Robert’s Grove is a beautifully appointed Belize beach resort nestled on over 22 acres of the finest white sand beach in Placencia, Belize. Its ideal location allows guests to be surrounded by Belize’s best attractions – the Barrier Reef, Tropical Rainforest and Mayan Ruins.
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In 1999, Yim and I were in the beginning of clearing our property; Oceans Edge in Maya Beach, about seven miles north of Robert’s Grove with the hopes of opening our own small Eco Resort.
We had visited Robert’s Grove the previous year specifically to dive with his shop and at dinner that evening, joked with Robert that one day I would run his dive shop.
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One year later, Hurricane Iris hit the coast of Belize and did a lot of damage to Robert’s Grove and a little to our property but we had not quite opened and had hurricane insurance, so things got repaired on our property pretty quickly.
Robert drove by the property while I was working on the repairs with my crew in August 2001 and floated the idea that maybe I could help him re-build his resort while still managing and living in our houses. We had met Robert and Risa the year before and got along fine during the few times we met which Yim and I were there diving. I thought it was a good idea and suggested that if I was to manage the dive shop and marina, that perhaps Yim could become the new General Manager, since they had none at that point and surprisingly, he agreed.
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Having said this, while Robert and I had reached an agreement, I had not talked to Yim about this. A few days later, I flew back to Victoria and told her what we been agreed on and she was a little hesitant but I was really confident she could do it and since we were committed to moving down to Belize at this point, this agreement would make the first year or two financially easier on us and we would gain a ton of experience, which we could use on our own resort after we had it completed.
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Yim and I still had to relocate to Belize. We told Robert we would be there the first week of November, 2001 and after a 17 day road trip through the United States, Mexico and Belize, we arrived at Roberts Grove.
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My project was to design and supervise the construction and then oversee the management of the resort’s dive operation, as well as be the Scuba Instructor. I set about drawing up floor plans for the building and overseeing the construction, while gradually dismantling the existing dive room and transferring the gear across to the lagoon side of the property as the new shop emerged.
It was destined to become the most professional of all the local shops. I installed redundant compressors, ordered 160 scuba tanks and enough gear to suit up 48 guests per day on three of our dive boats. I had a mechanics shop built with an engine hoist and an apartment for the mechanic so he could spend the week on site and check the boats each morning prior to our trips. Otherwise, he had to travel from Monkey River Village.
We had the lagoon dredged for depth and a fringing marina / dock installed which could accommodate sixteen (16) 48 foot Moorings Catamarans and our six skiffs.
We relocated the fueling tanks and built an enclosed fueling compound which was designed to capture any leakage from fuel… a huge step as until then, the crew dragged fuel hoses across the sand and regularly left them spewing fuel into the lagoon, and the fuel tanks leaked continuously.
After eighteen months of very hard work, I was proud to say we had created the best dive shop at that time in Belize. Divemasters from across the country wanted to work for the shop.
Yim’s job was to be General Manager and that was a much bigger job than mine.
A General Manager is responsible for overseeing all aspects of a resort’s operations. They are tasked with ensuring that guests have an enjoyable experience while staying at the resort, as well as making sure that employees are treated fairly and allowed to grow within the opportunities a resort offers.
Yim has oodles of integrity so it seemed easy for her to treat everyone she encountered with dignity and respect. Since she speaks fluet English, French and Cantonese, guests found communications easy with her and I remember more than once, Robert being quite surprised when Yim shifted flawlessly to French or Cantonese to speak to a guest.
She was able to value both the guests we had and the people we employed to serve the guests.
She also truly cared about the success of the entire staff, and went to great efforts to provide them with the tools they needed to succeed. During her three years as General Manager, she earned the trust and respect of her staff.
In 2002, she was awarded the Top 5 Star Resort Manager in Belize.
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