Retirement in Paradise? Yes, Please! JON ESCAPES TO BELIZE FOR HIS GOLDEN YEARS
exchange, and the fact that English is the primary language. The country’s unique Qualified Retirement Program — run by the Belize Tourism Board — also sweetened the deal. “When you’re accepted into the program, you’re allowed to bring down household goods and different things within the first year — duty free!” Jon says, adding that for him and Dina, that meant a major downsizing of their belongings in Colorado. “I contacted some international shippers, and they brought me a 40- foot cargo container. I had five days to load it up.”
When Jon and his wife, Dina, started considering retirement, they zeroed in on the world’s coastlines.
After moving to Belize, Dina caught up on her reading and Jon swapped snow sports for water sports. “I’ve become a pretty avid scuba diver,” Jon says. “We also snorkel, kayak, and Jet Ski,” he says. “I chose not to have a boat because of the maintenance. It’s a beautiful world we live in, but the elements are very, very harsh. The salt air causes extreme rust and corrosion. I like to kayak, and occasionally, I go out on sailing trips with the tourists here.”
“We both wanted to have a beach on an ocean. We had been talking about it for a long time and considered the East Coast and the West Coast briefly. Then we thought about Mexico — we’d been there a couple of times. We’d visited Aruba years ago, but we wanted some place with a simpler life,” according to Jon. In 2015, they discovered just that on the island of Ambergris Caye in Belize. This Caribbean Island is truly a tropical paradise — as different as can be from their former home in the Denver area. Now Jon and Dina’s condo sits just 500 yards from the shore and the giant Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, the second longest barrier reef in the world. “It was really easy to get used to wearing shorts and flip-flops every day and not thinking about long-sleeved shirts, pants, ties, and jackets,” says Jon, who spent more than three decades working in federal law enforcement before retirement. “Our main mode of transportation is a golf cart. Occasionally, it’s really crowded when we have lots of tourists — which we haven’t had in a while because of COVID-19 — but somehow, it’s easier sitting in a golf cart traffic jam. Even the rainstorms are great here. They feel like nice cool showers,” he says.
One of the most popular tourist destinations is Shark Ray Alley, a dive spot teaming with nurse sharks and stingrays.
“The fishermen used to clean their catch there, so when the boat pulls up and turns off the motor, all of the nurse sharks come. You can jump in and swim with 10–20 sharks around you! It’s quite an experience,” says Jon. Life on Ambergris Caye isn’t entirely perfect — after more than four years there, Jon and Dina are still adjusting to some local customs, like the fact that “tomorrow” could mean the next day, the next week, or the next month — but it’s a beautiful escape from the hustle and bustle of Denver. “I didn’t have a lot of patience when I got here, but I grew it really quickly,” Jon says. “We’re living very comfortably down here on less than $2,500 U.S. a month, and we have a million-dollar view.”
It doesn’t get much better than that!
Jon and Dina chose Belize for the weather, slow and affordable living, friendly locals, island-grown food, favorable currency
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