First look

This posting is about the development of Brahma Blue Resorts and Health Spa and my involvement with the project on a totally romantic Caribbean Paradise Island.

Hi friends, my name is Henry A. Zacharias. On April 2nd, 2007, I arrived in San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize in Central America.

I came here with long hair but had to cut it due to the heat and, even more of a problem for my wispy hair, the wind!

Coming in for a landing over Belize, no we are not going to land on that river!




Approaching Belize City

Flying over Ambergris Caye

coming into San Pedro Town

Disembarking in San Pedro Town

These little planes fly back and forth between Belize City and San Pedro in just over 1/2 hr.

I came here from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada where I was a Massage Therapist and a Musician and the Music Director at the Center for Conscious Living where I had been studying to become a Minister of the Science of Mind. My plan was to become a Minister and write books about Spirituality and travel around the world teaching in New Thought Churches. As part of my education I focused on Spiritual Mind Treatment and developed a workshop to teach others the techniques of manifesting as taught by Ernest Holmes and the Science of Mind.

Here I am on stage at the Center For Conscious Living, sitting in with their band

This is with Joy Stadnichuk, the last time she and I played together, Oct/07

In my ten years of fellowship with this New Thought Community I learned a lot because after my second year I became an active volunteer, on the board and as music director, and I was getting pretty good at making changes in my life using the techniques and changing the way I think. Then, during my third year course, we had to read eight books and do book reports and write weekly Spiritual Mind Treatments. I was already doing it for friends and clients so I was very earnest about learning to be effective. I wanted a more prosperous life so I began treating that I already had the right and perfect job. Meanwhile, one of my massage clients of several years, asked me if I wanted to go with him to India and open a Massage School there. I was interested because I love to teach, but I didn't really want to live in India. Too many people, Winnipeg is a small City with around 700,000 people and I've visited bigger cities like Denver and Vancouver and while they were nice to visit, I didn't want to live there, so I hesitated and kept treating for my right and perfect job.

One day, that same client, Sunny Sidhu, came for another massage and reported that he had just returned from India and he didn't want to live there either, so he purchased ten acres on an Island off the coast of Belize instead. His plan was to build a resort with a health spa and he wondered if I would be interested in joining him there to manage the health spa. The entire country of Belize has a population of only around 200,000, and growing. Tourism in Belize is taking over as the largest industry over bananas and sugar cane. Most of the attention is on the Islands near the reef that extends for some 357 miles along the coast of Belize with Ambergris Caye being the largest of the Cayes, where I now live and San Pedro Town is the central hub of all that activity with a population near 10,000 that swells to near double some years during the busier seasons, with the peak around Spring Break. The population here is steadily growing due to investment and land development. Many Canadians, American and Brits are building resorts, bars and restaurants and becoming permanent residents while they operate their businesses here, just like me.

Shopping on Middle St. Downtown San Pedro

However, everything happens in Belize time here, I've been here nearly a year and our resort is still not opened for business. It is now Easter, 2008. I'm told we are ready to receive guests now and things could kick off any time, soon. Now let me show you some pictures before and after to show you what we have done to our ten acres and a bit of the Town of San Pedro where I now live.

This is a bunch of interested business folks and I taking a boat across to Caribbean Cove where we have our ten acre spread. That is San Pedro Town behind us.

This is the first view of our property, the Palapa on the Pier will become our Restaurant, fine dining and San Pedro's only place for East Indian Cuisine

Looking down the Pier towards our first Condominium, four stories of concrete block with re bar drilled into the bedrock to withstand any Hurricane, just stay home and ride it out. I've done that, but that is another story for another day.

Our first phase of advertising, sings on our own beach front, its nearly time to start landscaping.

At the Health Spa, I am going to offer my skills as a Tai Chi/Chi Gong instructor, I am also qualified to teach meditation, breath work, yoga and remedial exercise programs as well as African Drumming and Massage. I have investigated many of the worlds Ancient Spiritual Traditions and I practice a rather unique blend of energy work that includes Reiki, CranioSacral, Therapuetic Touch, Polarity Therapy, Chakra Balancing, Laying on of Stones, Chi Gong, a lot of trusting Intuition, Guided Visualizations and Sonic Vibrational Healing. In time I intend to develop workshop events, my favorite involves the use of Drums, Voice and Dance and I have developed a wonderful event called Healing Harmonics that involves chanting specific songs that are sung in English so the meaning of the lyrics can be carried deeper into the consciousness of the participant.

This was my first look at the Condo building when I first arrived, this shows the spiral staircase in the center. This is the main entrance and these windows face East to catch the prevailing winds which will blow through each suite and keep you comfortable with very little need for A/C. Each balcony gets a view of the sunrise.

The above photo may have been taken by Allen or Taco Girl, I stole it from one of them, its a good shot of a Sunrise off the front beach of Ambergris Caye.
Below is the view looking out of a fourth floor window to the East


Below is the same building on the same day showing the side that faces West for a view of the sunsets

and below is the view looking out of a balcony to where the sun will set


And below is a shot of a Sunset across the Pier on the west side, you can see a slip of the the same deck above before the landscaping and the same small Island just off shore.


I'm pretty sure Alan took the above and below sunset shots


Now I'm going to show you some photos of how things look today.
The landscaping is nearly done and most of the apartments are fully furnished and ready for occupancy.

Alan, a buddy here who unfortunately is planning to leave the country soon, took these shots and here is a panoramic view he took from the Pier on the West side of the property showing the Palapa group session site on the Peninsula on the left across the West side of the Property to the edge of the Pier.


I've never had any nick names stick and all my life my four older brothers commanded the obvious family nick name of Zac, which is derived from the first three letters of our last name, but none of them were going to be in Belize so it was my turn, and Master Zac sounds pretty cool! So I have adopted that name and title for my new life here as I will be doing more teaching here and I'm told I'm the most educated and skilled Massage Therapist in the Caribbean. As part of a going away party for me, before I left Canada, Joy Stadnichuk, a wonderful singer/songwriter and dear friend coined the phrase Hot in Belize and that is where I got my Title for this Blog. I landed here in April and rarely stopped sweating until September.


This shows some of the grounds between the pool, where I will have two workstations and the Palapa out on the Peninsula where I have more space for teaching classes in the shade. You can just see the brown thatch of the Palapa roof way beyond the fan palm on the edge of the pool deck.