Who runs Belize FAQs?
Hi everyone and welcome to Belize FAQS. My name is Mark Furr, and I live in Corozal, Belize. I am also the guy to blame if you find anything on the site that is inaccurate or just doesn’t seem right. Please feel free to contact me to let me know if you find anything which needs to be corrected!
I began my journey to Belize in early 2018 when I decided that after 15 years of living and running several businesses on the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii, I was ready to leave the island for another international adventure.
Prior to living on Kauai, for much of my adult working life, I lived and worked abroad, teaching at universities and colleges. I first caught the bug for living overseas, when as a mature university student, I had the opportunity to spend an academic year studying in England. I followed my year-long undergrad stint in the UK with another semester in England as a graduate student, and I was hooked.
After finishing my graduate degree, I left the US and spent many years teaching abroad. I taught in Armenia, Palau, and Japan. I simply loved living and working abroad; however, while living in the Republic of Palau, which is located in Micronesia and is a scuba diver’s paradise, I also fell in love with the tropics and island living.
Thus, while working in Japan, I decided to make a connection with tropical life, so I bought a small condo in Hawaii and began to spend much of my time between semesters there. Eventually, when presented an opportunity to buy a business on Kauai, I decided to make the move, and I had a great 15-year run on Kauai. I will always love the island, as it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.
When I was ready to leave Kauai, I was looking to rekindle some of the magic which I found in my first tropical paradise adventure in Palau. And this search led me to Belize, and at first, to the island of Ambergris Caye.
Why did I start Belize FAQS?
I am both a news nerd and a research geek, so when I decided to look into moving to Belize, I spent a year reading everything I could find online about the country and how to go about moving there. Prior to my first visit, I also followed dozens of Facebook Groups and read many news sites.
With all of this research on Belize, what I discovered was that many of the sources I found provided contradictory information, and much of the information was also woefully out of date.
Finally, after I had made the move to Belize and started working on things like getting the license needed to run my vacation rental apartments, getting a permit to operate a golf cart in San Pedro, opening a bank account, getting a Trade License for the rental business, working towards residency, and a number of other official things, I quickly realized that a great deal of what I had learned, even from government sites, differed from what actually happens in practice.
During my days in international education, I worked as both a Series Editor and writer for Oxford University Press, so after I sold the rentals in San Pedro and moved to Corozal, I started picking up some freelance writing online, and while doing this work, one day, it just came to me, I should be writing something I really care about, and something which might help others to avoid some of the costly mistakes I have made during my transition to Belize.
What are the goals of Belize FAQs?
With the Belize FAQS articles, I hope to publish information about Belize, using the most authoritative sources possible, to provide answers to questions I have seen over and over again from those who are interested in possibly moving to Belize. I have continued to participate a great deal in many of the most popular Facebook Groups dedicated to moving to Belize, and I still see so much outdated, inaccurate information out there.
I am also interested in providing a minor correction to the overly rosy scenarios about Belize I often see painted by many who are involved in the real estate business here. Thus, I hope to provide informative articles on current or potential government policies which might affect those thinking about relocating to Belize, as well as a weekly round-up of major news stories from Belize, and a smattering of commentary and postings on issues such as infrastructure and other challenges the country faces.
If there is a specific topic you’d like to see covered, please send me a message!