Welcome to our Interview with an Expat in Belize series. Our goal is to offer a look at expats who live in different regions of the country, and those who have lived in Belize for different periods of time, both relative newcomers and long timers here in Belize.
The interviews in our Interview with an Expat in Belize series are conducted by email, and we ask the same 10 questions to each interviewee so that those who are considering making the move to Belize can readily see that different people have very different experiences here, depending upon where they live, their interests, and the many choices that we all have made before, during, and after our move to Belize.
For the eighth article in our series, Interview with an Expat in Hopkins, Belize, we take a look at an expat who moved to Belize from Alasaka in 2000. When Tony Marsico first moved to Belize, the area in which he developed his first property was simply called “south of Hopkins,” now it is referred to as Sittee Point.
Tony has built and operated a resort and restaurant in Belize, and since selling the resort, he has been working in the real estate business.
Tony Marsico, Alaska Restaurateur, finds a home and builds a business in Hopkins, Belize
Tony Marsico came to Belize from Alaska in 2000 when he sold his fine dining restaurant, Two Rivers Lodge. He bought a small piece of beach front property in the south of Hopkins, in what is now Sittee Point. There, he started a small resort which was totally surrounded by jungle. Tony started with two duplex cabanas and a small restaurant, and he and his wife lived above the restaurant. They eventually built the resort up to 12 rooms, and it is now Beaches and Dreams.
Tony became active in real estate in Belize simply because many of the visitors who he met at the resort became enamored with Belize and wanted to buy property.
He eventually sold Beaches and Dreams in 2018, and he now works full time in his real estate business, Belize Tropicool Real Estate, where he deals mainly in Sittee River, Hopkins, and Coastal Highway properties.
Interview with Tony Marsico
Life before moving to Belize
Q1: Where were you living before moving to Belize? Also, please describe whether you were working, retired, or something in between prior to your move. In other words, what was your daily life like?
Before moving to Belize, we owned a fine dining restaurant in Two Rivers, Alaska, just outside of Fairbanks, where weather extremes could be as low as 60 below zero, with only two hours of daylight in winter, and 24 hours of daylight, with 80 degree highs in summer.
We were a thriving restaurant that won numerous awards as one of the best fine dining spots in our state. We raised three girls there and decided to try something “warmer” after they were grown.
Current location in Belize
Q2: Where do you currently live in Belize? And prior to moving here, what were the primary reasons for which you chose this area?
I currently live in Hopkins. It was just a blurb on the map when I arrived in 2000, but it was the only place I could afford the great beachfront where I built the resort, Beaches and Dreams Seafront Inn.
Visits to Belize prior to making the move
Q3: How many times did you visit Belize before the move? Which areas did you visit, and how long was your longest stay in Belize prior to the move?
Prior to moving from Alaska to Belize, I only visited once for two weeks. I went to San Pedro, which felt too busy and Americanized, and Placencia which was also getting too busy and Americanized at the time, and finally to Hopkins.
Own a home or rent in Belize?
Q4: Do you own your current home in Belize or are you renting? Why did you choose either to buy or to rent? If you own a home, did you purchase an existing home or did you build here? What is your strongest piece of advice for someone looking either to buy or rent a place in Belize?
I built numerous buildings at the resort, Beaches and Dreams, and I have built several homes and sold them. I still own multiple properties along the Sittee River, along with my own house in the hotel zone where I live upstairs and lease my downstairs place to a dive shop. You will always get more bang for your buck if you build, but there are still great values out there in the Hopkins area to be had for existing homes as well.
The first year living in Belize
Q5: What were your greatest challenges or surprises during your first year living in Belize? What advice would you give to others to help the transition go smoothly?
When you come from the extremes of Alaska, where things can turn to life or death in an instant, Belize has yet to throw me any curveballs. From the very start, I thrived here as an entrepreneur and in my personal relationships with the locals.
Belize Immigration Status
Q6: Describe your experience of acquiring long-term immigration status in Belize, whether that be as a QRP member, a permanent resident, a citizen, or as someone still waiting on residency. How long did the process take, and what challenges did you face?
I have had my Residency since 2002 and it was a long process with not many guidelines or any certain list of things you needed. Back then, some folks would try to sell you an expedited process, which meant greasing the wheels with money to move your paperwork to the top, but I never took anyone up on that and used patience and perseverance to finally go through the process.
Belize lifestyle
Having been here for over 23 years, I love the accepting ways of people and the way that locals treat others as they wish to be treated. I love nature, and natural history abounds in the Hopkins area.
We have many national parks, including Southwater Caye Marine Reserve, Mayflower Bocawina National Park, and Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, which are all within a half hour of Hopkins. The Sittee River is a fertile valley that runs East to West from the Caribbean Sea to the Guatemala border, and it is a wildlife corridor bringing all of Belize’s natural wonders to our doorstep.
Current lifestyle challenges in Belize
Q8: What are the downsides to the community in which you currently live? Are there any aspects of daily life which you find to be challenging in this community?
I dwell on the positive, but if I had to pick some negatives about the Hopkins area, I would say it is the influx of migrants from the US and Canada that bring political division, animosity, and expectations of some of their former lifestyles with them. In other words, some people try to make Belize like where they came from instead of enjoying the reasons they were attracted to Belize in the first place.
Reality versus expectations of Belize
Q9: Do you think that your lifestyle in Belize is about what you had expected, very different from what you thought it would be, or somewhere in between? Tell us a bit about your expectations prior to moving to Belize and how daily life here differs from what you had expected.
We thrived in business in Belize. The folks that use the old adage that to leave Belize with a million dollars, you need to arrive with two million, are folks that have never done business before and would fail wherever they are. If you want to do business, choose businesses that employ Belizeans, teach Belizeans, and give opportunities for the locals to get into business for themselves.
What would you have done differently for your initial move to Belize?
Q10: Now that you are living in Belize, what are the one or two things which you would change about the way you made the initial move if you could go back and do it again? For example, would you ship more or fewer personal items, bring a car, rent instead of buying right away, or perhaps purchase instead of renting?
I jumped in like I do with everything. 100% in with no previous expectations. When we first moved down and were unsure of the business aspect of our venture, Beaches and Dreams, we always used a safety net of “well if we end up with a cool house on the beach, then that’s OK too.”
Hopkins later turned into a thriving tourist village that has maintained its Garifuna Roots, and one of the best things for me was to see the local kids growing up in the village and now elevating to business owners, professional guides, with year-round employment that has created an emerging middle class of folks, instead of the haves and have nots.
Final thoughts on Interview with an Expat in Hopkins, Belize
First, I’d like to thank long-time Belize resident Tony Marsico for participating in our Interview with an Expat in Belize series. Tony was our first interviewee from the Hopkins area, so I am sure that many readers will find his story interesting.
I lived and worked abroad for a large portion of my adult working life, but I have only been in Belize for a little under five years, so for me, reading Tony’s longer-term perspective on aspects of life as an expat in Belize is really interesting. It is amazing to me that he arrived and decided to settle in an almost undiscovered area, what is now Sittee Point, and he decided to develop a small resort there.
I hope the Belize FAQs readers who are doing their research concerning a potential move to Belize will benefit from the differing perspectives we hope to present here in our Interview with an Expat in Belize series.
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Finally, if you are considering a move to Belize, you might want to check out our book: Belize FAQs: A detailed guide for those interested in moving to Belize. In the book, there are more than 150 pages of Belize FAQs at your fingertips. And Belize FAQs is available in both paperback and Kindle formats.