San Ignacio resident #2 – Kristina Skiadas

Kristina at her favourite spot in the corner of her restaurant.

The odds for running into Kristina were never great – according to her, she is one of three(!) Swedish people living in Belize.

Kristina is yet another person who is doing that which most of us never dares. She left Sweden in the 70’s to marry a greek living in the US. While in the US, Kristina has had several restaurants (at least that’s what I perceived them as – some sort of establishment anyway). During that time she often came to Mexico, Guatemala and Belize on vacation, and when things didn’t work out with her husband, she decided to move to Belize, and after a while ended up in San Ignacio, owning and managing a restaurant, Chingo’s Bar & Grill. It suddenly dawns upon me that I forgot to ask who Chingo is – bummer!

Kristina has very much been my inside mole to Belizean society, as someone who has spent a lot of time not only in Belize, but also in the neighboring countries, she is in a perfect position to spill the beans on how things are working here, especially since she can make some comparisons to Sweden. Well, Sweden in the 70’s at least! :-)

She’s been telling me all these great stories and anecdotes on how Belize society and business life works, especially in San Ignacio of course. I hope that the allergy medicine I left with her is payment enough for the valuable insights she has given me. If anyone has any Aerius left over, send them to krissan8@yahoo.com! :-)