SIRH is the nicest hotel, by far, located right in downtown San Ignacio. There’s plenty of nicer hotels in the area, but none within walking distance of town, like SIRH is. Besides the hotel, there is a pool folks can swim in, even if they’re not guests, for $10 bze per person; restaurant; bar; and next door, a casino and club.

Several of the women commented it was their first visit to the resort, some of who have lived in Belize quite a while. I found this surprising, since it’s the best place to get a filet mignon at their Running W Restaurant (maybe they’re vegetarian??). The place is pricey, so maybe that’s another reason too – although they had a hamburger for $8 bze ($4 usd) and sandwiches for $12 bze ($6 usd), so price shouldn’t stop you from visiting, since it is a really pretty spot.

One of my clients, who I hardly ever get to see, showed up, along with one of my snowbird forum friends. We had a great time chatting and catching up. There were a couple of new gals too. One lady, named Susan, announced her husband and her have a new Eastern Chinese medicine and chiropractic business they just opened up in Santa Elena, our sister town.

I’m very excited to hear about this, since when I moved away from the island of Ambergris Caye, I left behind my chiropractor and have yet to find anyone reputable to take his place. The unique part about them is they do two person (or four hand) adjustments – sounds heavenly – for $75 bze ($37.50 usd). Now that’s equivalent to what I paid in the States, however I understand their adjustments are 30-45 minutes long (in the States, they were usually 15), and it is two people, so the price is probably pretty fair. I know I’ll probably try them.

After my lunch of steak salad and two glasses of sauvignon blanc (yum!), I went home to get some office work done, while Nige checked in new guests at the Kumquat Cottage.  Another busy day, but made more fun by a little social time.

Do you tend to shy away from the pricey-er restaurants, or do you treat yourself once in a while?

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 There was a very interesting discussion on a forum I belong to yesterday, whereby the concept of what we consider to be an “Expatriate” – or “Expat” as they are called for short – is.

By definition, an Expatriate is someone who is temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing.  The word happens to come from the Latin terms ex (“out of”) and patria (“country, fatherland”).

The jist of the conversation was that basically, in Belize, we tend to associate the term with people from the U.S. and Canada, as well as Europe and Asia.  But the population of Belize is made up of a lot of different types of Expats. This according to the 2010 Belize Census:

Guatemala 18,876

El Salvador 7,067

Honduras 6,904

Mexico 2,821

Jamaica 397

China 1,567

Other 4,651

TOTAL 42,283

USA 3,279

Canada 664

TOTAL:  3,943

The list is broken out to show just how small of a number of people actually come here from North America, which I find surprises many people when they realize that. In a country with a population of a little under 345,000, North American expats represent an underwhelming segment (about 1%).  I’m assuming that the “Other” category is where the majority of the Europeans are represented, although I have no idea why they didn’t earn their own category.

In any case, I thought the list in and of itself was very interesting, and I realized that I have never actually considered the Guatemalans, El Salvadorans, Hondurans or Mexicans as Expats. Perhaps it’s because they either share borders with Belize or are located in Central America already, but it was a telling acknowledgement on my part.

So when you hear the word expat, what comes to your mind? Did you find some surprises on this list?

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My pedicure place in San Ignacio Town, on the Benque Road.

Yesterday I took a little time out to pamper myself.  After the three hour river day on Saturday, my feet were a mess! Definitely time for a pedicure.  My normal gal, Jane, still has not found a permanent place to open her own shop, so I visited her friend’s shop again.

While there, I took some time to read a book that has been taking me forever to finish.  I absolutely love to read, but normally the best time for me to do so is at the end of the day. However, by then, I’m usually exhausted, and since reading makes me tired, I usually opt to watch TV instead. But I seriously need to find a way to fit more quality reading time in, because I do miss it.

After my “me” time, Nige and I met up with our contractor and headed over to the Kumquat Cottage.  We are going to be installing a fan in the living room to help improve the circulation during these hot months. I’m sure the guests will appreciate that. It’s funny, because most guests don’t have a problem with the humidity in Belize, especially when they come during our hottest months, since they expect it.

But every once in a while we get someone from the West Coast who just cannot take it, being as they’re not used to humidity at all. Obviously, being from California, I can appreciate this fact, so that’s why I decided to try a ceiling fan instead of just the two standing fans we already provide. If that doesn’t work, they can retreat to the air conditioned bedroom, or take a cold bath, lol! 

We headed to Spanish Lookout to buy the fan at Universal Hardware. We found an incredible deal – a 56” Industrial Antique Brass fan for only $164 bze ($82 usd). Keep in mind that the other fans were starting at $250 bze, so we were psyched to get this deal. The best part is that it looks industrial, which will fit in perfectly with the existing light fixtures and motif there currently. And it comes with a wall mounted switch to control the fan speed, which is very fortunate, since those ceilings are high and guests could not reach up that far to pull a chain, which is the way most fans control the speed.

While in Spanish Lookout, since it was another hot day, far be it from us to pass up a Western Dairy Swirl Cone (you may recall we had one last week – I think Nige has created a monster)!

What do you do to stay cool in the heat?

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When you first arrive in Belize, you will learn about this Belizean delicacy.  Gibnut, for those of you who don’t know, is “rat!” You got it, they eat rat here. Now, I’m no vegetarian, as most of you who loyally read my blog know, but the whole idea of eating something that trolls sewers back in the States, where I came from, was exceedingly repulsive to me.

So when I arrived at Erva’s Restaurant yesterday and saw the special sign declaring they were serving this dish, immediately I knew the challenge was on. You see, lots of my friends, family, and especially Nige, have been giving me a hard time for not eating it yet.

Gibnut has quite a history here in Belize. Apparently, on Queen Elizabeth’s II first visit to Belize, back when it was still British Honduras, she ate Gibnut, unaware of what kind of animal it was. Ever since then, Gibnut has been anecdotally referred to as the “Royal Rat!”  So, if it was good enough for the Queen, I supposed I can try it too.

I will say I might not have if it hadn’t been for the wonderful savory smells coming out of the kitchen.  And when I received my plate, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.  The meat was cooked perfectly, seasoned to perfection, and had a small amount of a very tasty gravy. 

Honestly, it kind of reminded me a bit of pork. The biggest difference I noticed while eating it was the bones – they were quite small – and that was a tad disconcerting, but I tried to overlook it and focus on the taste.

So, now I can proudly say I have conquered my fear and eaten Gibnut. Next up, Cow Foot Soup!

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Pop's Restaurant on West Street in San Ignacio Town

Had a really great Mother’s Day Weekend – I hope you did too.  Saturday I somehow managed to work until about 11 a.m. without eating a thing, so Nige and I were both starving. We decided to head to town and have brunch at our favorite breakfast joint, Pops.  For $12 bze ($6 usd), I got a vegetarian omelet, fruit, beans, and fry jacks.

We had a leisurely meal, in no rush at all. Afterwards, we headed to the market to get my weekly supply of yogurt and my bi-weekly supply of fruits and veggies. I eye-spied some pias (avocados) in my normal stall and got so excited, because they’ve been out of season. So glad they’re back! Unlike the States where you can get most anything year around, fruits and vegetables have seasons here.

Afterwards we headed home and brought along Nige’s step-dad. He is playing bachelor this weekend, as Nige’s mom went to San Pedro to visit Nige’s two brothers for Mother’s Day weekend. So that he wouldn’t starve, we’ve taken him under our wing all weekend, ha-ha. In order to reciprocate, he did some mechanical work that needed to be done on Nige’s truck.

San Ignacio Town produce market-Saturday's are usually busy!

Once that was done, we were all dying of heat, so we headed down to the river. We literally sat in it for almost three hours-swimming, talking, and drinking rum, of course! The water was the perfect temperature, and it sure beat sitting outside sweating to death. After that we had a small barbeque and called it a night.

Sunday morning we woke up to pouring rain! Exicted, because normally that will cool things down, our happiness was short-lived when we went outside, because it was still quite hot and muggy, even early in the day. Oh well, I guess more river days are in my immediate future.

That morning I also called my step-daughter and grandsons, so I could wish her a Happy Mother’s Day.  When I call back to the States, I use BTL’s “1010199” long distance code. It cuts my costs to about $.25 bze a minute.  It’s worth every dime to me so I can stay in touch with them.

Since Nige’s mom wasn’t home, and there were no Mom Day celebrations that we knew of, we just stayed in and had a relaxing day of doing almost nothing.

Did you do anything fun and exciting for Mother’s Day?

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I wish I had some really exciting news to report to you, but frankly, it has been pretty slow around these here parts lately. Typically, May to October is considered “off season” in Belize. This is due in large part to two main factors:

First, it is hotter than a June bug this time of year, and lots of tourists don’t care for it quite that hot.  We are on Day 13 of 90 degree or more temps, with the humidity about the same.  Even native Belizeans are complaining about the weather, lol! I’m sure once winter starts, we’ll all be complaining how we’d like it to warm up again too (that’s human nature).

But the heat does take a toll on you, making you want to rest more and, frankly, be a bit more lazy.  I don’t mind it being slow though. I kind of like the six months on, six months off way of doing business. It’s nice to have a break. But there are some days that I get bored and wish we had more to do.  

Lucky for us we do have income flowing in from our management properties every month, and there are still tourists here staying in our vacation rentals. But I do feel sorry for some of the businesses whose income drops significantly, because they are totally dependent on tourism. That’s why I always advise my clients that if you are going to start a business, start one that caters to both the locals and the tourists.

The second reason that it is considered the off season is because “technically,” hurricane season starts in June. However, as most of us locals know, the real rains and storms don’t start until much later in the year – around October or November, so that shouldn’t scare anyone off. If you’re really afraid of storms, then just come to the Cayo area where I live and avoid them all together. Except for some winds and a very remote possibility of one of the rivers flooding, we are generally unaffected by the storms (in fact, this is where they send people to shelter).

Friday we went back and visited the Executive Restaurant and Bar. It had opened in December, and then closed about three months later. It’s now open under different management. I sure hope they make it, since the views are incredible. The food is pretty darn good too – here’s a picture of Nige’s Coconut Shrimp.

This weekend we’ll be taking it easy. The circus is in town, but I’m not sure we’ll go – those tents will probably be way too hot for me!

Are you afraid to travel during hurricane season?

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Yesterday’s blog was pretty heavy, topic wise, so I thought I’d lighten the mood up today with some upsides of Living in Belize:

1. You can order a meal without using a Spanish dictionary
2. No ATM fees
3. You can drive on the right side of the road
4. You can rent a house for three digits
5. You can still watch Survivor and American Idol if you want to
6. You never have to wear long johns or mittens again
7. You will use an umbrella in the Summer more than in the Winter
8. You never have to stare at a grocery store shelf choosing between 15 different brands of the same product
9. You can trade in plastic looking fruits and vegetables for slightly bruised and pesticide free ones
10. You can have your gas pumped for you without paying extra for the service
11. You can stand anywhere on the highway and have a bus pick you up
12. You can get an hour massage for $30 USD
13. You never have to water your lawn again
14. Doctors take your vitals and Dentists actually clean your teeth
15. Interracial is not a word here
16. You won’t come back from lunch with ten voice mails waiting
17. You won’t see the golden arches every ten miles
18. Highway Patrols will not be lurking in the bushes  with their radar
19. You will never pay more than 6% of your gross revenues for business taxes
20. Children are not the boss
21. Home insurance is optional
22. Boats are a common form of transportation
23. The post office workers will know you by name
24. Instead of a garage you have a dock
25. You can wake up with birds as your alarm clock

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Yesterday I received a comment on my blog:

“Just started following your blog. We plan on relocating to Central America in 2 years and have been researching Ecuador, Panama and Belize. Your most recent blogs have almost convinced me to strike Belize off the list. It strikes me as being a very expensive place to live. Restaurants with no air cond, $5.75 gasoline, no mail delivery, poor road conditions, computer destroying humidity, crime. Other than the natural beauty I wonder what exactly is the upside of living there? There must me some but so far I am having a hard time finding it. Even the cost of real estate appears to be high.”

When I began to reply to the commenter, I realized I had far more to say than would reasonably fit in a comment box. And it occurred to me that perhaps others are having some of the same thoughts and concerns as this reader. So I’m responding via this blog.

First of all, I remember being in the Research Phase of looking for another country to relocate to and only seeing the negatives – it’s human nature. But it does kind of bum me out that someone reading my blog would see more negatives than positives about Belize, since I absolutely love living here (otherwise I would have moved on by now), and I think I do a pretty good job conveying that.

I also think it is important to point out, because some people lose sight of this, that this is Sharon Hiebing’s blog about “HER” daily life in the San Ignacio, Cayo District of Belize.  If you and your next door neighbor blogged about your daily life no matter where in the world where you lived, you would each have very different stories and experiences to share. And, if you and someone in a different town or state blogged, they’d be even different yet. 

So keep in mind that I live in one of the six districts of Belize (each one being very unique), and what I blog about are my experiences only. Having said that, the tag line at the top of my blog is “Relocate Without Rose-Colored Glasses.” I don’t pull any punches in my blog, because I want people to have a realistic idea of what it is like to live here. If it’s not for them, then they shouldn’t move here, because frankly none of us in Belize want to hear a bunch of expats moaning and groaning about how unhappy and miserable they are.

I also often wonder why people want to move to a foreign country and then impose their homeland’s standards on it. Some people call Belize a third world country; some a developing country. Whatever you call it, you must keep that fact in mind when researching living here.  In regards to some of the commenter’s observations, here are my responses:

• Most restaurants can’t afford installing a/c units, let alone the monthly bill that goes along with running it. And most restaurants are outdoor eating anyways. If you’re that dependent on a/c, you may want to consider a cooler climate.
•  Yes, gasoline is expensive here, but there’s plenty of countries where it is even more expensive. If you live on the island, you don’t care anyways since you probably drive a golf cart that uses $10 usd a week. Or, in almost any town or village in Belize, you can ride a bike, walk, or use the extensive bus system (which is cheap-$3.50 USD to travel 90 miles).
• Who needs mail delivery? Definitely not something I miss – getting all that junk mail every day. And I love the quaintness of showing up to the post office and having the employee know me by name and have my mail ready before I even reach the counter.  I moved to another country for these small town experiences. With my virtual mailbox, I rarely get mail in Belize anyway, and all utility bills are delivered to my gate.
• I’ve always said the roads in Belize are great! All the major highways and town/village roads are paved-getting around is quite easy. The neighborhoods aren’t paved, but that certainly isn’t anything that is a huge bother – you just get used to it. 
• One of my blog commenters tried to say that humidity kills computers, but that hasn’t been my experience. I know some who live close to the water say the salt air damages computers, but that can be true anywhere, so don’t live by the ocean if it concerns you (or keep your laptop in the refrigerator).
•  In regards to crime, I’m from Oakland, CA.  I would feel perfectly safe walking down the street at night in Cayo by myself, and I also felt safe in San Pedro doing the same. Can’t say that about my former hometown. Crime exists in Belize, as it does everywhere in the world. Here it is more of a function of a population with high poverty and unemployment rates. So we install burglar bars and get dogs.  I’d like to know of any country in the world that is crime free.
• Lastly, in regards to real estate prices, I too believe it is high, which is why I don’t plan on buying any here (unless I find a great deal). I really don’t see the need to, when I can rent a gorgeous 4 bed/3 bath home on the river for $500 USD. Then that way, if I want to pick up and move again one day in the future, I can, without waiting a year or two (or longer) for my house to sell. I’ve never understood why people are in such a rush to buy real estate in a foreign country without living there for a while first, anyways.

I hope I’ve answered all of this commenter’s questions. The final thing I want to say though is to go back and read through my blogs. There are so many things I love about Belize – you’re just haven’t been looking for them. It’s not my job to convince you to move to Belize, only my desire to make sure if you do, you have a realistic view of it. And if Panama and Ecuador are better choices for you, then I wish you all the happiness in the world. To each their own as they say!

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Yesterday, we had a ton of errands to run in Eastern Cayo (Belmopan and Spanish Lookout). Whenever possible, we try to “save up” our errands there in order to conserve gas, which is at a whopping $11.99 bze ($5.99 USD) a gallon now in San Ignacio.

Our first stop was at the house of the landlord of our new San Pedro, Belize rental house.  We needed her signatures on some documents, and since she lives in Unitedville, which is right on the way to Belmopan, we stopped and left the paperwork in her gate (most houses don’t have mailboxes, since there is no mail delivery in Belize).

After that, we headed to lunch first, since we got a late start and almost nothing is open between noon to 1 p.m. anyways.  It was blistering hot again yesterday, so I wanted to go somewhere with a/c.  There’s not many restaurants that fit that bill, but there is a very good Chinese restaurant right as you enter into Belmopan called Yim Saan that has three a/c units, so we choose there. Yes, Dr. Al, I do take your advice sometimes and take advantage of a/c when I can. 

After lunch, we headed to the Belmopan post office. Not because we had to mail a letter, but because the buyer of our bus works there. It seems when he went to register the bus with the Traffic Department, they told him he needed the original custom’s paperwork. Honestly, I didn’t even realize the form we got after paying duty on the bus at the Mexico border had a back page. And on that back page was a computer printed receipt, with date, time, and payment. So we brought him the original and he is all set! Good to know.

Next we went to do some price shopping on laptops. We need to get a new one, but it’s not an emergency.  Since I know I can get a pretty decent laptop in the States for about $350 USD, I was curious if I could even get close to that price here. Not a chance! The cheapest laptop I found was an Acer Mini, 1GB Ram, 320 GB Hard Drive, with Windows Starter (whatever that is) for $865 bze ($432.50 USD). Yikes! For a mini computer? They went all the way up to $1425 bze from there. 

So if any of you are coming to Belize anytime soon and want to be my shipping mule, let me know! After that, we headed to Spanish Lookout. On the way there, we stopped for fuel. It seems in Belmopan you can get regular gas for $11.28 bze – $.71 cheaper than San Ignacio! Makes sense, since travelling through the Cayo hills to San Ignacio does add to the cost, I’m sure.

In Spanish Lookout, we made a quick stop at my health food store, of course.  Then we bought some replacement water filters for the house. And over to Westrac to get some rear view mirror glue, since the Tracker’s mirror fell off, and I don’t want to risk driving into another ditch! 

Since Nige can’t stand to go to Spanish Lookout without stopping at Western Dairy, we made a stop there so he could pick up some ice cream. Now, I’m not generally a sweets person. I like a little something sweet after dinner, and that’s about it. But it was over 90 degrees, and I kept seeing all these people walking out with wonderful swirl ice cream cones. So we broke down and had one, and it was the tastiest thing I think I’ve had in quite a while.

On the way home, we stopped by our Unitedville landlord, picked up the signed paperwork she had left stuck in the gate, got home and took cold showers. What a day!

Does anyone know where I can get a good deal on an Acer computer online?

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Yesterday we wanted to get to the bank as soon as possible to deposit the money we’d received for the bus sale. Having $16,000 bze hanging around our house was exceedingly nerve wracking. Normally, we never have cash at the house.  We pay all employees and vendors by check, and if we do receive rent payments in cash (which is rare, because we ask all of our tenants to go deposit their rent in our bank account and/or pay by credit card), we get to the bank immediately.

But since the bus sold on a Saturday afternoon, we had no choice but to wait until Monday morning. Of course the vivid imagination I have after watching years of Law & Order had me imagining some unsavory person noticing the bus was gone, putting two and two together, and coming over here and trying to rob us.  Lucky for us, our house is a fortress now, with burglar bars on all doors and windows (when we moved in there were two doors downstairs that didn’t have them, and we insisted the landlord install them).

But nothing bad happened, and we arrived at the bank safely with our money, happy to turn it over and deposit it.  I remember back in ’99 when I was in real estate, I used to hear from mortgage brokers that many Hispanics couldn’t qualify for a home loan because they didn’t trust banks, and instead would keep their money at home – they called it “mattress money.” Personally, that would freak me out. 

After a quick run to send a letter by registered mail, which is just like the States version of Certified Mail and costs $2.25 bze ($1.12 usd), we were starving, since the bank line had been horribly long and took forever. We hadn’t been to Han-nah’s in a while, so we decided to go there. Even though it was Boil Up Day (that’s like a pigtail and dumpling stew), Nige had Lamb Curry and I had a Lamb & Brie Salad.

I’ve had this salad before, but it must have been a different cook, because she served the brie with the skin on. I understand some people like to each the skin, but I think it is gross. So I had to painstakingly cut it all off, which wasn’t easy, since there was a lot of small pieces, and they were all soft from the heat, making it harder to control them. I will have to remember to ask them next time to do that for me. 

After a relaxed lunch, we headed home, where I did a little more office work.  One thing I had to work on was an “Application Letter” for Nige’s step-dad, who is applying for work at a major resort. They require him to bring one of these. After trying to understand exactly what it was they needed me to type, I realized that basically what they want is the States version of a Resume and Cover Letter combined.  It wasn’t easy getting out of them what they needed though, since they couldn’t understand what I was confused about, lol!

After our 8^th day in a row of 90 degree plus heat, I was exhausted and called it quits before 4:00 p.m. We are praying for some rain soon to cool things off.

Does having large amounts of money in your possession make you nervous?

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