California native Dove Clancy is a life-long entrepreneur who fell in love with Belize and took her talents south of the border to start a new life in sun-soaked Maya Beach.

In our new article, “Entrepreneurs Abroad in Maya Beach, Belize,” we follow Dove Clancy from Wisconsin to California and finally to Belize, where she moved permanently in 2012.

While living in San Diego, she earned a technical degree in environmental management from Southwestern College and then decided to use her new knowledge to start a business: Clancy Contracting Services Inc., a hazardous materials removal and demolition company.

“I am the one that removes all the asbestos in schools and federal buildings,” she says, “which is not a usual business for women entrepreneurs to get into.”

About 20 years ago Clancy began visiting her father, who had retired to the eco-friendly Central American country of Belize years earlier. He lived in Copper Bank, a fishing village in the Corozal District of northern Belize, which is close to the Mexican border. When she stayed with her father she began to wonder why there was no hotel in the village, which sits on a lagoon that feeds into Corozal Bay.

“I thought this place could use a hotel,” she says, “so I went looking for a property to build one from scratch.”

Over a period of three years Clancy built a 13-room hotel with a bar and a restaurant called the Copper Bank Inn, funded by her successful business in San Diego.

Several years ago she married and began looking for a “change of scenery” and found it on the Placencia Peninsula in Belize’s southeastern corner, which is known for its beautiful beaches.

“Maya Beach was attractive to us because it has a beautiful beach and lots of expats,” she says. “Just a great place to open another business.”

That business is Chix Fried Chicken, just across from the beach on the main road. They knew they had a good thing going with their fried chicken because it was the popular specialty of the house at the Copper Bank Inn, so they created a small take-out style restaurant that caters to the large local expat population, one of the largest in Belize.