OK, Here's The Skinny... (no offense to those of you who try to tuck your belly fat into your pants)

Here's what I expect from Belize if we go in August. I expect to see beautiful beaches, the most gorgeous turquoise water, quaint stores, and probably not very many tourists since it will be considered hurricane season.

After leaving the beach area, I expect to see the areas of poverty, maybe much like you see in Mexico. Belize is still considered a third world country. But from everything I've heard and read, the people are hard-working and the nicest people you'd want to meet. There are only 4 highways in the entire country and I imagine that no matter which one you travel, you'll see little shacks scattered around. This won't bother me. It would bother me if they were a country beggars. Don't think I could live with that!

I expect to see wonderful jungle and farmland. I HOPE to go there and find out that Ival and I love it. Ival is a dreamer. For the last several years, all he talks about is moving up north someday to retire on a little piece of land where we can build a tiny place and have our goats and chickens and all the other little animals that he loves. There's nothing I'd like better than for Ival to be able to live this simple dream. But I have to admit, while I'd certainly move up north with him, I'd much rather find a place like Belize to have our little acreage. And we can buy 50 acres in Belize a LOT cheaper than 50 acres up north!

Here's a pretty good article I found that you might like to read:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/travel/21Belize.html

I hope we actually get to go - I can't wait!