Test-Driving Expat Life In Belize

After 32 years of marriage and four children, my husband and I were retiring to Belize in six weeks…

Being married 32 years and raising four children results in a lot of stuff. What were we going to do with all of it? Our plan was to move to Belize for a year, to try out the idea, so we decided we’d take six of everything with us. The rest we’d put in storage.

I packed six plates, six forks, six spoons, six tank tops, six pairs of shoes, six, six, six, because I thought that’d be enough for a year.

Then we showed up and unpacked our six of this and six of that. Now what?

Facing New Challenges In Belize

Our first two challenges in Belize were food and relationships.

Food In Belize

How do you go about finding food in this country?

Don’t laugh. It’s not all that easy.

You start with the Chinese grocery stores. All the grocery stores in San Ignacio and Santa Elena, the “twin cities” of Cayo, are owned by Chinese. They stock basic supplies and also some imported goods.

What’s imported from the States costs about twice what it does back home. We keep our costs down by buying either local packaged goods, or from Mexico.

For produce, you go to the open-air market. Find a vendor you like and get to know them—ask their name. We’ve gotten to know a very nice lady who gives us good deals, teaches us about Belizean fruits and vegetables, and shows us how to prepare and eat some food we had never seen before.

Insider tip: If you see something in Belize that you want, buy it. It may not be there the next week. I learned that the hard way.

Shopping for food here is similar to shopping for food in Europe. You go to meat stores to buy your meat, you go to a bakery to buy your baked goods. It’s all fresh. The cattle you see grazing in the fields… that’s the beef you’re buying in the meat shop.

Back in the States, I didn’t cook much. Here, I realized quickly, I had no choice. I went online for recipes, started cooking, and realized cooking is something I actually enjoy.

I’ve also discovered that I like to wash dishes. It’s hard to find dishwashers here. If you build your own home, you can import one to install in your kitchen, but rentals aren’t going to have them.

Belize doesn’t have fast-food restaurants. I like that. Belize does have fast food, though. It’s called beans and rice or rice and beans, and they’re not the same thing. Beans and rice are mixed together; rice and beans are separate. Try it either way with “stew chicken,” as Belizeans call it. It’s great.

Personal Relationships

The other big thing we had to figure out when we got here was maintaining and creating relationships. My family… our kids… everyone thought we were crazy for doing this. “You’re going where and why?” they wanted to know. Staying connected with friends and family in the States who didn’t understand what we were doing was the first challenge we faced.

The second challenge was meeting new people.

This part turned out to be easier to navigate. I thought I had a lot of friends in the States, but we have many more friends in Belize—and all different kinds of friends. Not just people like us, in our age group, in our church, or at our gym. I’m talking diverse ages, ethnicities, and mental health (no kidding!).

When I moved to Belize, I decided I was going to be outgoing. Being shy when making a move like this is just not an option. As soon as we arrived, we started going to every expat event we could find.

Once a week, we shoot darts. My husband had never played darts in his life, but in San Ignacio there’s an open-air bar with New Jersey-style pizza. A couple of people from New Jersey make the pizza and provide free beer. You can’t beat it.

We also go country line-dancing.

We go to potluck lunches and dinners.

All of these activities are done with different groups of people. In other words, there are a lot of expats living in Cayo.

We’ve found a church here that we like. It’s in Spanish Lookout, which is where the Mennonites live. So when we go to church in Spanish Lookout, we’re hanging out with the Mennonites.

We’ve gotten to know so many people here, and these relationships are taking the place of what I used to distract myself with. We used to go to the movies or watch TV. We don’t do those things here.

Winter in northern Idaho, where we’re from, is cold. For seven or eight months out of the year, people cocoon in their houses because it’s freezing. Everyone is isolated for much of the year. Here it is beautiful year-round, and everyone is outside all the time.

Other Things You Might Encounter In Sunny Belize

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and flowers. Some challenges are ongoing. In the area where we live, the internet is beyond slow. In other areas of the Country, the internet is better—not super-fast, but a whole lot faster than what we’ve got. It depends where you choose to live.

Electricity and gas are expensive. On the other hand, a lot of other things are cheaper here than they would be in the States. A big example is medical care.

We have paid half or less than we would have paid in the United States for different kinds of care. David has even had surgery here, which was both successful and affordable.

So at the end of our trial year… what did we decide?

We’re staying put. We have no intentions of returning to the States. We love it here.

I came to Belize with the idea that I would suffer through a year for my husband. It was his dream, so I agreed to give it a try. Now it’s my dream come true… a dream I didn’t even know I had.

My first year in Belize taught me that I can do anything I want. Before moving here I didn’t feel that way. A year ago, I felt my life was over. I was quitting a job that I loved to sit at home. Belize has changed everything…

Here in Belize I’ve made new friends who are just as close to me as family.

Belize has given me a second chance… a whole new life.

Cathy Thayer
Contributor, In Focus: Belize