Our first visit

Sideview of the house

We found this awesome property on the internet in December of 2008. We wrote to them about it Christmas day, and corresponded by email and chats until we got there to see it in person.

Here’s the link so you can see it for yourself. Our property

We sold the house at the beginning of June and by the 17th, we were on a plane to see this property for ourselves and meet the owners.

It was Brad’s second trip and my first to Belize. We brought all our clothes “just in case” it was as good for real as it looked in the webpage.

It isn’t easy getting to Belize in off season. I guess not too many people want to go to the tropics when it’s summer where they are. We had to make many stops along the way to get here, I guess in the winter they have direct flights. Anyway, we flew to Toronto and stayed overnight, then caught our plane early the next morning, we landed in Miami, and then flew to Belize.

We arrived at 10:30 am and went across the parking lot at the airport to rent a car. We did this ahead of time, but still the price we were told was not what the travel agent quoted us (almost $100 more). At least we got a nice xterra! You need 4 x 4 on the roads in the mountains. We also needed a big vehicle that could fit all our luggage – we brought all our clothes!

I also rented a cell phone, because I wanted to call the real estate agent from our resort, and to test out the signal from the property and the top of the mountain.

Then we headed out from the airport (at Ladysmith) which is not actually in Belize City. Thank goodness because it doesn’t sound like a nice place to visit. Plus the traffic and pollution is what we came here to avoid. We got a map in Canada, and directions from the property owners the best way to get to the resort we were staying in.

We stayed at Cahal Pech Resort for 2 nights, before we went to stay at the property and find our way around. Cahal Pech is the site of a Mayan Ruin, so in addition to the awesome food, beautiful surroundings and friendly people, we could explore the ruins whenever we wanted.  We decided to stay in a cabana, and it was very nice, and quaint.

Our realtor met us on the second day and took us around to see a few other properties, and to the open air market, which was great! That is where we buy any produce that we can’t grow ourselves. We can even sell the excess we have to the vendors.

I told our realtor that I was an artist and she immediately thought of someone else who was an artist that I could ask questions – like where to get supplies and such. She somehow managed to get an introduction to this fascinating woman – who had relocated from Toronto. We even had a visit with her at her house, where we were introduced us to the Pitta Hiya fruit, also known as Dragon Fruit at Chinese markets. The smoothies she made were so good, we were refreshed immediately.

Finally it was time to go to the property and meet the owners. We were planning to spend 4 days with them, learning about the property and the solar system, water system, the community, the animals and the creek. We slept in the cabana, and it was awesome!

The first thing that impressed us was how green and lush everything was. The country we drove past on the way from the airport started out pretty flat and dry, as it had been cleared for farming and houses. As we got further into the mountains, it got greener.

The houses were made of beautiful native hardwoods, and felt very sturdy there alongside the creek. The sound of nature was amazing, while we slept in the cabana we could hear the creek flowing, and over that the steady rhythm of the crickets, frogs, and who knows what else, and in the morning as the sun came up around 5am, the birds started singing. I have a recording of the sounds I made one morning, but it is 90 minutes long. I’ll edit it down and post it here later.

Of course it was also hot and humid. The temperature ranged between 79 – 89 degrees most days, but if you stayed in the shade it was ok, and there were also breezes to cool us off.  Walking up the mountain or up to meet the neighbors was a hot journey, and that’s when we were happy to be next to the creek.