Marshall Mayer is the co-founder of Let’s Buy an Island, an ambitious project set out in 2018 to raise funds to purchase an island. In December 2019, he managed to raise $250,000 that led to the purchase of Coffee Caye, a 1.2-acre uninhabited island off the coast of Belize.
Investors were not just buying a share of the property. They were also investing in an unconventional nation-building project. Because the island of Coffee Caye has also come to be home to a new “micro-country” called the “Principle of Islandia”, complete with its own national flag, anthem and government. And, as might be expected, it is not recognized by the international community as an independent country.
Since early 2022, the Principality of Islandia has become a hotspot for investor groups and curious tourists. After a 15-minute boat ride from Belize City, Mayer told CNN that “the feeling of stepping into an island you’ve invested in and owned is a wonderful feeling.”
CNN It only takes a few minutes to walk from one end of Coffee Caye to the other, but Mayer will accompany a group of 13 people on their first walking tour of the island. Coffee Caye is long, thin and vaguely shaped like a coffee bean. The side of the island facing a small beach that goes down to a shallow cove is defined as a camping area for the night. The other half of Coffee Caye is scrub and surrounded by mangroves.
Mayer and a few other investors have camped on Coffee Caye for expeditions before, but this is the first night tours available to anyone, investor or non-investor, just getting started.
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