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House Hunting International Belize

May 5, 2011 By belizeblog-admin 1 Comment

The New York Times has a small article this week covering Belize Real Estate. While the article is aimed at pushing high end real estate on Ambergris Caye, it does give a sketchy snapshot of current conditions of the Belize Real Estate market – well at least from the perspective of folks in Belize involved in pushing real estate – a local lawyer and a real estate agent. An excerpt:

“Prices in Belize dropped 25 to 30 percent after the global economic crisis of 2008, said Michel Chebat, a real estate lawyer with M.H. Chebat & Company in Belize City.

“Sales to foreign buyers slowed down substantially, and it is only since the beginning of the year that the market has begun to pick up, he said. Condominium development also slowed in some areas — for instance Placencia, a peninsula toward the southern end, and the Corozal district in the north.

“There’s still many developers who are not able to sell many of the condos,” Mr. Chebat said.”

While the information is relevant it leaves out some details, such as looking for more realistically priced real estate on less congested areas. The population of Ambergris Caye is exploding and the island is already regarded as being congested and with the highest prices for real estate. Belize.com has an evergreen article covering other real estate options in its Belize Real Estate section.

The New York Times now requires paid registration, but for the benefit of readers we have found a version of the Belize article at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Filed Under: Real Estate

Summer In Belize – Time For The Beach and Swimming Pools

March 31, 2011 By belizeblog-admin 1 Comment

Belize Bikini Girls In Pool

Belize is known for exotic and beautiful women. With almost year round beautiful weather, one of the national pass times includes the beach or pool – especially in warm and dry weather in the summer months.

April is Easter month – time for vacations, trips and picnics to the cayes, rivers and pools. Belize Bikini girls appear to be everywhere at this time. Now is a great time to get your bikinis and head on down to Belize.

Although Belize City is often off the beaten path for most tourists and visitors, the surrounding areas offer many gorgeous areas to cool off in the summer – this is living in Belize. You can find several cayes (small islands) very near the coast of Belize City and this is frequented by cruise ship visitors and also overnight tourists. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Travel

Politics and the Belize Education System

March 27, 2011 By belizeblog-admin 2 Comments

The Hon. minister of education Patrick Faber flew off the handle in the Belize House of Representatives this week and actually attacked prominent journalist and U.D.P supporter Evan X Hyde for publishing an article on the Belize educational system in the Amandala newspaper.

Mr. Faber wailed on in strident indignation for almost an hour on this theme.

Slack on facts and nilly willy on details but the gentleman proclaimed all charges to be “not true”.

The article below courtesy of the Amandala well illustrates the current state of the Belize education system:

About a year or two ago, there was a little excitement on the education landscape in Belize. It appeared that the UDP Minister of Education was challenging some of the power which the Christian churches have accumulated in the Belizean system of church/state education. Former UDP Leader and Fort George area representative, Dean Lindo, was aghast, and expressed his consternation on the UDP radio station. He believed, and rightly so, that Hon. Patrick Faber was endangering the UDP’s chances of re-election by his challenges, albeit minor, to church rule in education.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics

Politics In Belize: Check Your Change

March 11, 2011 By belizeblog-admin Leave a Comment

There is an old Kriol proverb which the now Minister of Works was famous for quoting leading up to his election to office; “Don’t pay mind to the noise in the market, just check your change.” Lately, there has been a lot of noise in the market. We are in the middle of what Glenn Tillett has referred to as “the silly season.” More popularly known as convention time, it is when both Belize political parties put in place standard bearers to contest the next general elections.

In most cases, standard bearers are chosen via contested conventions where party faithful go to a poll and elect one of any number of interested candidates. In some instances, these standard bearers are predetermined and are simply endorsed. On the face of it, it would appear that the former way would be the more democratic but it is not as simple and as cut and dried as all that. The game of politics is played at a very high level and many factors come into play. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics

Belize Air Show

February 21, 2011 By belizeblog-admin Leave a Comment

Spectators view aircraft acrobatic display at Belize Air Show

The first Belize Fly and Air Show organised for the western Cayo District in Belize was very well attended by almost one thousand spectators, including Belizeans, expats, tourists and aircraft enthusiasts.

Held at the Central Farm airstrip, the Belize Air Show featured aircraft acrobatic displays, aerial speed races, and helicopter and ultralight flights and demonstrations.

The British Army which is closing down its airbase in Belize did a good and maybe its final helicopter display.

The Belize Fly In and Air Show also featured kit aircraft powered by Rotax engines and a demonstration by a local Mennonite businessman who is almost finished building his kit aircraft.

In an on-site interview the businessman admitted that he could have purchased a good used Cessna but the adventure and timed payments on the aircraft kit were more affordable.

The event was very popular as the highlight of the day heralded several skydiving displays by visiting U.S. skydivers headed by retired California fireman Rich Grimm. The group hosts an annual Boogie in Belize Tsunami skydiving event on Ambergris Caye. This year they were to perform in Western Belize as an attractive drop zone featuring mountains and wide open spaces including vast pasture land. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: belize air show

Et Tu Barrow?

February 16, 2011 By belizeblog-admin Leave a Comment

More on the Non Compos Mentis Minister of Tourism has come about from, surprise, former P.U.P. Minister of Tourism Godfrey Smith in a commentary penned this week:

News of the double firing of scions of two Belize City, UDP families from their board of director positions at the Belize Tourism Board by the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Jr., beggars political analysis.

At first, the nagging question about the termination of Deputy Chairman of the BTB, Mr. Santiago Castillo Jr, and director, Stanley Longsworth Jr., was whether the prime minister knew. When it became apparent that the PM was standing by his minister’s decision, the relevant question became: why had they been fired?

Their fall from grace defies conventional political thinking because both men are from respected, old UDP families and both were – by their accounts – merely insisting on the (supposedly) defining principle of Barrow’s administration: accountability.