Day 20: All things have the most humble of beginnings.

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Day 20: All things have the most humble of beginnings.

   Sometimes life delivers the strangest of turns, even to the most unconventional of types like myself who has always lived on the edge of society. I was raised in the beaches of Mallorca as a kid, and knew someday that the tropics would be where I would end up later in life. Upon reaching 60 years old (the last trifecta of life I call it) I started that journey. The kids were done with college, I had just sold the small business I had, bought an RV and headed to the Yucatan of Mexico, having no clue what tomorrow would bring. That was the fun part of it. After a few months there I continued to Belize, further exploring. When I got to the town of Placencia in Belize, it did immediately feel like what I was looking for, besides it was a great place to fish, my main passion.

   One day I was fishing by this little sand shoal and it felt so great to just have the place all to myself with my dogs. I kept returning to it for a year with them. I never saw anyone on it. One day it struck me - why not build a little house on it. I learned that I could apply for it with my local Belizian friend for it, since it had no owner per se and was really government land. I had no clue at the time there are places in this world where that is even possible.

   So I started spending day after day in the little shoal trying to make a little island of it, at first I used the thousands of conch shells around it (it was an ancient fish-cleaning spot) to fill it, then filled and used hundreds of sand bags, and then used rocks, but every time the sea would get angry, it would wash all my work away. The locals who passed by in their boats thought I was absolutely crazy, of course. But I didn’t give up, for I was learning. Finally, I build a wall with the hardest of local woods and finally a real island started taking shape. I build a cabana and really still looked at it as nothing more than a personal getaway. In time, I added to it; a bedroom, a nicer bathroom, a deck. It was all a crazy, but fun hobby.

   It finally became ‘livable’. In time, it dawned on me that maybe I could rent it, and raise the money to keep improving it. I had never heard of Airbnb. Someone suggested to list it with them and lo and behold I got my first guest. At the time, it was all so basic; a bed, a loud generator they had to start to run a freezer to have some form of refrigeration, a shower & toilet that ran on water gravity to even function, they had to bring their own food, and they had only a small kayak to cruise around; but the first guest loved it! And so did the next, and the next; to this day I am amazed why they did, it was only a few steps above camping. The island kept improving however, by leaps and bounds and by the Fall of the first year (2015), I added enough that I started not to worry about the first guest that would surely hate it. But no one did!

   That Fall a guest stayed that is in show business (NFL Super Bowl halftime shows), and he loved it so much he said: ‘This place is special, it needs to be told to others’. I never gave the comment a second thought, but soon after Wall Street Journal did a story on it, and so did many other well-knowned national publications that quickly followed after. That December, Airbnb called me and used it in their ad campaign ("Love this? Live there").  And the rest is history; today it is booked for years and gets 100k internet hits a month just in Airbnb and not a month goes by that someone else in a magazine, publication or television somewhere in the world isn't doing an article on little 'Bird Island'.

   Do not ask me why how such things come to be, for I do not have a blessed clue. The best I can guess is that there is ‘something’ in every one of us to want to be, even for a moment, a ‘Robinson Crusoe’; to feel what it is like to be alone in an island like we all have read in the great works of our western cultures romaticising just such a dream. Above all, it's best contribution perhaps lies in what has done for the guests, it has given them a chance to re-connect with one another, to look at life in a new perpective and perhaps to fall in love anew, like one guest wrote: "Come to Bird Island Island with someone you love, and leave loving them that much more".

20 Replies 20
Kimberly54
Level 10
San Diego, CA

OMIgoodness @Fred13, are you for REAL???  (Yes, I know you are, but, but, but).

 

I think I'm going to get a glass of wine and read this again...

 

Merry Christmas! 

 

 

Kim
Marzena4
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

I have always wondered how you came into that isle of yours, @Fred13. Having read all adventure books in the nearby libraries when I was a kid, exploration has always been so appealing... Your pursuit is impressive.

And I think you could answer the question how such things come to be -  out of passion. And I guess it is your passion that gave the spirit to your island. Add the uniqueness of the place, remoteness, and you have a recipe for a perfect escape.

Thanks a lot for sharing the story, Fred.

// "The only person you can trust is yourself"

What an inspiring and impressive story !

I definitely agree that passion is an important incentive behind this wonderful adventure 🙂

and the way it is narrated is simply wonderful too! What a marvellous adventure and narrator!

 

Thanks for sharing 

Fatima-zahra

Morocco, Meknes 

 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Aw @Fred13, this is just incredible. Thanks so much for sharing such a great story. I had no idea that you literally built the whole island, from so little. It is an amazing achievement and it shows by how much your guests enjoy their time there. 

 

To you think it is a forever project where you keep adding a little here, changing a little there or do you think you can safely say it is complete now? 🙂 

 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Hey @Lizzie

  Two more small projects remain and we will do this coming January 18th-22nd. A new perch structure for the birds to replace the existing one and that old tree (see the left side of picture #29; https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/4869137 ); and a dock/palapa for the big boat in the front of the island. That's it! I think. 😉

 

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Oo you are so close to finishing @Fred13. I feel you should mark the occasion somehow! 🙂

 

I took a look at your photo #29 and I saw your have kayaks. Aw, I'm presently dreaming of being on you little island... 🙂 

 

 


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Lizzie

 

Maybe you have to include @Fred0 for a Community Hosting travel plan 🙂

 

 

J-Renato0
Level 10
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Great and beautiful story of an adventure and your reward.
You went after your dream, visualized it and literally built it! Congrats!

Helga0
Level 10
Quimper, France

What a wonderful story, Fred! To build your own island for one person and the dogs is just an incredible idea and to achieve what you did  just from a retirement hobby is even stranger.

I can understand the success though: people build artificial islands for billionaires or for an airport, but to reign over your very own island for a few days is something a "normal" person cannot achieve. Romantism may contribute, but I believe the impulse comes from deeper than that. I remember standing in a creek with  two other village kids, maybe all about five years old, and building islands in water, dams and channels to float our leaves and bark boats.

There is a need to transform our environment in humans. Most cannot achieve very much, that is positive and remarkable, let alone awe inspiring. Therefore they search substitutes, like art work for the walls or a very short sovereignity over your self created kingdom. 

It's a return to nature, but at the current state of your paradise, a very safe one. 

I have to contribute to your Internet hits by passing on the link, as I know a few people, who would see your place as perfect to celebrate an event like a 55th birthday or maybe retirement, as you are booked so far out 😉

Thank you for sharing your story ! I get many guests coming for a job and life changing training, who sometimes share their worries, if it can be done at 50. I will tell them about you next time 😉

 

Deana2
Level 2
cieneguita, Mexico

Fred

How magical and inspiring.  You should be very proud of this. Not so much because it's a business success but because you entered into you...how did you put it, final trifecta?, with passion and a zest for life. My story is not as monumental but similar in that I'm retired in Mexico in the interior. For 23 years poco a poco, I built that house we now rent out on Airbnb complete with a 17th century restored chapel. A labor of love and a  passion to live a full life filed with love and gratitude. 

So I cheer your efforts and aplaud you passion. I'm with you in the last trifecta of life living every moment.  Perhaps one day I'll have the good fortune to visit your island.

 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Thank you all for your very kind comments.

Very perceptive of you @Helga0, yes perhaps that is also at play, to reside over one's own little kingdom.  Perhaps the fact that it is so small, with the sea always around you, helps to accentuate that feeling. A most recent guest said (Evelyn, next to last #99/100) - "It has something special about it, I can't explain it, you'll just have to see for yourself." - the most common reaction among guests.

Tomorrow's guest, who I am dying to meet, is a mystery writer from NYC for the standard crime television programs, for a whole week; I wonder what mystery involving an island perhaps, he will come up with during his stay.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

smart move @Fred13 ... like Marzena I have always wondered how you came into that isle of yours , do you have electricity on it etc.. 🙂 It is so great that you could get a building permit ... here we have to have at least 240m2 of land and tons of paperwork to get it 😛

Construction I knew, but I had to learn all about solar power, plumming, and modern sewer systems, etc. The island has WiFi, CD/TV, phone also. Today's technology is something else, it allows a comfortable life possible just about anywhere, at a fraction of the power usages of the past (i.e. LED lighting). In Belize, being a developing country, things are freer than more mature societies,  heck they just started a building permit requirement but a few years ago.

And hello you two btw. 🙂

Edwin57
Level 10
New York, United States

my Dad tells me always make your life feel happy, if is empty fill it up, is like an artist wanted to paint the canvas so fill the  colors,and  So will you,you  will make your island many best wishes to you, and in 2018 will be the best for you and all your great guest ,many many booking for you