February 12, 2011 (San Pedro Town, Belize-- Again: Day 1)

February 12 was a Saturday, and it was my first day back in San Pedro Town to try to take care of some business before I crossed the border to Mexico for my return to the USA. The main reason I allowed a few extra days to hang out on Ambergris Caye was to check out a possible real estate deal that had come up during one of my recent bus trips in Belize. I had been reading in one of my travel books -- or possibly on the Internet- that it is not unusual for Belizians to receive a parcel of land from the government or family at a special price. Since many of the locals did not have the financial ability to develop the property, on some occasions they might sell a parcel to an outsider at a very reasonable price. I had also found that there is generally no prohibition in Belize on foreigners purchasing real estate. So on one of my bus rides I ended up sitting next to a young man who told me he had been accepted at the Cayman Islands Law School (CILS) -- which I found later is affiliated to the University of Liverpool in the UK. He even showed me his acceptance letter. I congratulated him and told him that I was a lawyer and had attended the University of Minnesota Law School in the U.S. about a million years ago. Then he proceeded to pull some other papers out of his briefcase, and he started telling me that he had worked for the government a couple years ago and that he had been given a parcel of real estate on Ambergris Caye in lieu of cash. In order to help pay his law school tuition, he was going to try to sell his parcel, which he told me had been appraised at US$25,000.00. He even showed me the appraisal, which also contained a plat drawing showing the location of the parcel and the legal description. He said that even though the lot was supposed to be worth US$25,000, he was willing to sell it for $5000 because he needed money for tuition right away. I told him that-- in my opinion -- most appraisals are just worthless pieces of paper, but that I would still be happy to check it out. I told him that if it could be verified that he had the right to sell the parcel, title was "clear" and if recent sales in the area would substantiate that the parcel was legitimately worth even US$10,000, I might be interested. He let me take a copy of the appraisal with me so I could do some "due diligence" when I got back to San Pedro.

I took my first step in checking out the parcel by stopping at the Belmopan Records Office on the way from San Ignacio and purchasing a copy of the "land register" for US$5.00. The land register verified that the subdivision of which the parcel was shown was indeed owned by the Town Council of San Pedro-- which matched the legal description on the appraisal. The young man's name was nowhere to be found in the land records, and he had never shown me a copy of a deed of any sort, so I was curious how (and why) he thought he "owned" the parcel and had the right to sell it. My second step would be to stop by the offices of the Town Council on Monday to check into the matter in greater detail. In the meantime, I had decided I would rent a bike in town and try to find the mysterious development known as the Caribbean Coves Subdivision. I didn't waste any time checking out of Martha's Hotel, and I came right back across the street and checked into the Spindrift Hotel. Even though the Spindrift cost more than twice as much as Martha's (US$55 vs. US$20.00) -- it was worth it. The rooms were not fancy but were very nice and sparkling clean. The hotel was literally next door to the offices of the San Pedro Town Council (yet another amazing coincidence), was next door to my favorite breakfast spot on San Pedro (Estel's) AND the hotel was in the same building as what was to become my favorite bar in Belize-- Wahoo's Lounge.

The Spindrift Hotel and Wahoo's Lounge: Right on the Beach in San Pedro!

I had a big breakfast right next door at Estel's to fortify myself for a wild bike ride, and then headed over to a bike rental shop about a half mile from the hotel. The bike -- which was heavy duty with big ol' fat tires -- cost US$10.00 per day to rent and reminded me of a kid's bike from my childhood. But it looked plenty durable-- which it would need to survive the crazy gravel roads characteristic of Belize. I jumped on and headed off to try to find Caribbean Coves -- the subdivision owned by the Town Council, which I had been told was located somewhere on the west side of the big San Pedro lagoon (see map below). I had also been told that the land was only accessible by water.... But I was looking for another adventure.

Ambergris Caye: Caribbean Coves Subdivision Is Somewhere on the West Side of Laguna de San Pedro