Ian Usher - Caribbean Life 4 Sale

Usher's Island

2013-11-26T17:31:00.000-05:00

Life has been full over the past few months, what with "New Lives in the Wild" being filmed on the island, followed by a quick dash across the Atlantic to speak at TEDx in Vienna, and then a whirlwind tour of the UK visiting friends and family.

In our absence there has been more excitement back at "Usher's Island". A US TV show called "House Hunters International" contacted neighbours of ours, wanting to film a spin off show called "Island Hunters". They needed a couple of other islands to film for a Bocas-based episode, and we were happy to offer our services.

Apparently they filmed the property from a helicopter and visited the island to create part of the episode too. The show will probably air early in the new year.

There is a partner website to the show which lists island properties for sale around the world, and as our little island is due to feature on the show we were offered a free listing on the website.

The producers needed a name for the island, and we went with the simple choice of "Usher's Island".

Check out the listing here:
http://www.privateislandsonline.com/islands/ushers-island

I think our island is probably the cheapest one listed on the website, which is pretty high-end. "Usher's Island" shares its listing with a few multi-million dollar locations.

For further details, or to contact me for further info, please take a look at my own island website here:
http://CaribbeanLife4Sale.com

UK TV documentary: "New Lives in the Wild"

2013-11-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

The island adventure just keeps offering amazing new experiences. I was contacted earlier in the year by a UK TV production company who wondered if I might be interested in having my lifestyle on my little island being featured in a UK TV documentary.

The first series of "New Lives in the Wild" had been a great success, and a second series had been commissioned. A couple of other participants had been selected, and I was a strong possibility. Over the course of a couple of months and many discussions things were confirmed, and "Usher's Island" was scheduled to be included as one of the episodes of the second series.

You can watch the trailer for the first series of "New Lives in the Wild" below.

Having been out of the UK for so long, I'd never heard of presenter Ben Fogle, but my new partner Vanessa was very excited.

The filming schedule would include six days of filming, with Ben living with us on the island. The producer and director would also be with us for an initial extra four days to do some advanced preparation.

I don't want to give away too much about what we did while the film crew were here, as I think it will be much more interesting to see the show without too much advance knowledge. All I will do is upload a few pix which will give a bit of an overview of the amazing week we spent with the film crew.

I think the show will give a well balanced overview of our lives on the island, and I am looking forward to seeing the edited show.

I believe it will air sometime in January 2014, but of course I'll update once I get a firm date.

Thanks to all involved in making the episode - presenter, crew, friends and neighbours. The crew were great fun to hang out with, and the whole week was certainly one of the highlights of my life - what an amazing experience.

Return to Panama.

2013-05-09T13:29:00.000-05:00

After a great time back in the north-east of England it was eventually time to return home. I had a couple of nice days in London - the wintery weather finally faded away for the last few of days of my time in England. I enjoyed catching up with an old friend, meeting some new ones, and wandering along the banks of the Thames.

I flew from Heathrow to San Jose in Costa Rica (via Houston), and stayed overnight in a little hotel there. It was a bit of a dive, but it cost me the princely sum of $9, and was very close to both the city centre and to the bus station I needed to get to in the morning.

I could have flown to Bocas Town directly from San Jose, but the bus is so much cheaper, and I like the journey through the mountains and down the coast.

I made it home later that day, and started the settling-in process. My house-sitter had left the day before, so I made a very quick transition from the busy hustle and bustle of Central London to the complete solitude of my own little island.

It took a couple of days to get used to being on the island again, and to get back into the rhythm of the slower pace of Caribbean life. Sunday at jungle restaurant Rana Azul and a birthday party at Lyn's house helped smooth my transition back to the laid-back lifestyle here.

Since then time seems to have flown by! It's almost three weeks since I returned, and I've been pretty busy. I had many emails to respond to regarding the sale of the island - there are a couple of seriously interested people at the moment.

I had to get the island cleared again - it's amazing how quickly the undergrowth develops. Once cleared the grass now seems to be doing very well, springing up everywhere. The place is looking great. Everything else has also grown quickly, and I have some huge pineapples coming on. I have countless coconuts and the pepper bush is doing well. I was also very excited to collect the first bananas from the island too.

The birds have moved in in my absence! I have a hummingbird feeder outside the front door, and am now getting regular visitors. They are amazing brightly coloured little birds, and are fascinating to watch. Theire wings sound like tiny outboard motors. The other evening I had a hummingbird fly into the house. It msut have got a bit disorientated, heading upstairs. It eventually tired itself out against one of the windows in my bedroom and I could finally catch it - they're extremely fast little things. It sat quietly in my hand for a while, gathered it's strength, and flew away from the back balcony. I'm pretty sure I've seen it back at the feeder again since then.

I noticed another bird flying around a lot by the propane gas water heater. I eventually investigated, and found quite a few sticks inside the chimney of the heater. On further investigation there seemed to be much more material inside the heater. I took the heater down from the wall the next day and took it apart. I was amazed to find a complete nest in there, complete with four eggs. The nest was made of very dry twigs, and was sat right on top of the heat exchanger. I have no idea how it hasn't ignited before now! The eggs look a little bit burnt, and I don't imagine they are ever going to hatch - I think they're hard-boiled!!

I put the nest in a small plastic container with a hole cut in the lid. I screwed the container to the outside bathroom wall right beside the re-installed heater. I was amazed when the little bird came back and now sits optimistically in the nest on the eggs. (I put a wire mesh over the top of the chimney to prevent further bird issues.) It's a tiny thing, about the same size as the hummingbird. It's very shy, but sometimes on an evening it will just sit in the nest, peering out of the hole in the top of the container, watching me nervously as I brush my teeth.

The Panama Flycatcher is back too, and has been re-building her nest above the light fixture in the main room. (See the "Baby Birds" chapter in "Paradise Delayed" for the full story from last year!) I had to assist a little, as I have re-wired that light since last year, and the cable from the light now runs right up through the centre of the nest area. So I had to extend the little nest platform, and blocked off access to the cable. The nest is now fully built. I'm not sure if there are any eggs yet this year.

Unfortunately there have been a couple of chicken losses in my absence - four of the seven youngsters had disappeared. We think it was probably a raccoon, so I'm now locking them in the coop at night - no further casualties since I've been back. And both the older females are back on egg production after becoming mothers. I've missed the super-fresh eggs.

I've also been hard at work on a new business venture Moe and I are working on. This will be a business that can be operated from a laptop from anywhere in the world, and I'm very excited about the potential. I'll maybe tell you a little more about this in the next blog post.

But at the moment I'm enjoying being able to work out on the front balcony, or even on occasion while swinging in the hammock. Living on a Caribbean island doesn't mean you have to be rich - you just need some sort of online business or income generation.

I'm willing to bet there are many people out there with online businesses who could live and work out here if they chose to do so.

Caribbean Life 4 Sale

2013-04-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

I think I'm ready. The website goes live today, and I'm planning on a press release tomorrow. As always, I'm sure there is more I could have written for the website, perhaps more pix I could have added, but it's been a busy few weeks.

So here it is, a Caribbean island lifestyle for sale. Where will the adventure lead next?

www.CaribbeanLife4Sale.com

New Book "Paradise Delayed" scores #1 at Amazon.

2013-04-07T06:32:00.000-05:00

Wow again. I've only just published my new book "Paradise Delayed - The pitfalls and pleasures (mainly the pitfalls) of Caribbean island life in the beautiful archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama" and it has already managed a Number 1 slot at Amazon - admittedly in the rather narrow category of "Caribbean Travel", but it's a start.

Paradise Delayed
The pitfalls and pleasures (mainly the pitfalls) of Caribbean island life in the beautiful archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama

A wintery game of golf.

2013-03-30T17:20:00.000-05:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I'm a regular golfer - I play one nine hole round every year or so, usually when I go to visit my friend Scott. He had a better set of clubs to lend me this time, so I couldn't use my usual excuse - playing with a bag of bamboo sticks! Despite the better clubs he still thrashed me!

It was so cold, however, that by the seventh hole I couldn't have cared less. Lunch in the bar was all I was worried about by then.

Looking forward to getting back to the tropical warmth of Panama.

Congratulations (again) Scott.

Back in England.

2013-03-27T06:31:00.001-05:00

It's almost the end of March, I'm back in England, and its freezing here!!

I headed up to Montreal, following Moe, Finn and Maible, who had flown a few hours before me from San Jose. Having no winter clothes at all with me, I imagine I looked a little out of place at Montreal airport in shorts and flip-flops. The first stop was at a charity shop on the way to Moe's mum's house, where I bought shoes, jeans, shirts and a big winter jacket.

These have all come in handy back in England, where winter still holds a firm grip. Roads are closed by drifts of snow, and many homes in Scotland have been without electricity for a few days. According to friends and family here it really has been a long cold winter.

I've obviously been softened by a couple of years in the Caribbean, as I have been feeling the cold here. I'm looking forward to heading back to Bocas in mid-April.

Finn's video

2013-02-27T03:55:00.000-05:00

Here's the video my stepson Finn made about his three month visit to the island:-

Well done Finn, that's fantastic.

"Island Experiences" by Maible Matrishon

2013-02-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

My partner Moe and her two kids have been living with me at the island for the past few months, and it's been wonderful. The house is just big enough for the four of us, and the kids love being out and about on the island. Finn has a new GoPro video camera, and has been working hard on a video chronicling his time on the island.

Maible has decided to write a book about her adventures. She has been working on it consistently for the past couple of months, and Moe has helped with the editing process. When it was ready, I was contracted to prepare it for digital release, and here it is, available on Amazon:-

It is also available in digital formats for devices other than Amazon's Kindle here:-
www.smashwords.com

Congratulations Maible.

Island Paradise.

2013-01-31T14:11:00.000-05:00

2013 is already flying by!

Where has January gone? With Moe and the kids here for over three months, it is pretty hard to keep focussed on the work that needs to be done around the island - there are just too many distractions.

There are plenty of invitations to social gatherings, and home schooling often takes a back seat for those. There is also the ever present lure of paddling a kayuku, a local-style canoe, of which we now have quite a collection. The waters are usually calm, and the kids always come back from their expeditions with some interesting new sea creature they have discovered.

However, my personal favourite for idling time away is going out snorkelling. Just out from the island there are a few small reefs, and there is always plenty to see. Further afield, either by kayuku for the nearer locations, or motorboat for the further ones, there is a wealth of snorkelling potential.

Recently we have seen three small nurse sharks, which are very docile and harmless, a couple of rays, and plenty of colourful tropical reef fish.

I have yet to meet them underwater, but ever present are the dolphins, often seen while out and about by boat. We were even woken up the other night by what we believe was a dolphin slapping it's tail on the water.

There have also been rumours of a manatee, glimpsed a couple of times by our neighbours while fishing. We keep watching out for it in the bay behind the island, but have yet to spot it.

Other distractions include swinging on a hammock reading a book, playing with the dog or the chickens, or just sipping a chilled beer on the porch.

With all this on offer, it's a wonder I've got anything done around the property at all. However, with the end of Moe's visit looming, and a trip up to Canada and back to England on the cards for me, I've had to push on a bit to prepare the house to hand over to my house-sitter who will look after the property and the animals while I am away.

To be continued...

Caribbean Life 4 Sale - an introduction.

2013-01-17T12:14:00.000-05:00

"Hi there, my name is Ian Usher, and I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!"

That's how my adventures began five years ago, when I announced that I intended to sell everything I had on eBay, and move on with my life. It's been quite a journey since then. The "life-selling" story gained a life of its own when international publicity reached amazing proportions, and I made TV, radio and newspaper appearances all over the world.

I was asked many times in interviews what I would do once I had sold everything, and I asked myself the same question. What did I really want to do? I made lists, and these eventually grew to become my next adventure, a round-the-world journey of two years, armed with a list of 100 goals, and a challenging timeframe of 100 weeks.

When the dust settled in July 2010 and my journey came to an end I took some time out in a little wooden cabin in the forests of northern Canada where I wrote a book about the amazing journey. But as winter approached and temperatures dropped it was time to head south to warmer weather.

The search for somewhere to call home for a while eventually led to the tropical warmth of Panama, where I somehow ended up buying a little island off the Caribbean coast.

I've been there for almost two years now, and have cleared the island, built a house, started growing some fruit, and have a small flock of chickens. It's a beautiful place, and a wonderful lifestyle, filled with great people, and exciting adventures, but... there's always a "but", isn't there?

But the traveller's itchy feet are starting to tickle again. After two years of constant travel I was ready to settle for a while, but I still have a long list of places I want to see, and I can't do that if I'm lounging in a hammock on the balcony sipping a margarita.

When I was travelling I had to step outside of my comfort zone again and again, and heading to Panama to start a new life there was again a big step into the unknown. But life here has become easy and comfortable. Maybe it's time to change that, and head into the unknown again.

So it's all up for sale again. This time it's a "Caribbean Life 4 Sale". Further info can be found at the website here:-
www.CaribbeanLife4Sale.com

My previous blogs from previous adventures can all be found here:-
www.ianusher.com/blog.php