In the late 1980's my husband Bill and I bought a used R.V., packed it with everything we felt we couldn't live without and  moved from our home in Hollywood California to Belize, Central America. Why? Well after spending a month traveling around Belize Bill was  eager to take a very early retirement and  trade the high stress life of a television news director for a couple of coconut trees and a hammock and I was eager to trade smog and traffic for blue skies and a bicycle. That was over ten years ago and we have no regrets.

There is one day that stands out in my mind. It was a few weeks after we had moved to Belize and even though it was late October the sun and water were absolutley beautiful as we went for our late afternoon swim that day. We were renting a really nice 3-bedroom house that was just steps away from a shimmering Caribbean Bay for $150 a month. The water was so clear and warm it was hard for me to believe it was the ocean.

I realized that we could have never lived like this back home in California, that was for millionaires, not working stiffs like us! I remember figuring out the amount of money we were living on and realizing that it was about what most people get from Social Security.

I said to Bill  "Why don't more people come down here and live like we are, instead of staying in the U.S.? "I'll never forget what he said " Maybe they don't know they can" Soon after that day I sent a 10 page photo-copied letter home to family and friends telling about our new life in Belize. Evidentally it got passed around quite a bit.

I hadn't thought of what we had done as being so terribly complicated. We found out about a beautiful place that was warm all the time, had a low cost of living, was English speaking and was close enough to the U.S. to drive to. We took a trip there. liked what we saw and moved, what was the big deal? It wasn't as if it were a big secret, after all " 60 Minutes" had even  done a segment on Belize,  anyone could have found out about it.

We realized that deep down most people  really want what we have in Belize. A simple, quiet life in a warm, beautiful place. At first I was answering all of those letters by hand. It was around then that Bill suggested we write a book on living in Belize.

Well, four editions, and over 20,000 copies later, I've had to eat my words many times over.The continued popularity of our "Belize Retirement Guide: How to Live in a Tropical Paradise on $450 a Month" shows us that countless numbers of people continue to be very interested in Belize and not just for retirement. We see younger telecommuters, entrepenuers as well as snow birds and freedom seekers all very attracted to Belize.

What does Belize have to attract such a variety of people? Really, a lot. To mention just two, accessability and good communication:

Well first of all Belize isn't that far away from the U.S./Canada. It's 1,350 miles down the east coast of Mexico from Brownsville Texas to the border of Belize. You can drive that in about 24 hours, 3 days we suggest, with stops in beautiful coastal cities of Mexico like Tampico and Veracruz, comfortable inexpensive hotels available, not to mention some memorable seafood.

Belize is also quite up to date in the telecommunications field. Belize has a state of the art fiber-optic telephone system, sort of a going away present from the Queen of Englnd, when Belize got her independence. Although more expensive than in North America, Belize does offer full accessability to the Internet, at $20 U.S. a month for the first 10 hours and $2 an hour thereafter.
Couple that with the fact that Belize has the best postal service in the region, with mail coming and going every day by air to and from Miami, and you can see that Belize is way ahead of the pack in Central America.