天美麻豆

Born in Boston where my father was getting his Doctorate in Economics, moved from there to Alaska in June of 1949. Lived, attended college, and worked in Alaska till 1980 when I moved my family to Washington to be closer to my wifes parents who were in poor health. Despite going to college I decided that an office was not for me and started working as a Heavy Equipment mechanic which I found suited me better. I spent 20 years with Caterpillar, 10 years with Komatsu, 8 years working in the Arctic oil fields of Alaska and for the last 5 years have been the Equipment Superintendent at a rock quarry in Washington. I have seven children, 12 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. I am currently living with my girlfriend of ten years who has one child. We are feeling like we have one big adventure left in us and would like to try living abroad - somewhere far from the gloom and damp of yet another Washington winter. We were considering Ecuador but neither one of us speaks Spanish so we thought we would give Belize a try to start - make some sortees into Mexico and the other surrounding countries to work on our Spanish and then perhaps move on to Ecuador. We would love to hear from anybody who can give us guidance on where to look for research material on both these countries and any dos and donts you might care to pass along. Any experiences you have had or heard of reguarding expats in these two countries and a real estimate of the cost of living in these countries. On the surface it all looks like a grand lark but these are third world countries and we, as Americans, tend to take alot of what we have as "standard equipment" and I am sure that is far from the truth. Things like can you own property, what kind of infastructure do they have, availability of banks, cash machines, what is the currency and the exchange rate. Sounds like they have local markets - what are they like and what can you buy there? Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from some of you soon.