probably won't hear from him again until he flies back on Tuesday. I wonder how it's going.

Before he left, we did a rough cost analysis of our plans for the property. If we opt for the full-blown guest house idea, we have a very small margin for error and a very big burden to be successful. Neither of us have any hospitality training, other than knowing what a comfortable, well-run place feels like. If we go down there with plans to set ourselves up comfortably and provide incidental tourist services and maybe a cottage or two for guests, we fare much better. Hopefully he keeps that in mind. It's a lifestyle change, not an investment. He also came up with a good idea to use some of plan B's cushion to maybe develop a rental property or two in town. Do what you know, right?

Here are a couple links, FYI:

Caesar's Place, our favorite in-town accommodations. Caesar is an ex-pat South African who took his family down to Belize in the early 70s. Good food, good company, clean, comfortable rooms and the best gift shop around.

Click here for the property's listing info. It's #2209, at the bottom of the page.

Flora and fauna checklists

Barton Creek Cave Also see My Trip to Xibalba And Back for more on Barton Creek Cave.

Some of the neighbors:

Green Hills Butterfly Ranch

Janus Foundation

Mountain Equestrian Trails

Caracol

More interesting local ruins:

Pacbitun

Xunantunich

In San Ignacio, sooner or later everyone stops in at Eva's. Bob, a British ex-pat who came down years ago on maneuvers and never left, knows everyone and everything about sightseeing in Cayo. The food's not bad either. Make it sooner.

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The rescue disks are here and I plan to spend the rest of the evening getting at least one laptop back in shape. The girls are watching Much Ado About Nothing for the umpteenth time and plan to produce their own version shortly.