Little Pink Houses, Las Casitas Rosas, or in the real world, Essene Way: For the moment, this fantastical place exists on a stretch of white-sand beach on Ambergris Caye, just north of a resort named Captain Morgan’s, about a mile and quarter north of Grand Caribe, the development where my husband and I have a condo. For the moment… because the Essene Way property is under redevelopment. A little sad, yes. though I’m heartened to see that they appear to be refurbishing some of the original buildings. (But I’ll be devasted if they get rid of that whale!) Regardless of how much the property changes, it feels good to know I’ve helped preserving its memory within the pages of Little Pink Houses.

See more photos—of Essene Way and other places on Ambergris Caye—and connect the dots between the real and the imagined.