King Tides, House Shopping, and Holidays
Saturday we met with a builder we are considering for our beach home; we have identified three that we would like to interview and do our due diligence. He made arrangements for us to walk a home in the final punch stages with the homeowner, who has built three other homes (spec homes, he sold them) which tells me he is happy with the outcomes, which is a big plus!
We drove down south, almost to the barge dock, and now probably have more questions than answers...the homeowner was encouraging us to build a few homes on our lot so that our home is free, and we have some extra cash in our pockets. There is no reasonable argument for us to have +/- 2.7 acres of land, other than we don't like people :) We certainly wouldn't want to lose our big trees, and building additional structures by the water would require considerable clearing. We are both more open to the idea of subdividing the back lot, especially if we have to pay for a road to our land.
Our original plan when we purchased those parcels was to build short-term rental cabanas for income. When COVID hit, we reevaluated that plan - it would have us sinking the majority of our savings into construction, and what if another pandemic occurred..? We would have very little savings AND no cash flow. And do we want vacationers on our property year-round..? No, not really. We'd be making our own money back really, really slowly, and being off-grid, the initial investment would be considerable.
At the villa, the King Tide has rolled in - an unofficial name for exceptionally high tides. They tend to hit San Pedro in Sept/Oct, I saw them in October 2022 when I was here to furnish the villa. There is a lagoon in front of our home, beyond the tree and shrub line; as the tide rises, it pushes water over to our yard. As you can imagine, this is inconvenient. Here is a video: King Tide in San Pedro, Belize
And a photo - I took one of the fish but they are so small, they are hard to see! Yes, we have front yard fish:
Sunday we drove out to Secret Beach to pay the guys that are clearing the brush from our lot, and relax. We also drove the "back way" through West Caye to see how the roads were progressing. I was delighted to find two tractors/earth movers putting in an east-west road maybe four lots south of ours! To be working on a Sunday, the landowner must mean business. It would be considerably less expensive for us to tie into that road than to continue the one that Villa Secreta started and then abandoned.
We had dinner at Rum Dog, the former home of The Palapa Bar - we had not been there as Rum Dog as it's a bit pricey, but our meals were excellent! Nathan had a creole shrimp pasta and I had chicken piccata. I believe that was our only "splurge" meal of the week, at $75 U.S. including rum and cokes.
Their view isn't half-bad, either.
Monday with the King Tide expanding, I decided to grocery shop a day early this week, plus September 10th is a holiday here, to celebrate the Battle of St. George's Caye. In 1798, the British Baymen in Belize, alongside slaves, battled Spaniards over what became British Honduras, and now Belize. Had the Spaniards won, odds are Belize would be a Spanish-speaking country like the rest of Central America. For that reason alone, I raise a toast!
Between the tide and holiday, we weren't sure if we'd be able to get out and many restaurants and businesses are closed for the national holiday. Better to be prepared to hunker down.
I picked up these addictive snacks at the store. I don't speak Spanish, but I'm pretty confident those black hexagons up top are telling me to prepare for delicious treats, right...?
I also saw the best real estate marketing tactic to date.
Monday I officially lost week 1 of Fantasy Football to Zach, our younger son. We have been pleasantly surprised that our local cable shows many of the games for free!
Tuesday the tide had seemingly rolled out overnight! We can get out of our yard and there is just one puddle remaining in the street, but it is very passable.
I ran into town and narrowly missed getting trapped by the Parade; I paid for another month of golf cart rental ($500U.S., only because it's slow season. By November, it will double - or more.) It's a long shot, but we hold out hope that our golf cart permit application will be approved later this month.
Enjoy the rest of your week!