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smpattison wrote:

Hi everyone,
My husband and I are hoping to move to Antigua although we have never been there, but it looks great. We need to know everything about the area. At the present time we live in Belize and have for the past year, and are looking for a change. Some of thing big questions we have are:
How reasonable can you get a house to rent???
What does it take to get a work permit?
A Residency?
Do you need to speak Spanish right away?
We have 4 dogs, will that be a problem?
Is it hard to find a teaching position?


And so much more, but that will do for starters
I thank you in advance for any and all help you can be

Mary

We went to the beautiful Sandals resort in Antigua 2 yrs. ago.  I would not be able to give you this info if we had had a normal vacation. My husband got sick and had to be taken by taxi to the hospital...well, I've never seen a 3rd world country myself, but that is what you will find. I would not be able to live there, we are in the state of Texas and are researching Belize. Can you give me your opinion pros/cons?
In your case, I would go and not see it from the resorts point of view...that is not the real deal just a great place for vacation.

We are in the US right now, thinking we would maybe decide to stay. But after 4 months we cannot wait to get back down south. Belize is a 4th world country. It is definately not a place you want to get sick at. I love it there, but life is hard. Sometimes you have electricity, sometimes not. You cannot get what you want is the way of food, clothes, appliances, just about everything, you have to make due and you will pay a premium for it. But... the people are wonderful, the country is beautiful, it is hot and humid, it is quite dirty, the people are wonderful, the country is beautiful, the wildlife exquisite, but it takes a certain type of person to live there. We visited many many times before we moved down there, and still visiting and living are two very different things. That is one reason we were thinking of Antiqua, it is that much MORE than Belize as far as civilization goes, but now, I would happy as a clam to be back. And hopefully we will be soon. Supermarkets, and fancy doctors, and traffic, and hipocracy is not what its cracked up to be. I am glad we stuck it out for almost two years, because if we had left in that first 6 months we probably  would never have wanted to go back. But now it is much easier to make the comparison and figure out what is really important to us. I hope this helps a little. You must remember we did not live on one of the islands that is more geared for touists we lived inland on the mainland.

Thanks for your info.  Did you live inland for a reason, maybe more economical, etc? Would you consider living along the coastline vs. an island in Belize? We investigated other parts of central america, but English is what we know and are not ready to learn another language right off the bat. The thing I remember about Antigua was the rural country, some paved roads, not all, and just a poor economy and the beautiful beaches. If I'm not mistaken, the population on the island is approx. 65,000.  I would at least go to sandals.com and check out the fantastic resort. The locals we did come into contact with all spoke good English so communicating was not a problem  We love the warm weather we have here in Texas so we would look forward to warm year round.