Ambergris Caye is 26-mile long island that technically, may have been a peninsula of Mexico. The town of San Pedro, with approximately 25,000 people, is situated 25 miles south of the northern tip of Ambergris Caye. That is the only town on the island. If you go from the town itself towards the southern tip, there are condos, resorts, hotels, private beachfront homes, and really nice million dollar homes on the beach. Further south is a little bit more residential combined with resorts and condo properties. There is still lots of beachfront to be had.
As you go north from town, we have a Central Park, which is the heart of our town. If you go north of Central Park, for the first 5 to 6 miles, it would be around 70% to 80% developments, which are mostly hotels, condo properties, private homes, etc.
Once you get out to 7 or 8 miles north of San Pedro Town, it starts to get scarce and you might see about 10% to 15% land cover. If you get up to 9 miles from San Pedro Town, you will see sporadic hotels or resorts. There might be one in every mile and a half. You get to Robles Point at 12 miles north and that is where the last house is located. From there, if you go another 10 miles around Rocky Point, towards the Mexican border, there are a lot of reserves around there but it is raw land. Some of the locals go up there hunting deer and other wild things. One of the interesting aspects is that if you have been to Cancun, you will see that Cancun has a hotel strip with a lagoon on the back. The first 10 miles of Ambergris Caye is geographically identical to Cancun and 0% developed.
That is the whole island of Ambergris Caye. San Pedro Town, on the other hand, is a small town where you could hardly get lost. You’d have to get drunk in order to get lost here. San Pedro is only four streets wide and from the center part of town, you can walk from the inner part, which is in the southern edge of town, up to the bridge, which is considered the northern edge, in about 20 to 30 minutes along the beach.
Right at the middle of the island, we have a lagoon, which is called the San Pedro Lagoon. It’s probably about 7 miles long and 2 miles wide at points, so we actually have four shorelines here on Ambergris Caye. We have the eastern shore, which is the ocean side, the eastern shore of the lagoon, the western shore of the lagoon, and the western shore of the island. We have lots of waterfront here. San Pedro Town is stuck between the ocean side or the eastern shore of the ocean and the eastern side of the lagoon. It is only 4 blocks wide. You can walk from one shore to the other shore in 5 or 6 minutes.
I live in the San Pablo neighborhood in San Pedro, which is fairly homogenous. Different neighborhoods have different income levels. There is another neighborhood here called San Pedrito, which is along the west side of the airport, which is a little bit lower income. There are only few gringos who live there, but I own two properties there that I am going to build on some day. Overall, there are other neighborhoods in San Pedro Town that are a little more prosperous than others. There is no such thing here as a totally gringo neighborhood.
The San Pablo neighborhood is a neighborhood of about six canals. When the developer dug these canals in, they put the dirt on either side, so every house has a road on the front and then the canal at the back. I tie my boat up there and anytime, I can jump in my boat and go anywhere. You can go into the lagoon or go under the bridge or to the backside.
(Asking price for three lots, 160 feet for the ocean, $145,000, Ambergris Caye, Belize, pictured.)
My dentist here in Mexico was trained in Colombia but she has a good grasp of the English language. She doesn’t have all the modern facilities that maybe some of her colleagues or competition has but for my needs, the dental care she has provided has been just fine.
In Portugal, we have the national health insurance and the national health system, which is not terribly efficient and it has long waiting lists so it is advisable for people to have private health insurance, which is not expensive. 
I survived my heart attack. Some of you may have read my harrowing story on this site about my ambulance ride to Panama City (Why are you shaving my testicles?), which is why I founded The Panama Helpline. 
