I just returned from Belize, most of our 10 days were spent on Ambergris Caye but we did take the ferry to the mainland to look around for a few hours.
My boyfriend is moving to AC to start a business with his partner, I'm coming along to be with him and live an island life. I had already decided to take several years off, so I don't have the same issues that other people might have with getting a job or starting a business. Here are my issues/thoughts:
-- Do I buy or rent? Or, are there house-sitting opportunities that would not be stealing a job from a belizian? I own property in southern CA in the US, so I don't have an urgent need to own my residence. On the other hand, I'd like to have a modern home/condo with room for friends and family to come stay with us, which is expensive to rent. It *sounds* like a good deal to buy the 2-unit condos so we can live in one and rent the other one weekly when our friends aren't there, but I'm concerned about all the details. Would I end up losing more money than we'd spend if we rented? How tough will it be to sell when I want to do that? Or, can I find people who have a second home and need someone to live in it? We could move to a hotel or stay with our friends when the owners are using it.
-- As a woman, what am I in for? Will I be judged for living with a man I'm not married to? What kind of OB/GYN services are available? Is my method of birth control used/understood there, and what if I get pregnant? Infant and maternal mortality rates seem very high, but stats can be confusing and/or misleading.
-- What am I going to do every day? I love the ocean and reading, and I'm not a hyperactive person, so I'll do better than most people would. But, this is still a concern. The lack of a bookstore is a bit of a problem, but I know some engineers at amazon.com so I'll be supporting them quite a bit. Opening a bookstore is tempting, but it sounds like a retail business is overly risky. I could definitely volunteer, but I am empathetic to a fault and am a little worried that I would have trouble distancing myself in such a small town environment.
-- What is it going to be like living in such a small town? I grew up in a sleepy beach town in southern CA, but not *this* sleepy. I'm a private sort of person, but friendly. I wonder how I will do as an outsider in a small town.
-- Do I have to have a boat to be happy? My island zen comes from floating in a warm ocean, and most of the beaches aren't good for swimming. Either the water is only up to my knees, or there are too many boats, or too much grass, or all of those things. My friend told me that the water gets deeper a little ways south of town, so maybe we'll end up living at that end. Or, get a little boat to head out to the reef when I want to. My boyfriend is a diver, so this doesn't bother him at all.
There are probably a million other things. Hopefully something here was interesting to you.