Living safely in Belize

ouses in El Valle de Anton, Panama are in the most incredible places. I have some friends who are really in the best places of El Valle. The amazing thing about El Valle is, it does not matter where you are in this town, you will see mountains everywhere you look. You are literally in the crater of a volcano and it is absolutely beautiful. There are trees everywhere. People from all over the world come to El Valle to go bird watching. I think there is about 360 variety of birds...
ouses in El Valle de Anton, Panama are in the most incredible places. I have some friends who are really in the best places of El Valle. The amazing thing about El Valle is, it does not matter where you are in this town, you will see mountains everywhere you look. You are literally in the crater of a volcano and it is absolutely beautiful. There are trees everywhere. People from all over the world come to El Valle to go bird watching. I think there is about 360 variety of birds in this town.
If you are a single person, you can rent a casita, which is about 600 square feet. A casita costs about $500 to $600 per month. I was living in a casita for 6 months. It was wonderful and it was a romantic small house. It is more appropriate for single persons because of the size of the house.
A couple can rent a nice, furnished house, which would probably be about 2,000 square feet (.50 of an acre) for US $800 to $950 per month. That includes all utilities, gardener, and a caretaker. So it is more affordable if you are a couple. The houses that are rented out for $800 to $950 are not deluxe houses but they are very nice. These houses are beautiful and they typically have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They are always completely furnished, they have one or two flat screen televisions, and they have paintings on the walls. They are fully fitted out with everything you need so all you have to do is move in. These houses are not extravagant like the ones that wealthy people have, but they have all the things you will need, and you will find these houses in the nice neighborhoods of El Valle. There are a couple of bad neighborhoods in El Valle, but typically almost all of El Valle is gorgeous.
These houses are the main houses on a lot so they are not connected to other houses. And sometimes it has a casita on the same lot where the houses are and more often than not, the casita is where the care taker lives. Usually, if an expat lives in the main house, the caretaker lives in the casita. If a Panamanian lives in the main house, usually the casita is available for rent and quite often than not, the Panamanian only uses the house on weekends.
El Valle is a weekend escape for wealthy Panamanians who live and work in the Panama City and usually their estates all over El Valle are magnificent. They are absolutely magnificent and those houses do not get rented out. They keep the houses for themselves and they come here just one weekend per month or every weekend.
I DO feel proud of building a house in Guatemala. I'm not going to get into the doing here, but lay the groundwork for WHY I did it. This is one of our views of the house and one of what we see out the windows.
First, why I came to Guatemala, then how the construction happened. Everyone asks, so here is the quick answer I’m tired of giving (because we have had many so guests in our bed and breakfast business who always ask). I...