Courtney and I dvr’ed the House Hunters International- Belize show that aired on August 3rd. We are finally getting a chance to sit down and watch it. Here’s how it pans out:

A couple is moving from Texas to Belize and looking for a place to live before the real estate prices start to sky rocket. Belize is slowly becoming more and more popular and with that comes more people wanting to purchase real estate down there (*dreams*).

The first house they checkout is across the bay from San Pedro and sits on it’s own private beach. It is a large 6600 square foot, 4 bedroom, 4 bath house with identically sized and furnished bedrooms, incredibly crafted Belizean hardwoods in the kitchen and a great rooftop deck. This house is listed for 1.5 million dollars. It has a separate guest suite with it’s own kitchen on a seperate floor of the house. You are completely separated from the first floor to the second floor.

House two. Ambergris Caye. 3 bedrooms 3.5 bath and a pool. First home in the development. 8000 square feet 1.5 million. Contemporary. Travertine tile throughout whole house. Pool has a built in spa. Off of the kitchen is the master suite. There’s a glass hallway that goes along the top that overlooks the bedroom. Not to keen on that idea. Lots of decks. Very, very straight lined, open floor space and contemporary. No doors in the whole place. Every room runs into the other, even bedrooms and bathrooms.

House Three is known as the colorful oasis. A fully furnished 4 bedroom, 4 bath place. $1,475,000. Farther from town the the others. On site common pool. 2nd story main floor living. Private screened in decks with banana hammocks. Absolutely beautiful master bathroom.

They end up picking house two. Because of the wide open floor plan and the pool. This was my least favorite of the places because of how clean cut/contemporary it was. How could anyone live in a place like that and not be scared to actually live in it?

Either way, every one was beautiful because it was in Belize. Let alone, Ambergris Caye. You can’t go wrong purchasing or winning a raffle of real estate or property down there.

I never knew about traveler’s insurance until I had a family member that couldn’t attend a trip he had planned due to an illness. This illness left him unable to work out the details of trying to get the trip reimbursed and I was put on duty to figure that out.

This person was smart- he had invested in some traveler’s insurance with his trip. Because he had, all the funds for the flight and hotels were reimbursed by the travel insurance company.

There are many obstacles one could come across while traveling that could ruin the experience of a vacation or trip. Obstacles such as:

• You have a connecting flight where the second flight was cancelled. How do you and your travel companions get home? Simple, call up your travel insurance company and they will arrange new flights and pay for it.
• You’re involved in some sort of accident where there is not adequete medical assistance available (jungles, blue hole, etc) The travel insurance company will arrange for air assistance and pay for it to transport you to a hospital.
• Your passport and wallet are stolen. Your insurance company will help with emergency cash and help you get your passport replaced.
• Your bag with your insulin is stolen. Your travel insurance company will help locate your bag ASAP and help fill your emergency prescription.
• A family member becomes seriously sick, or even you do- and you just cannot make the trip. The insurance company will cover the costs of the trip that you paid.
• You are forced to evacuate due to a hurricane (it will be hurricane season in September when we go!). The insurance company will reimburse the lost vacation investment.
• Your luggage is lost, stolen or delayed. Your insurance company will help pay for the necessities to hold you over and/or cover the stolen/lost items value.
• You’re hiking through the jungle and you twist your ankle. The insurance company will help you find an English speaking physician.
• A week before you go to Belize, a hurricane wipes out all of Belize (let’s REALLY hope that never happens!) the insurance company will cover the cancelled trip expenses.

That being said, I am following in his footsteps and looking into traveler’s insurance. There are plenty of scenarios that can happen in Belize and it’s smart to be prepared ahead of time. If nothing happens to us, great! But we wouldn’t want to have an incident happen and have the trip cost us more than we expected.

After digging in deep, Courtney and I have decided to purchase traveler’s insurance through Travel Guard. They offer the best rates that we could find and seem to be the easiest to work with. I am happy knowing they will be backing our trip and I believe they will do anything they can to protect us in emergencies.

I joined this group on Linkedin.com called "LinkBelize." I joined it thinking it might be nice to network with other professionals who are involved/share similar interests in Belize. Yesterday I popped onto the group page and saw a discussion that involved a lot being raffled on the island of Ambergris Caye. This immediately caught my eye as I have been investigating real estate and property in Belize as well. I’ve been browsing property and real estate just to have a general idea on what it may cost- if for some reason one day I decide I want to purchase something down there *dreams*. I would love to have a place for family and friends to go visit for vacation and be able to stay for free. A place that could be cheap to fly to but in another country to offer the exotic adventures and for cultural experiences. So yes, this discussion caught my eye.

The raffle tickets for this lot are going for $10BZ a ticket. That is only $5 USD a raffle ticket. Could you imagine winning a lot on the Ambergris Caye for a mere $5? The lot of land is 60ft by 80 ft deep and is located 2 miles south of San Pedro. It is situated in the New Marina Area. The lot of land can be used commercially or residential. All government taxes and title transfer fees are covered- although if you live outside Belize you do have to pay some extra fees. But a lot that is worth $95,000 BZ would be worth the extra fees you may have to pay plus the $5 raffle ticket. Plus, the best part about this raffle is that 50% of the proceeds benefit a local school: Holy Cross Angelican School. There are approximately 8,000 raffle tickets of the 9,500 left. All I can say is, why not?

So check out the lot and go purchase some raffle tickets! If you end up winning the lot and found out through our website about this raffle- please drop us a note and let us know! We’d be extremely happy to hear that we helped a good cause and that you are a winner of a GREAT lot on the Ambergris Caye and also might want to come camp out a night there!

I have been extremely busy over the past week and half and have not had a chance to work much on posting or the website as much as I would like to.

Last Thursday morning on the way to work I got in a three car accident. It was about 8:00 a.m. on a rainy morning. I was merging onto a highway here in MA, 90 West. I looked over my left shoulder to make sure no one was in my blind spot as I was merging on the on ramp and as I turn to look back in front of me the lady in front of me had stopped randomly (when she should be picking up speed to merge). I hit the breaks immediately but due to the inclement weather and the lack of distance, it wasn’t enough. I hit the lady in front of me but barely caused any damage. The car behind me was picking up speed to merge and had not noticed anything going on in front of her and slammed into me, causing a sandwich effect. That impact was the one that caused more of the damage.

Anyhow, luckily no one was hurt. I drive the car around(to and from work) damaged and took it down to Newbury St and parked it there (yeah, this busted up car I parked on Newbury St. If you’re not familiar with Newburry St. it’s the ritzy shopping area(st.) in downtown Boston. The street is typically lined with BMW’s and Porches and Lexus’s and such. After driving the car around for two days I turned it into the collision center being told it should be ready for me in a week and a half. I grab a rental car and I am on my way.

Two days later I receive a call from my insurance company. On the voicemail they let me know that my car has been deemed a total loss. This is devastating to me. First off, I am upset because that car holds so many memories for me. It was the car I wanted all through high school. It was the car that I learned how to drive manual transmission on. It was the car that I drove overnight trips in to Carolina Beach, NC in. It was the car I lugged back and forth from Philadelphia to Penn State my senior year of college. I drove plenty of friends, plenty of famous people, and more in that car. There’s just so many memories and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to it and I wasn’t ready to not continue those memories with this car. But totaling it gives me no choice but to say goodbye and move on with my life.

But this got me to thinking. What if I hadn’t been okay in that car crash? What if I had ended up in the hospital and had injuries. This is three months before the Belize trip. If that would have happened, Courtney would have been doing this trip alone. Could you imagine? I did have to dip into my funds for Belize for a down payment on a new car. Although, the insurance check should come in the mail for the difference from the car loan on the totaled car and will repay that money. But what if I didn’t have the premium insurance and the total loss wasn’t covered? What if the deductible was more than what I paid, $300? That could have completely emptied my funds for Belize putting me back at $0.

There are events in life we can’t control. But I am happy that I have been paying for the premium insurance and that this car accident didn’t really effect my life much. All in all I am out about $70 some dollars from pocket and have a used new ’06 VW Jetta that is in amazing condition and only has a whopping 18,000 miles up. My old Jetta I bought in ’06. At the time of purchase it was an ’01 and had 68,000 miles on it. The catch is that I am paying the same car payment monthly for the new car as I did my old Jetta. I think I made out like a bandit in this whole situation. Yes Sir.

Update to Hiking Shoes:

We grabbed some other gear at the North Shore Kayak shop. As we stood in the shop, sheltered from the rain, a multitude of “what-if” scenarios ran through my head. I perused the shelves and identified dozens of “vital” items we surely would need if just these particular circumstances came up; first aid kit, dry bag, rope, sea shoes, hiking boots, signal mirror, camping stove, etc. Clearly I was going overboard with my imagination. But a couple of items did appear to be necessary and worth the small investment. Ultimately, I purchased a compass and a dry box (similar to a pelican case, but made by a different brand). I figured the compass would be a small investment that would help in an emergency, and I can’t tell you how many times I have wished I had one just cruising around the streets of Boston:

“where are you?”

“On fifth street.”

“Ok, that’s North of my position. Now which way is north?!”

The GPS is a great thing to have for circumstances like this, but it isn’t always handy.

The compass is made by Silva. It’s basic, small, functional and really a necessity for that worst case scenario survival situation. The GPS won’t work in the thick jungle and may run out of batteries. Now, I don’t expect to get hopelessly lost in the jungles of Belize, but man, what a great thing to not “wish I had.” It’ll go in my ski backpack next season.

The dry box is made by harmony. It’s necessary for our cell phones, GPS and cameras. I got a midsized one that will barely fit all of these items, but I anticipate it was the better compromise between size and function. The larger case was so bulky, I’d find excuses not to use it. I tested this one out. It’ll carry two cell phones and a GPS/camera. But not all four of these items. We’ll work that challenge out later. It’s likely, I’ll not keep the GPS on me at all times or I’ll get another, smaller case to carry one cell phone. Something will work. But the dry box is awesome and so useful for scuba diving. It’ll find a happy home in my scuba gear bag all season.

These two items cost 12 and 20, respectively. Not too expensive, but, combined with Liz’s shoes, served to help us do our part for the economy for the day and increase the travel expenditures. We’ll do a cost update in a future post.