Anyone interested in developing such a project should take a look at Seabrook on the Pacific Coast in SW Washington.  This is primarily a resort community, with about 15-25% of the owners actually residing year-round in Seabrook.  It is designed as a living community where people eventually will be able to live, retire, and work.  With the rise in the numbers of folks working and making a living online, you can live anywhere as long as you have good Internet.  Seabrook is designed so that everything is within a 1 mile walk.  There is an indoor pool and sauna [This IS Washington where a warm day is 70 degrees with only light

SW Washington Pacific Coast: as cold and grey as it looks

rain!], shuffleboard, kid’s play areas, volleyball courts, just a fun atmosphere.  Houses are close together with beautiful landscaping that is low or no maintenance.  There is an overriding theme that reminds me a bit of Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Now how I’d do this in Boquete, or Boca Chica . . . similar idea . . .  affordable [Well, the homes in Seabrook aren't exactly "affordable"!] free-standing, single family, one-level houses ($150,000-200,000), shops and stores within walking distance, high-speed Internet [Really high-speed Internet not the knock-off varieties common in Chiriqui!], social and entertainment facilities, minimal maintenance, small yards but large community spaces.

Any takers?

With grandpa, celebrating the start of the “summer” in Washington – BRRR!

“Come on in Grandpa! The pool is heated!”

This article by Trey Morrison appeared in BUSINESS INSIDER AUSTRALIA.

In 2008 my wife and I packed up our family, with two children under 6 and moved to Panama.

When we arrived we found out we were not the only ones. In fact, in the last five years our small expat community in Panama has transformed from a rural beach community to a populous expat haven with three new and thriving elementary schools teaming with expat children.

I’ve lived in boomtowns before, Atlanta, Key West, Waikiki, but I’d never seen anything like this. Naturally I wondered, “Why are all these families with young children leaving the U.S.?

Personally, I was tired of the rat race and wanted to slow down and enjoy life. I was sick of the bill of goods that was sold to me about needing to be a consumer to be happy. In addition I was concerned with the future of the U.S. economy and wanted to move some of my savings into foreign real estate. I also wanted to prepare my children for a globalized world.

Well, I discovered I was not the only one with these same desires.

In fact, if you poll your friends you will likely find some who are actively planning to leave the U.S. as well. Not just daydreaming but actually planning the move.

They are not alone. According to Bob Adams, CEO of New Global Initiatives, millions of households are planning to leave the U.S. Bob has been surveying Americans since 2005, and what he finds is enlightening.

He asked this question, “Are you planning to relocate to another nation for more than two years for reasons other than the requirements of the military, the government, or your job?” The number who answered yes topped 5% for those aged 25-34. That is one in 20 people and represents over 2 million people.

I have seen tremendous variety in the types of people relocating. Some are wealthy but most are middle class. Some are highly educated and some less so. The common thread that unites them is a search for opportunity and freedom.

Opportunity.

The legendary investor Jim Rogers said, ”If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in 1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you move to Asia.”

That’s exactly what he did. In 2007, he sold his New York mansion and moved to Singapore with his young children because he believes the greatest opportunities in the future will be found outside of the U.S.

Since 2007, the Gallup organisation has asked people in over 100 countries, “Ideally, if you have the opportunity, would you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country?”

Gallup found the numbers responding that they would move permanently were down in all regions except North America and Europe. Perhaps not coincidentally, these two regions of the world have stalled economically while simultaneously their public debt levels have soared.

Many seeking opportunities are finding their options are greater outside the U.S.

A rising tide lifts all ships, and with U.S. economic growth anemic at best, countries with better economies suddenly look appealing.

Take Panama and Singapore for example: In Singapore the GDP growth for 2010 & 2011 was 9.8 per cent, and in Panama it was 9.1%. Compare that with 2.3% in the U.S. and you begin to get the picture.

In addition to seeking economic opportunities abroad, many of these new immigrants believe protecting their wealth from confiscatory governments by “offshoring” some portion of their assets just makes sense.

With Cyprus seizing assets directly from their citizens’ bank accounts, many fear more developed first world nations may not be far behind.

One way to protect their wealth is through direct ownership of foreign real estate. Whether it is farmland in Chile or beachfront property in Ecuador, where new beachfront condos sell for under $79,000, many believe that cheap foreign real estate in rapidly growing economies is an excellent “hedge” against sovereign risk back home.

Freedom.

The U.S. has long been considered the land of the free and it remains the number one destination for those who want to leave their countries, according to Gallup.

But according to the 2013 Heritage Index the U.S. is slipping in the freedom department. It is now considered less free than Chile, Hong Kong and even Singapore. Whether it’s perception or reality, many considering moving abroad believe their economic and personal freedoms are eroding.

I always laugh when guests ask if they can bring beer or build a fire on the beach. Of course they can. Their kids can also run around the pool and do flips and dives. It is these small everyday freedoms that make living abroad so pleasant.

According to an IRS report released just last December “…globalization has pushed an increasing number of individual taxpayers (including entrepreneurs and small businesses) to seek economic opportunities abroad.”

While the numbers are small, they have been increasing steadily since 2005.

Why this trend will increase.

Besides opportunity and freedom people move abroad for dozens of other reasons. They may simply wish to learn a foreign language or have some adventure in their lives. They may move because they are tired of the rat race, or maybe they just want better weather and a lower cost of living.

Americans are moving abroad simply because they can. With a good internet connection it has never been easier for families to be mobile and make a living remotely. If people can make a living anywhere, why not live where the weather is good, the economy is growing and the government stays out of you hair?

One caveat for US citizens: you will never, ever get the US “out of your hair.” Like a bad case of crab lice, they aren’t going to go away. US?  You owe wherever you go: there is no escape.  But even so, the lifestyle in Panama is good, very good.

Panama City Rising
By TIM NEVILLE

Traffic into Panama City was flowing for once, so Miguel Fábrega had only a moment to point out the crumbling ruins in the distance. They were the remains of a 16th-century New Spanish settlement that the British privateer Sir Henry Morgan eventually sacked in 1671. Ahead of us rose Old Panama’s modern replacement: a forest of green, blue and yellow glass skyscrapers that sifted the metallic Central American sky into great vertical columns.

“You’re going to hear a lot about identity, who we are and where we are going,” said Mr. Fábrega, a 37-year-old artist, writer and partner in a creative think tank called DiabloRosso, which promotes emerging artists in Panama. We had met over e-mail a few weeks earlier while I was searching for creative residents willing to show me their city, and moments ago he had picked me up at the airport.

Despite being founded in 1519, Panama is really only 13 years old, Mr. Fábrega argued, its birthday being Dec. 31, 1999, the day the United States gave the Panama Canal and its surrounding land back to the Panamanians. For the first time in a century the country was whole and independent.

“My generation inherited this blank canvas,” said Mr. Fábrega, his salt-and-pepper hair fluttering slightly in the Audi’s air-conditioning. “Now we have the chance to make it our own.”

Today, that canvas is far from blank, however. Over the past 13 years, Panama City has been racing to become a world-class metropolis, and for travelers, the changes have been enormous. In 1997 there were perhaps 1,400 hotel rooms in Panama City. Now there are more than 15,000 with another 4,582 rooms in the pipeline, according to STR Global, a London-based agency that tracks hotel markets. In the last two years alone, Trump, Starwood, Waldorf-Astoria, Westin and Hard Rock have opened hotels here. A new biodiversity museum designed by Frank Gehry is nearly complete. The country’s first modern dance festival unfolded last year, the same year Panama held its first international film festival. The Panama Jazz Festival is going strong after 10 years. The country even has its own year-old microbrewery.

“Panama was this compressed spring just ready to go,” said Keyes Christopher Hardin, a New York lawyer-turned-developer working to restore the city’s old colonial area. “When the Noriega dictator years ended and the U.S. returned all that canal land, things just took off. Everything that could go right did go right.”

Indeed, since 2008, when much of the world was in a recession, the Panamanian economy has expanded by nearly 50 percent. The canal itself, which frames the western edge of Panama City, is undergoing a $5.25 billion expansion that is expected to double its capacity and fuel even more economic growth.

Yes, Panama still struggles with crime and poverty, but foreigners are clearly intrigued with the way things are unfolding. In 1999 just 457,000 international tourists visited Panama, World Bank figures show. In 2011, more than 1.4 million came. Plenty are staying, too: sun-seeking Americans, Venezuelans and wealthy Colombian expatriates who are buying second homes and retirement properties all over Panama. In short, this city of about 880,000 people has gone from a ho-hum business center on the navy blue Pacific to a major leisure destination in record time. In doing so it has become a place full of the kind of paradoxes that occur whenever a very old place grinds against the very new. While the capital now has luxury apartments and five-star cuisine, the thing it needs most is a solid sense of identity.

“You drive in and see all these skyscrapers and you have to wonder, is it just a mirage or does it have any substance?” Johann Wolfschoon, an architect and designer, told me. “What we need to be is amazing. Not amazing for Panama, but amazing.”

IT WAS LATE MARCH, my first day of five in the city, and over the next few days I hoped to get a sense of a city as it enters its teenage years. I would hike through slums where street merchants sold black magic spices, then change my shirt to sip $15 cocktails in the neon glamour of a Hard Rock bar. I would eat terrible chicken and wonderful octopus. I’d spend time with locals, expats, artists, entrepreneurs and a former gangster.

For now, Mr. Fábrega wanted to show me his interpretation of some of the changes afoot. We peeled off the freeway, turned down a boulevard and entered Costa del Este, a section of the city with a skyline that looked like a concrete comb. Our destination was a pop-up gallery that had opened the night before inside an unfinished retail space at the bottom of a new white skyscraper. Sixteen of Mr. Fábrega’s abstract paintings with bright yellows, blues and reds hung on the concrete walls in an exhibition he called “Banana Republic.” It didn’t take long to spot some common motifs: finger-shapes that formed no hands, faucets that had no pipes and machines that could do no work.

“This is Panama,” Mr. Fábrega said with a shrug. “It’s beautiful, but it makes no sense.”

Indeed, Panama City can feel rather absurd at times. Soon a new $2 billion subway, Central America’s first, will whisk people from A to B, but a dearth of sidewalks can make it tough to go anywhere once you arrive. A modern city could use proper addresses, too. Instead, “by the old KFC” or “across from the guayacán tree” is often as precise as it gets. As we left the gallery, Mr. Fábrega said the surest way for him to get mail is to have it sent to his girlfriend in New York.

We drove a few miles west to Casco Viejo, a colonial neighborhood on the far edge of the city, where Mr. Fábrega dropped me off. Casco Viejo, which is sometimes called Casco Antiguo, is a warren of brick streets, leafy plazas and Spanish colonial rum bars blasting the 2/4 beats of cumbia. After Sir Morgan sacked Old Panama, the Spanish regrouped and started anew, this time on a defendable peninsula a few miles away on which Casco Viejo now stands.

I wandered around to get my bearings — seven squares, six churches, one fine-looking ice cream shop — and then checked into my hotel. The Canal House, near the Plaza Mayor, did not look so special from the outside: a white and gray block surrounded by steel barricades for road-working crews. Inside, it was another world, a quiet colonial refuge with rich wood floors, high windows and a cozy lounge. A woven basket sat near my bed, a shout-out to how Panamanians still lower meals from the windows of upstairs kitchens to sidewalk restaurants. On a shelf in the bar downstairs I found a framed note from the actor Daniel Craig, who had stayed while filming scenes for the James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace.” (Casco Viejo stood in for La Paz, Bolivia): “I wish we would have stayed longer.”

Panama has pretty much always been a bridge for cultures, conquerors and, well, birds, but once that mishmash gets distilled into the 50-some blocks of Casco Viejo, an eclectic, almost Noah’s Ark-like vibrancy prevails. The Chinese run so many small groceries here that Panamanians simply call the shops “Chinos.” The French left their mark on the corner of Avenida A and Calle 4, where a Parisian-style apartment building displays elegant rounded balconies. You hear German, Portuguese and English on the streets.

Parts of the area are still pretty seedy, though, and an elite division of stern-looking police officers patrol the area with machine guns and motorcycles. “I was definitely nervous about coming here at first, with the shootings and the gangs,” recalled Matt Landau, a New Jerseyan who moved to Panama City in 2006 and now owns Los Cuatro Tulipanes, a boutique hotel and apartment enterprise in Casco Viejo. A stray bullet smashed into the Canal House in 2009, and Mr. Landau still warns guests not to wander beyond certain blocks. But Casco Viejo does feel quite safe, even at night, when the neighborhood comes alive with busy restaurants and rooftop bars. “I can’t begin to tell you how much it has all changed,” he said.

Mr. Hardin, the developer, has been one of the major players behind that change. His firm buys property in Casco Viejo, renovates it and sells it for about $2,500 per square meter on average. Along the way, he builds affordable housing and works to get kids off the streets by offering jobs that ultimately improve the neighborhood. “Revitalization always revolves around a culture, not an industry,” Mr. Hardin said. “You need a place with good bones that’s affordable with spaces that people can use to explore — pioneering restaurants, galleries — and then you get events around those spaces. That’s what’s happening here. So yes, it’s like Miami, but Miami in maybe 1989.”

To understand what he meant, he suggested I meet Nicolas Mercado, a former gang member who now runs a popular bar called La Vecindad on Avenida A. Mr. Mercado, who has a shaved head and thick, muscled arms, welcomed me in a courtyard at the end of a long entryway where two friendly police officers happened to be standing. Graffiti, the artful kind with intricate angles and bold colors, lined the walls. Upstairs a singer was working on a Latin pop track in the bar’s recording studio.

It was midafternoon and the place was closed, but Mr. Mercado and I sat outside and talked about change. In a way, his story mirrors the turnaround of the entire neighborhood. In the early days of contemporary Panama, or 1999, Mr. Mercado was 16 and the head of the Hot Boys gang, which prowled the eastern blocks of Casco Viejo. There were three other gangs in the area. They mostly sold drugs, though robberies and murder were common too. One day a man came by ostensibly to buy some marijuana, but he shot Mr. Mercado with a pistol four times instead. The man got away, and Mr. Mercado mostly recovered.

“I knew I had to get out,” he said, showing me the scar of a bullet wound on his hand. “This wasn’t for me.”

So Mr. Hardin donated a space for him and his buddies to start a barbershop. It did not go so well. The first client, an American, wandered out with just half of his head trimmed because the gangster-turned-barber ducked out to make a deal and didn’t come back. Mr. Mercado eventually shaped up and turned the space into La Vecindad in 2009, which has since become so popular with live music that it warranted an expansion into the courtyard. There are no more stray bullets.

“I’m free now,” he said when I asked whether he thought the reality of his old ways could return to haunt him. “It doesn’t get any more real than that.”

OF COURSE, the city’s growing pains have been pretty real, too. Boca la Caja, a poor fishing community, is struggling as the city’s demand for prime real estate presses in around it and strangles its access to the sea. A similar fate looms over Casco Viejo with the construction of a controversial bypass that threatens to annul the neighborhood’s Unesco World Heritage status. Traffic is terrible.

I had been inside the Panama Interoceanic Canal Museum — a third-floor exhibition in a red-roof building just off the Plaza Mayor — reading about the hazards of building the canal, when Mr. Fábrega picked me up the next day. I still wanted to explore the city’s music, nature and food scene, so we stopped-and-go’ed our way to a restaurant called Maito in Coco del Mar, a largely residential area about three miles away. “I think you’ll like what the chef is doing,” Mr. Fábrega said.

The chef would have to work hard to impress me. “Starchy, sweet, fried and basic,” is the way Patrick Maurin, the French executive chef at Trump Ocean Club, described Panamanian food, and few would argue otherwise. One night, I had ordered a salad at a restaurant near the Canal House and cringed at the sorry bits of barbecued chicken and pale lettuce that arrived.

“Panama is not a culture that’s built around the table,” said David Henesy, a New York restaurateur, who in 2005 started La Posta, a contemporary restaurant in the Calle Uruguay area that focuses on local, environmentally sustainable ingredients. It can still be difficult to find high-quality foods to work with, he said. “If you want an heirloom tomato or an organic pig, you pretty much have to do it yourself.”

Another chef, Mario Castrellón, is trying to do just that. After studying cooking in Spain, Mr. Castrellón returned to Panama in 2005 to work under Mr. Henesy. In 2009 he started his own venture, Maito, which now competes alongside a dozen other worthy places like Las Clementinas or Tantalo Kitchen, both in Casco Viejo.

Maito was nearly full when Mr. Fábrega and I found a table under paddle fans next to a window. Outside a gardener tended to raised beds that were bushy with Thai basil, cilantro and other herbs that show up in the food.

“No one knows what Panamanian cuisine really is,” Mr. Castrellón, who is 30, said later. “People can name maybe four traditional dishes, but we eat a bit of everything here — Chinese, French, African, Spanish, Colombian, American.”

Mr. Fábrega and I shared a sea bass hot dog — fine, flaky fish rolled into a sausage shape and lightly battered and fried — which was far more delicious than it sounds. We tore into an order of ropa vieja, literally “old clothes,” a traditional meal of shredded beef and sauce that Mr. Castrellón has invigorated with spicy peppers, annatto and goat cheese salsa.

The crowning analogy came with the octopus. The creature had been candied, set upon a garbanzo bean paste, and garnished with cilantro flowers and other herbs. It was sweet, spicy, succulent.

“Chinese glaze, Spanish beans, local herbs,” Mr. Castrellón said. “Put all these elements together, and now you have a Panamanian octopus.”

Eager to explore more of the city, I said a hasty goodbye to Mr. Fábrega and met up with Jessica Ramesch, the Panama editor of International Living magazine. We piled into her Hyundai and fought our way out to a former United States military base called Clayton that sits along the canal in the northwest part of the city.

“All of this area was pretty much closed to Panamanians when the Americans were here,” she said as we crept through the Canal Zone, a Phoenix-size former United States territory where Americans working and defending the canal lived a strange, cross-world existence. “Zonians,” as they were called, could get Guess jeans and Jif peanut butter just as on most military bases abroad, but then monkeys might walk with the children to school. Huge ships moved through the Miraflores Locks just to the west of the road.

“Many Zonians stayed and some of the bases have become these gorgeous neighborhoods,” Ms. Ramesch said.

Clayton is one of them. Though it was now getting dark, I could see community centers and signs for the City of Knowledge, a compound for research, tech companies and nongovernmental organizations. We parked near a soccer field and wandered toward a massive corotú tree where a crowd had spread out blankets and lawn chairs. A band was warming up near the trunk.

While much of the city’s night life unfolds along Calle Uruguay, every full moon during the dry months hundreds of people head out to Clayton to bang on Tupperware containers, buckets and anything else that might make a noise. They do their best to follow the band — just a group of friends, really — which plays pop, reggae and whatever else it feels like.

“Who here can drum?” an announcer shouted into a microphone, and the pounding became a roar.

Over the next several days, few things I saw or did in the city had quite the same wow factor as this bucket band gathered under an old tree. I sipped cocktails at Barlovento, a new rooftop bar where slinky women and V-shaped men swirled around in a cyclone of perfume and cigarettes, and I shopped for tapestries made by Kuna Indians along a waterfront paseo. A hike on a steep, car-less road up a jungly hill in the middle of the city stood out, but that’s because an anteater crossed my tracks, and I’d never seen one of those before.

But here on the ground with wine and cheese and a fat moon hanging in the trees, I wondered if a city needs to add up to make sense. As absurd as Panama City can feel at times, it is certainly a lot of fun, too, and between the cracks of all the chaos, these mini-miracles are burbling through.

As if on cue, the bucket band’s disparate racket gradually fell into sync until — no way — “The Girl From Ipanema” emerged. It was messy and loud and no one knew how it would end, which made it all the more amazing, too. [Source: New York Times]

The New Face of US Immigration: Leaving for Central America

The Debt No One Wants to Pay

What has happened to America? Perhaps, at no time, has the waves of discontent been so intense, that not a single group can reach agreement with another. It can’t really be compared with the Civil War; it was a war of two separate factions; one wishing to split away and form its own constitution, the other determined to maintain a single, united entity. Nor can it be truly compared to the Great Depression, although many of the circumstances are similar. The twenty year era of poverty drove massive numbers into the streets, wandering around the country, looking for jobs, saw endless homeless and the creation of Union power. While Union power has been deeply corroded by government mandates, the greatest difference has been that for the first time, Americans are considering migrating out of the country they helped to make great, and start over.

The emerging migration can be blamed partly on the economy. Baby boomers reaching retirement age have discovered their social security checks are not enough to cover the spiraling costs of living. Younger people are concerned that America’s staggering debt will create a tax burden none can afford. Advanced education has done nothing to improve their opportunities for a lucrative income, only saddled them with student loans and desperation. Buying a new car is difficult enough; investing in real estate is a pipe dream.

Economies eventually recover. Innovation, reform, new resources and rebuilding the infrastructure lead the way to new economic development. From the revolutionary years, though the industrial age, Americans have had faith during their economic struggles that things would get better. They had a dream and they were willing to fight for it.

Without Liberty

America has lost its faith. This, more than anything, has stimulated the American dream to find greener pastures. Individual and community efforts to change the course of economic disparity have met in failure, primarily due to government intervention. Farm co-operatives and private homes have been invaded, their assets seized by agents who determined their organic practices were unsafe, even in the face of mounting pressure to abandon GMO projects. Neither has bartering been accepted favorably, with an insistence that all bartered items be listed as income.

America can handle a new era of poverty. What it can’t accept is the growth of a government seat that continues to nibble away at their natural liberties. Natural liberties have been defined since the early Greek civilization. Our individual survival depends on the right to seek out food, water and shelter. This same drive determines our instinctual desire to protect the assets we have obtained and to benefit from our own handiwork. As social creatures, we naturally crave free expression, whether in religion, speech or press. When these desires are suppressed, when we can no longer reasonably maintain food, water and shelter, when our assets are removed from us, along with the benefits of our handiwork and we feel unprotected, it is our natural drive to look elsewhere for free expression.

Central America Becomes the New Frontier

For many, elsewhere has become Central America. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 retirees will have moved south of the border over the next fifteen years. It has also become the main attraction for ex-pats and people looking for ways to invest their self-directed IRA’s.

What has suddenly made Central America a sudden choice for packing up and starting over? Much has to do with changes in Central American policies. Long considered a tax shelter where wealthy businessman invest millions and rake in untaxed profits from private banks, the governments within the affected countries have become worried about corporate trends, their big-money dominance and worries over corporate dependencies. Wishing to save an infrastructure that serves its citizens, their appeal to investors and entrepreneurs has been directed at the American middle class.

Many of the Central American companies have made it easier to invest in real estate and residency. They maintain an equitable exchange rate with the dollar, and in some cases, such as Panama, use the dollar as currency. You do not need a passport to visit their country; a visa will allow you into most of them. Once you’ve become a resident, you can legally buy and own property. You do not have to pay taxes unless you sell it. Owning a small business is encouraged and the start-up rates are only half the expense as beginning a business in the United States.

There are disadvantages. Central America still has a great deal of under-development. American products are expensive. Unless you accustom yourself to Central American life-styles, you won’t find a great deal of difference in the prices you pay in the U.S. Schools are generally small outside the big cities. There is a shortage of English language teachers. As you would be moving to a foreign country, it would be necessary to learn Spanish and adapt to the culture and customs.

The Appeal of Opportunity

However, for many, this only makes the prospect more exciting. There is a feeling of pioneering, as well as adventure, the excitement of being presented with an opportunity, when U.S. opportunities seem to have dried up. The idea of moving to a country without the cumbering machinery of US codes and regulations outweighs the minor handicaps of adaptation.

Climate and environment are definitely an advantage. The tropical landscape offers rugged mountains, jungles, rain forest and swift rivers to the adventure seeker; brightly colored birds and a variety in wildlife species to the naturalist. Central America is bordered with spectacular beaches for swimming, snorkeling, surfing or just plain sun-bathing. It has become so tourism friendly, it welcomes the back-packer as avidly as it absorbs the high roller.

While Central America is busy embracing retirees and expats, many US cities are on the decline as the death rate creeps over the birth rate. Their strategy has been to accept Latin American immigration, hoping that by doing so, the additional manpower will stimulate the economies. While they are rolling out a welcome mat for the influx, no studies have been made of the impact of US citizens leaving the country.

When the Dream is Over

US immigrants into Central America will bring with them, their retirement income, their SSI, their IRA’s and the profits generated from selling out. The disenfranchised will bring their creativity, their innovation, their entrepreneurship and other learned skills. Many will bring their families.

The phrase, “if you don’t love it, leave it,” has backfired for the American people. The long-term love affair with what was once considered the land of the free, is over. Those who harbor in their hearts concepts of personal liberties are suspicious of a corporate ruled government and fear federal jurisdiction is becoming increasingly more tyrannical. America didn’t just fail its people economically. The American backbone has been strong, able to withstand war and depression. It’s the breaking away from Constitutional rights, from concepts of individual freedom that has crushed the spirit of the American people, making leaving what they no longer love, a viable option. The American dream may be over in the United States, but it is just beginning in Central America. [Source: Subversity]

Thanks to Larry, Kathleen and Stewart for their recent 5 Star reviews on Amazon of Escape To Paradise: Living & Retiring In Panama

The key to selling books on Amazon is placement, and the thing that helps most are the number of reviews! Even if someone says the book sucks it helps sales of the book. So if you’ve read please take a moment and write a review on Amazon!

“Read this book to give you a starting point before visiting Panama for possible retirement. I would also recommend that you follow Richard’s blog at http://www.richarddetrich.com for weekly updates as well as Bob Adams website, http://www.retirementwave.com. When you are actually ready to make your first visit, I would recommend that you sign up with Jackie Lange for a stress free non high pressure guided tour of most of the places that expats would consider living at http://www.liveforlessinpanama.com. If you are lucky, you might get a chance to meet both Richard and Bob on the tour. Larry H”

“Excellent, loved it. So much information. Truly does sound like paradise. Hoping to visit in the next couple years. Maybe even meet Richard. Kathleen M. Bernier“

“From my perspective, this book by Mr. Deitrich is a must read for anyone interested in living and or retiring to Panama. Helpful tips and insights throughout the book. Mr. Detrich RETIRED TO PANAMA AND HAS LIVED THERE FOR CLOSE TO (10)YEARS. Who better than an expat to provide his reader with ” on the boots” experiences . He is not just writing a book about the country. He is living and breathing it every day. Stewart R. Seitz“

“Candy!  Knee problems!  What the . . . ?”

Actually it is a very good [delicious in fact!], well-thought-out treatment approach.  You let the candy in the sun to melt a little, then  you rub it all over your knee, and then  you lick it off.  It’s great for stretching and flexibility and it works!

Bill & Pam took this picture of our friends Erito & Zueleka at Embera Puru

Pam loved Panama and it is definitely in their retirement considerations.  At my recommendation they contacted Anne Gordon [www.emberavillagetours.com] and took an all day trip to the Embera Puru village deep in the Chagres National Park.  They met with our friends Erito & Zueleka and all of our other friends in the village and had a fantastic time.  Like everyone who visits this village, Bill & Pam were awed by the genuine friendliness of the Embera people and described it as a fantastic adventure and one of the best trips ever.

And now a delightful rumor . . .

People are always talking about three things in Boquete: 1) When and if the new four-lane highway between David and Boquete will ever be finished, 2) When and where a new Super 99 grocery store will be built in Boquete, and 3) When and if there will ever be a direct flight between David and the US.

As near as I can figure:

1) The road will get done, manana, like everything else in Panama.  It will happen, sometime in the future.  In the meantime, pick a lane, any lane, and go in any direction.  Helpful hint: the Transito’s (our CHP-style motorobo cops) seem only to pay attention to traffic on the officially open side (if you can figure out which is which) or the highway.  On the other side  you can pretty much do whatever you want at whatever speed you want.

2) Super 99 maybe, sometime . . . . manana!  There is a gigantic Super 99 going up behind Super Baru in David.  I’m betting Super Ivan will be up and running long before any Super 99 or Rey/Romero ditches their dumpy store in Boquete and builds something decent.

3) And three – DRUM ROLL! – this from “THE VISITOR” – in an article entitled
“Panama: fully connected to Latin America and the world”

. . .  Economy airlines fly to Panama. Spirit, has applied for a new route from Miami to the International Airport Enrique Malek, in David, in the western province of Chiriqui. Canadian airlines are planning services to the nearly-completed Rio Hato Airport, in the Cocle province, near to the hotel area of the Pacific beaches.

Although I don’t like Spirit’s scheduling and pricing structure [Are they or are they not charging you extra to use the bathrooms now?], I do think that Spirit is a good first mover in the David/US space. Their flights are “occassional” and people are so desperate for a direct flight that they would accommodate a wacky time schedule.   And for someone who works cruise ships David/Miami/Lauderdale would be excellent.  Cheap, crazy hours, no flights to Panama City  and no overnight hotels in Panama City and probably arriving in Florida at 6 am – just what the cruise lines love!

Now some mail . . .

From Goinglikesixty . . .

Didn’t see a way to email you directly… There is a perception among expats in Costa Rica that the Panama discounts for pensionados is real. I found your blog post from two years ago that says “well…maybe…kinda…” Can you weigh in again on the topic? Has your perception of the discounts in Panama changed? Better? Worse?

First my email address somehow got dropped from the right sidebar.  Thanks for the reminder: it is back.

The Pensionado discount is . . . and isn’t.  Last night I had dinner at One-Eyed Frank’s Italian eatery in Palmira.  I noticed that he has jacked up his prices $1 per entre while still claiming that this “is” the discounted price and that he gives the Pensionado discount to everyone.  Not legal, but unless you want to piss off Frank and friends, or are fluent in Spanish and no your way around the government agencies that en force this sort of thing, you either accept the reality or eat somewhere else.  Frank, like everyone else who owns a small restaurant faces the reality that if you give away 25% to Pensionados, and most of your customer base happens to be Pensionados, you’re not going to stay in business.

Hotels seem to play the game that the discount is off the rack rate, which of course no hotel actually gets unless there is a big convention or tourist event in town.  Technically I think this is not exactly legal, but again unless you speak fluent Spanish and know your way around the bureaucracy . . . I took my brother to Hospital Chiriqui for an endoscopy procedure.  When I paid the bill, total $390, I showed his Pensionado card and asked if the discount was included.  The lady said, “SI, con discuento.”  However, laying next to my brother’s bill [$390] was the bill of the Chinese teenager who had the procedure right after my brother and his bill, exactly the same items and procedure, was exactly the same [$390].  I pointed this out and was abruptly cut off, told it wasn’t the same, although it WAS item per item, and she rushed to charge my credit card and get me out of there.  So that’s how the game is played.  Airlines: generally with the Pensionado Discount on an international flight the rate comes out to be about the same as the senior rate on sites like Expedia and Orbitz.  And with airlines that don’t have senior fares, like KLM, even if you are flying round trip from Panama, you don’t get a discount.

So, yes, I saved $1.25 at KFC in David, and there are some benefits to the Pensionado program which, by the way, was developed for Panamanian retirees who generally get pretty meager pensions, and not expat retirees.  It saves a few bucks here and there but it is NOT the reason to consider retiring in Panama.  The reason to consider retiring in Panama is the quality of life, not the Pensionado program, and, increasingly, not the cost of living.   Yes, it is cheaper here than in many places in North America and Europe, although not all.  A nice Gringo-style home in Boquete may, or may not, be cheaper than a similar home where you live.

“Well, maybe, kinda” is still a good answer!

Richard,My wife and I are planning our 2nd trip to Boquete in October. After having done the PTY/Allford/David routine at 2:30 in the morning, we are looking at an alternative. What do you know about flying into San Juan (SJO) , & catching a bus to David. It is certainly cheaper, but is it safe and practical? Your thoughts please.We are considering the move to Panama and this trip should go a long way towards our decision. By the way, I am a retired roofing contractor. I enjoyed your previous comments about roofing in Chiriqui.We’ll buy lunch, you buy the rum.With warm personal regards,BobSouth Carolina

I’ve never done this, although I see the buses on the Pan American highway.  Generally cruise lines are booking my flights, and it’s generally not the best routing or price for them.  However there are lots of folks here who do fly out of San Jose and like that option.  It does generally require hotel overnights however in San Jose.  I’d check out Boquetening.com and I’m sure you’ll find others willing to share their experiences.

RICHARD, What is name of the book with Spanish construction terms ? Jim Wasson

Right, Jim, how dumb of me! It’s really a good book! SPANISH FOR THE CONSTRUCTION TRADE by William C. Harvey.

You mentioned there are plenty of other reasons for living in Panama besides the pensionado program. What are some of them? Ray

Hi Ray! Not to push my book,Escape To Paradise: Living & Retiring In Panama, but I have an entire chapter entitled “Why Panama?” The quick and easy answer is that when we compared countries, and in the book I show how we did this, Panama worked out to be the best choice for us. It’s not for everyone, but if you’ve ever thought of “escaping” and an expat lifestyle, you should at least consider Panama. It’s beautiful. The climate is great. The quality of life is good. It is relatively affordable. The people are warm and welcoming. It is stable. It is booming economically. Read the book!

My “paradise”, my special combo of Margaritaville and Kokomo, is of course, Panama, and two spots in Panama particularly, Boquete and Boca Chica.  Panama was once aptly named Noriegaville, during the Noriega dictatorship, but now that Noriega is an infirm old man [well, older than me!] in a prison beside the Panama Canal named “Rebirth” of all things, Noriegaville somehow loses its charm.

So did I get wasted today?  No, but I should have because the day was an almost total waste.

International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) is a celebration of the international labor movement and is a national holiday in more than 80 countries, including Panama, and celebrated unofficially in many additional countries.  It is an international holiday, except in the US.  Although the US was the genesis for International Worker’s Day . . .

International Workers’ Day is the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. The police were trying to disperse a public assembly during a general strike for the eight-hour workday, when an unidentified person threw a bomb at them. The police reacted by firing on the workers, killing dozens of demonstrators and several of their own officers. “Reliable witnesses testified that all the pistol flashes came from the center of the street, where the police were standing, and none from the crowd. Moreover, initial newspaper reports made no mention of firing by civilians. A telegraph pole at the scene was filled with bullet holes, all coming from the direction of the police.”

In 1889, the first congress of the Second International, meeting in Paris for the centennial of the French Revolution and the Exposition Universelle, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne, called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests.[5] May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891.[citation needed]

Subsequently, the May Day Riots of 1894 occurred. In 1904, the International Socialist Conference meeting in Amsterdam called on “all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.” The congress made it “mandatory upon the proletarian organizations of all countries to stop work on May 1, wherever it is possible without injury to the workers.”

In many countries, the working classes sought to make May Day an official holiday, and their efforts largely succeeded. May Day has long been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist and anarchist groups. In some circles[which?], bonfires are lit in commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs, usually at dawn. May Day has been an important official holiday in countries such as the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union. May Day celebrations typically feature elaborate popular and military parades in these countries.

In the United States and Canada, however, the official holiday for workers is Labor Day in September. This day was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, who organized the first parade in New York City. After the Haymarket Massacre, US President Grover Cleveland feared that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the affair. Thus he moved in 1887 to support the Labor Day that the Knights supported.

In 1955, the Catholic Church dedicated May 1 to “Saint Joseph The Worker”. The Catholic Church considers Saint Joseph the patron saint of (among others) workers and craftsmen.

Far-right governments have traditionally sought to repress the message behind International Workers’ Day, with fascist governments in Portugal, Italy, Germany and Spain abolishing the workers’ holiday. 1 May in the US is celebrated as Loyalty Day.

What, “loyal” workers don’t strike?

So anyway the holiday is, and has been, May 1st in Panama. Except this year . . . Somewhat at the last-minute, and because a lot of companies wanted a 3-day weekend [part of the price of moving from a "Banana Republic" to a first world nation], at the last-minute the President presumably decided May 1st would be April 29th, or April 29th would be May 1st, take your pick. Nobody, at least in Palmira, seemed certain which day would be the holiday. Need I add this is one of 21 paid holidays workers get by law, not to mention the 30-day annual vacation also by law, nor the 16 sick days, nor the gratuitous “13th month” for which they are paid. Hell, if you can add a pretend month to the calendar why not make April 29th May 1st? So not knowing what to do, some folks saying the day off is today (Monday) and others saying, “No it’s Wednesday”.  This being Panama and a little like the partially completed highway between Boquete and David, you just do whatever you want.  Pick a lane, any lane, and go in a direction, any direction!  So I just asked my farm worker which day he wanted off and which day he wanted to work. So he worked today and I planned a busy day . . . going to Boca Chica, stopping in David en route to pick up tile and glass block that finally had arrived in Cochez, and buying some other construction supplies. Well David was shut tight as a . . . shut tight with stores closed. I guess David got the memo that April 29th was now May 1st.

So for what I got accomplished today, I might as well have just gotten wasted.

So does this mean the President can make Christmas any day he wants? And what about New Year’s?

“What me worry?” [Some of you old farts like me will remember.]

It’s cloudy, dreary this afternoon and I hope it rains. Now, rather than getting wasted, I am going to pour some Panama Red over ice and sip slowly and ponder life in paradise.

Not to get political but . . . there is a certain resemblance . . .

And I include that only because the George H. W. Bush Library just opened. But in the interest of fairness, and “equal time”, this one’s not a bad resemblance either . . .

I guess being lampooned comes with the territory. After all, it’s a tough job being President.

I’m retired!

Believe it or not, so all of you who spend 1-1.5 hours every day commuting from North of LA into the city, or New York, or Chicago, or elsewhere put this into the perspective of, “He IS supposedly retired and so he has the right to bitch.”

Boca Chica days the drill is up at 4am, check emails, load up for day at Boca Chica [lunch, Cokes for workers, ice, equipment, etc. which can't be left at Boca Chica because there is not place to lock it up, make lunch, feed cat and dogs], pick up my farm worker and leave at 5:30 am.  Navigate Boquete Bumper Car ride in the dark (more later!) and get to Boca Chica by 7:05 am.  Coming home is another 1.5 hours in the afternoon.  Come home after working all day and sweating like being in a sauna, have a drink, maybe eat and sit in the spa and then crash.  How does the Pope at 75 do it??

Well just maybe he  has a theology of leisure!  In a new book, based on interviews with the then Cardinal Bergoglio, the future Pope responding to the question, “Do we need to rediscover the meaning of leisure?” said,

“Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport. But this is being destroyed, in large part, by the elimination of the Sabbath rest day. More and more people work on Sundays as a consequence of the competitiveness imposed by a consumer society.” In such cases, he concludes, “work ends up dehumanizing people.”

Thankfully, a Pope from Latin America and not Northern Europe.  And obviously he lacks a “Protestant work ethic.”

Lots of work going on in our tiny casita overlooking the Pacific in Boca Chica.  I’ve discovered what most folks who do remodels know, it’s easier to build something new than remodel something, but my wife Nikki envisioned a “Greek cottage” overlooking the sea a’la Oia or Mykonos, so that’s what I’m working on.  A Greek cottage in the tropics!  Much as I love Oia on Santorini it gets cold there in the winter.  In Boca Chica it’s in the 80′s and 90′s year-round.

The well-drilling machine is in place . . . and broken!  That seems to be my way with well-drilling machines, but the motor has been ripped apart and repaired and I am promised it will start drilling Monday, i.e. the famous Panama “manana”.

The broken well-drilling motor did have a blessing.  Any project like this you have your “Plan A” which never works.  Then you go to “Plan B” and about “Plan Zz” it works!  My neighbors at Gone Fishing Panama have graciously allowed me to get water and electric from them during this project.  However, when went to weld the steel on the new section of roof suddenly that machine would draw too much power and the only other generator on a truck we could locate was in Palmira, but broken.  Perfora Panama let us use their supper big welding machine brough it to repair the drilling rig and so we got the job done.

All this would be a lot easier had not my neighbors on the other side parked their giant sign smack dab in front of MY property, exactly where my entrance was supposed to be despite the fact that I had asked them not to park their sign in front of my property.  Guess it takes all kinds.  [Their property ends by the circled and shaded light post!]

So the work goes on.  I’ve found a local electrician in nearby Hornconcitos who will work with me and a European-style system of creating a hung ceiling using panels made locally of cement and gypsum which appeals to me because I’ve done drywall [did the entire Ventura house remodel] and have reluctantly concluded that I’m too old to do gypsum ceilings by myself.

A friend from Panama Relocation Tours [he actually did the tour 3 times before deciding on Panama!] has moved to Boquete and was gracious enough to bring along three hammocks in his container for me. [One for Palmira, two for Boca Chica - you see I, too, have a theology of leisure - sometimes.]  He lent me a marvelous book which gives Spanish construction terms.

So this will be the last picture of my project before Nikki returns home and we have the great “reveal”.  Although Nikki doesn’t read my blog when she’s home, I think she’s reading in now that she’s being Abuela in Seattle, so to keep the surprise, no more Boca Chica casita photos.

“All government is crap!”

Well at least that’s what a friend of mine said recently.  Not that he is an anarchist, but just totally fed up.  And it’s not just Europe, Russia, the United Kingdom, or the US.  Everyone is fed up every where.  No wonder the US government is stocking up on more ammunition than they use in a war and the so-called “Patriot Act” is being used to take away more and more freedom and tighten the screws.  By the time anyone gets to be President of the US, Senator or high-ranking “elected” official they have sold out so much of their soul to so many people that they just become a puppet leader, albeit one who manages to get rich in the process.  Some countries, like Panama, are just a little more open about this charade than others.  Get this . . .

New criminal law to protect legislators with mansions and yachts
A DRAFT law reducing the amount of time in which criminal proceedings can be launched in cases of unjustified enrichment and embezzlement was passed by Panama’s National Assembly on Thursday, April 25.

 Panameñista Deputy José Isabel Blandón said that there is no justification to add greater limits to criminal proceedings in cases of embezzlement and unjustified enrichment of officials.
“The deputies proposed this project because they fear the consequences of their actions, there is no other reason,” he said. “They want to shield themselves.”
He said that a member or minister is accountable because they cannot justify having mansions, yachts and helicopters on salaries of $7,000 a month.
“They must be accountable and justify their spending,” he said.
Minutes before the approval, the official party caucus refused to return the bill to second debate despite the fact that the proposal came from CD Alternate Deputy Jackeline Muñoz.
Before the vote, the alternate member, who is the daughter of pro-government Deputy José Muñoz said that “we are not in favor of the changes because they have not gone through a first debate. We cannot go against our people.”
CD deputies Rogelio Baruco, and Sergio Gálvez, who is also the president of the Assembly, and other members proposed to omit the reading of the project and proceed directly to approval.
CD members Noriel Salarno and Ernesto Villarreal joined Jackeline Muñoz in abstaining. [Newsroom Panama]

Running back and forth between Boquete and Boca Chica . . .

I’m using a lot of gas! $50 to fill up! But, although gas is now sold by liter and not gallon, the price of gas is lower in Panama than in much of Central America. He’s a comparison for Super prices, but remember that we, like most folks in Chiriqui, use diesel, which is a few cents cheaper than gasoline.  Of course there ARE cheaper transportation alternatives!

A report released on the average consumer prices for Gasoline and Diesel in Central America, effective for the week April 14-20, 2013 shows that Panama fuel prices are below the regional average and well below countries like Costa Rica and Nicaragua.
The price per gallon of Super gasoline , highest to lowest: $5.76 Costa Rica, Nicaragua $5.06, $4.87 Honduras, El Salvador $4.55, Panama $4.39, Guatemala $4.31.
a table published by CentralAmericaData shows
Countries: Super,Regular Diesel
Costa Rica: 5.76 5.41 4.88
El Salvador: 4.55 4.20 4.05
Guatemala: 4.31 4.12 3.73
Honduras: 4.87 4.50 4.10
Nicaragua: 5.06 4.73 4.31
PANAMA: 4.39 4.06 3.82
Region Average: 4.82 4.50 4.15

The prices for El Salvador and Guatemala, correspond to self-service in the capital. In Panama the price corresponds to the maximum sales price in gas stations in the city of Panama, established by the National Secretariat of Energy [Newsroom Panama]

From “panamagirl”

Hi, My question is about shipping household items from Panama to the United States. My parents passed away last year and we, the family, would like to have some of their personal items brought back to the U.S. Is there a reasonable shipping company you can recommend? Karen

Hi Karen! Sorry to hear of your parents deaths. I assume from your email handle “panamagirl” that you are Panamanian living in the US while your parents remained in their home in Panama. This is also an issue for the children of expats and Gringos who have moved to Panama for another great adventure in their lives, stay put in Panama until the end, and their kids from abroad have to pick up the pieces. While all of us “older” folks assume our kids will treasure every trinket and piece of junk we’ve picked up throughout our lives, I suppose it just ain’t so, especially when in many cases the kids are in our home countries.

There is a wonderful charity umbrella of sorts here called Bid4Boquete which every year has a huge sale of donated items. Some of these items are very valuable and others . . . well, think Salvation Army or Goodwill stores. So you may want to consider donating stuff to Bid4Boquete. The Lion’s Club sells used books and the new Boquete Library welcomes donations of books, English or Spanish. If the books are too outdated or old they are offered for sale through the Lion’s Club or disposed of at our small recycling center. You could also try offering items for sale though Boquetening.com Web site, which acts as kind of community bulletin board. Chiriqui Storage also has a monthly flea market.

But the stuff you want to treasure . . . It is difficult to send stuff from Panama to the US and expensive! Depending on the amount and size of the memory pieces, you might find it easiest to just load up some extra suitcases, pay the extra baggage charge and be done with it. That may actually work out to be the cheapest way. Since not everyone who relocates to Boquete stays here forever, and some, although not many, decided they want to load up a container and take things back to the US or wherever. Boquetening.com would be a good place to post a notice asking if anyone is taking a container back to the US and would be willing to share some space. However, you’re likely to find that unless someone happens to be sending their stuff to a city near to you, the cost of moving the stuff from where the container lands to your home may be quite high.

Who knows, maybe Volcan Baru will blow and save my kids all of this hassle.

Assisted Living . . .

“Hi Richard – Thank you so much for sharing the story about getting your brother into an assisted care home. My husband John and myself are planning to move to Panama and hoping to bring my dad with us who is currently in a nursing home here in Canada. We were asking about assisted care in an expat blog and Chris referred us to your story.
We wanted to know if you could give us an idea of the cost involved in this home. My dad is 85 years old and requires assistance as well as medications and insulin. We understand that nannies are most common in Panama but we are afraid that this would not be enough care. We appreciate any further information you can give us about this place. Also we were looking into moving to closer to Panama City, so if you know of any other similar place in the City please let us know. Thanking you in advance, John & Amira”

John & Amira, Where to begin? First, the place where my brother is is lovely. Out in the middle of the country, about 1 hour from where we live in Boquete. Cost is $575 per month. It is assisted living not a medical care facility although they do see that he gets his medication. They are wonderful people. Unfortunately my brother has grown up on my parents cooking for him, definitely Gringo food and when he lived alone his diet was mostly peanut butter, yoghurt, cheese and fruit juices and he never remembered his insulin or meds. The home provides Panamanian food, as it should since this is Panama. Unfortunately my brother doesn’t like Panamanian food and has lost a lot of weight. We supplement things with a special drink for diabetics ($35-40 a can which lasts about 1 week), and when we go taking him some peanut butter, sugar-free drink mix, sugar-free gelatin for the home to use, and apples or grapes, but he has lost a lot of weight. I don’t think it’s appetite because he loves to go to Pizza Hut and wolfs down pizza or fast food at McDonald’s. So it’s not ideal, but it’s all we have.

The insulin his doctor wants him to take is hard, and sometimes impossible to find in drug stores. Costs about $80-90 a bottle. The SAME insulin is available through Public Health for $3 a bottle, but he has to go to the local public health, see that doctor, and get it from their pharmacy if and when they have it. Not ideal, but we’re trying to work it out. We have a good doctor who speaks some English but he wants my brother to see a dozen specialists and have a bunch of tests. All of that is in David (40 minutes from here), my brother is in Concepcion (30 minutes from David, 1.25 hours from here) and appointments, etc., must all be done in Spanish with receptionists who only speak Spanish and work irregular hours, as do the doctors. Having an “appointment” means nothing, you just go and spend all afternoon and hope to be seen.

My honest advice? Have your Dad stay put and get the care he needs. Canada from what I hear has a medical system that it’s hard to beat, certainly not in Panama. We thought about bringing my Dad down while he was alive and it would have been a gigantic mistake. If it means putting off your relocation to Panama, well . . .

My brother has enjoyed four years in Panama. Sometimes now he’s aware that he is in Panama, but sometimes thinks he’s still in Pennsylvania and living in a college dormitory (with all senior citizens and without classes). I guess, hope, we made the right move bringing him down here so he’d have someone around, but other times I’m not sure.

It’s a tough call either way. But we haven’t discovered anything similar to the concept of assisted living my Dad enjoyed in the States where he had his own room (kinda like a cruise ship for seniors), communal meals (and he complained about the food as well), nurses to look after him, and down the hall a nursing wing if and when he needed it.

David Airport . . .

Do you know when the airport in David will be completed? J W Majors

The airport IS completed! Now all it needs is another airline in addition to Air Panama, and preferably one which sometimes flies directly to the US – any US airport will do! The new airport even has a luggage carousel ending the time-honored tradition of everyone crowding around a hole in the wall while a kid crawled through with luggage and would call out the claim numbers . . . in Spanish of course . . . and hand out the luggage one piece at a time, whereupon you struggled to pull your luggage through the crowd without injuring anyone. Ah, progress!

“If I were not upon the sea . . .”

Folks ask me this question a lot, “When are you going back to sea?” And the answer is that right now I have no idea. If, and when, I do go back it will be with a different cruise line. And perhaps, although I’m not sure, in a different capacity. My age presents certain challenges in coming up with the insurance I need for 3 to 5 month contracts, so we’re just going to see how all this plays out. But for now . . . I’m incredibly happy just being home in Panama and getting tons of things accomplished, stuff that I’ve wanted to get done for a long time. I’ve been home in Panama now six months straight, more time than I’ve spent at home in the past almost five years. I’m hoping and expecting to finish my project in Boca Chica before I set sail again.

Short term apartment renters could face $50,000 fines

Although I expect this to apply mostly in Panama City, it is worth taking note . . .

Hotel owners in Panama are complaining of unfair competition from apartment owners who rent their properties to tourists at low prices.Hoteliers say that the property owners do not pay tourist tax and work illegally.

Although there is a law that prohibits renting apartments to tourists for less than 45 days and which is punishable with a fine $50,000 for repeat offenders, apartment owners who have failed to sell their properties see in the vacation rentals a way to recover their investment says a report in CentralAmericaData.

“On the Internet you can find hosting offers for less than $80 per day, in exclusive areas of the city such as San Francisco, Paitilla and Punta Pacifica, while city hotels offer rates ranging from $99 to $130 on average”, said Prensa.com.

Ernesto Orillac, Deputy Administrator of the Tourism Authority of Panama (ATP), “There is a security issue. The people who rent these apartments pay cash and it is not known what their movements in the country are.” He said that they would hire more inspectors to intensify operations, due to the impact of this activity on the hotel sector.

Residents who own and live in buildings where short-term rentals are common have also complained as temporary visitors often ignore administration rules designed to enable owners to enjoy shared facilities. In many cases the visitors have not been made aware of the “house rules”. Other concerns relate to possible criminal activity by fly-by-nights. [Newsroom Panama]

My initial thought is always the same, “Well, how much does it cost to live where you live now?”  The cost of living in Beverly Hills, CA is going to be a whole lot more than in Altoona, PA.  And some folks choose, or are forced, to live frugally, while others spend money like there is no tomorrow.  Some folks have a lot to spend while others have very little.  So the answer is going to be different depending on you, your expectations, and your present lifestyle.

My good friend Jackie Lange is actually right now escorting on of her Panama Retirement Tours.  I’ll meet up with this tour when they get to Boquete and come to our home for wine and cheese and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone.  Jackie blogs from time to time on her Live For Less In Panama Web site.  She recently published a post which I’ll repeat here based on her current experience in Boquete.

Cost of Living in Boquete Panama
March 27, 2013 by Live For Less In Panama

What does it cost to live in Boquete? That’s the question I get asked most often. And it’s the most important question you need the answer to before you make the decision to move offshore.

We’ve been tracking our living expenses since moving to Boquete so I thought I’d share them to give you a realistic picture of what it costs to live in Boquete.

There are many areas in Panama where you can live for much less. If you live near Coronado or Panama City, you’ll pay much more.

HOUSING

This is usually your biggest expense but it does not have to be in Boquete.

In Boquete, like all other places, your cost “depends” on your lifestyle. If you want to live in Valle Escondido or any of the other gated communities around Boquete your costs will be much higher than other areas.

You can rent a house for $400 a month or spend $3000 a month. Last year I saw a house advertised for $200 per month.

A friend recently bought a 3 bedroom house for $35,000 about 15 minutes from Boquete. Another friend bought a house in Valle Escondido for $385,000 and another friend bought a house in Santa Lucia for $120,000…. or you can pay $1,000,000’s.

Boquete, like all areas has a huge variety. Only you can determine if the price you are willing to pay is in an area you like.

I recommend that you rent for at least 6-12 months before you buy anything. That’s the only way you can really get to know an area.

Many people make the decision to become a renter for the rest of their life once they move offshore. It gives you a lot more flexibility. Rent is so affordable, it really does not make a lot of sense to buy.
Boquete Rental -For Rent in Boquete

We pay $600 per month for a fully furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath house on an acre with 100 banana plants, coffee plants, exotic flowers and a spectacular view. We could pay more.. but why? We have everything we need at an affordable price.

Water and basic cable TV are included in our rent. Keep in mind, water is only $55 PER YEAR in Boquete. We opted for additional movie channels for an extra $12 per month.

The house came furnished with a sofa, two chairs, an old TV, two queen size beds, dining room table & chairs, sheets, towels, pots & pans, dishes, glasses, silverware. It also came with a stackable washer and dryer.

The house was decorated in beige or beige, so I have purchased a few things to give it some color and personality.

We’re 10 minutes from downtown Boquete and away from the noise of town

UTILITY COSTS

We pay our own electric bill. Because our dryer is electric instead of gas, it increases our utility costs a bit. Our average electric bill is $50 per month.

If we hung our clothes outside to dry more often, we could reduce our electric bill.

Our neighbor, who has an identical property, has a gas dryer and their electric bill is only $35 per month.

In Boquete, you don’t need heating or air conditioning so that’s a huge savings!

INTERNET

This is one of our biggest expenses. When I rented the house, I asked if it had high speed internet available. They said yes, but later I found out that 2-3 MB is about as fast as you can get in this area… and I pay $135 a month for the privilege. OUCH!

Because I do a lot of work on the internet, I’m stuck with this expense unless I move.

We could move to an areas serviced by Cable Onda, to get 7-10 MB for $35 per month.

There are trade-offs. The area where I live in magical. The views are spectacular. The birds sing all day. It’s private, yet I have neighbors not far away. I’d rather deal with slower internet speeds, pay more for internet, and keep this setting.

Everyone has to decide what’s most important to them. But when you’re looking for a house remember this…

Do you have high speed internet is NOT the right question to ask, you need to find out who the internet service provider is in Boquete.

FOOD

If you eat out a lot it will increase your costs unless you eat at a Panamanian restaurant, then it may not. You can get a good meal at a orangesPanamanian restaurant for $3- $5 per person. It’s hardly worth it to cook at home with those prices.

I love the fish tacos at Big Daddy’s – they are $8.50 for two tacos and it includes rice and beans. The Rock is about $10-$15 per meal. Or I can go to The Orchid for $3 a meal.

We’ve been eating out a lot more since moving to Boquete. Part of it was to explore all the restaurant choices. (There are many) And eating out is a great way to meet new people.

I buy most produce at the Mercado (farmers market). The prices are much cheaper than the United States and the quality is better too. For example, I recently bought 2 medium size pineapples for $1.50. You can buy 4 Hass avocado for $2. I can buy 50 pounds of carrots for $6 or 100 oranges for $4.

Bananas are free… I get them on my property.

We spend $500 – $600 per month on food, including eating out. I could reduce that cost if I ate out less.

PHONE

We don’t have a land line so $0 expense there. When I first came to Panama, I bought a $15 Panama cell phone and I used it every time I visited. When I finally moved here, I got my Iphone unlocked then took the SIM card out of my Panama phone and put it in my iPhone.

I don’t have a monthly calling plan. Instead, I add $15 of minutes as I need it. When the minutes get low, I add some more. They sell little cards all over town with $5, $10, or $15 in minutes. I just buy what I need when I need it.

I don’t need a data roaming plan since there is WiFi in many areas, I use that. However, I can add data roaming for 1 day or 1 week, when I need it just by punching in a code on my iphone.

This is much better than an expensive monthly contract and a big savings! I was paying well over $120 a month for just my cell phone in the USA and about the same for a land line.

I use Skype to make calls to friends and family all over the world at $0 expense. I got a dedicated Skype number so anyone call dial that number and it rings at my house in Panama. That’s how people call me to sign up for the Panama Relocation Tours and I can use Skype to call them.

I have Magic Jack too but it is so unreliable I stopped using it.

SHIPPING AND POSTAGE

Panama does not have mail delivery service to your house. You either need to get a post office box or use a private company.

I signed up with Airbox Express in Boquete. It’s free the first year then $10 a year after that. They give you several addresses in Florida where you can have packages or mail shipped to then it is forwarded to Boquete. They send an email and call when a package arrives.

I can order from Amazon.com, Ebay, .. any web site or catalog then get the product delivered to Boquete. I pay a small shipping fee and a customs fee if the price of the product is over $50.

Airbox Express can also be used to ship packages to friends and family or they can ship to me.

For in-country deliveries, I use Fletes Chavales. I can take a package or letter to them for delivery to another Feletes Cheveles office anywhere in Panama. The cost varies depending on what you are shipping. For a large legal size envelope to go to my attorney in Panama City, it is $1.50.

TRANSPORTATION

We sold two cars when we left the United States. We replaced them with one used car in Panama.

So that’s a 50% savings in transportation costs.

We bought a 2008 Kia with 40,000 km for $10,500. We used a car broker, Keith Wolford, to help us find a car and take care of all the paperwork. There was $0 cost to us for his services, the seller pays the car broker.

Gas is more expensive in Panama but you drive less so the net cost is a big savings. We can get just about anything we need in Boquete. But we go to David about once a month to go to PriceSmart(like Sam’s or Costco) and other shopping areas. David is 45 minutes away and it’s so HOT there I avoid it.

We spend about $40 a month in gasoline  Auto insurance was $600 a year for the maximum liability coverage.

MEDICAL

It was $10 for the doctor visit including the drugs for a sinus infection I got shortly after we moved to Panama

I was taken to the emergency room at Hospital Chiriqui. It was $44.80! (that’s not a misprint)

Then I bought international health insurance for $2100 per year. It covers me at just about any hospital or doctor in the world.

My husband got the local MSPanama insurance for $70 a month. It covers him in Panama only.

When my international health insurance comes up for renewal, I will switch to Panama only. I can always buy travel insurance when I travel but there is no need to pay for something I don’t use.

Health care costs is a HUGE savings over what it would cost in the United States.

MISC

Since we only moved to Panama with two suitcases each and a cat, we bought some things that are a one time purchase. They were not necessities but creature comforts.

We bought a 42” flat screen TV to replace the big box that came with our furnished house. $500 Two computer desks for $50 each. A Printer.
A nice hammock for the back porch and a few other things for the house to make it more homey.

My husband is the shopper in the family. He can’t leave the Dollar store without a few bags of “stuff”

There is always something going on in Boquete. The annual Boquete Blues and Jazz Festival is $20 a person for 3 days of incredible music.

There are little things that happen once in awhile that add up so you need a MISC column in your budget.

Here’s how our expenses break down:
Rent $600
Food $600
Utilities & Cable TV $62
Internet $135
Transportation $40
Medical $250
Postage and Shipping $10
Miscellaneous $300
TOTAL $1997

Yes, You Can Live for Less in Panama

Our neighbor lives comfortably on $1500 a month Social Security. But I know people who live on much less and some who need much more.

Ooops!

My project to finish the little casita on our property in Boca Chica got off to a rough start: I fell down the hill and cracked my ribs.  Stupid me.  Jorge, the 21-year old helping us, had already fallen going down the hill, but I thought I knew better.  Not so!  Guess I need to start acting my age.  So we lose a couple of days.  It only hurts when I laugh, sneeze, or turn in bed.

It’s taken a while but Boca Chica is starting to get “on the map” as a Pacific resort area.  There have always been fishing lodges like my neighbor Bruce’s Gone Fishing Panama.  Just off shore is the huge Chiriqui Marine Sanctuary with an abundance of giant fish, dolphins, whales and even whale sharks.  Palenque Island which is being developed as an upscale resort community.  A week here for a couple during the “green season”  (i.e. rainy season) runs from $3000 to $4200 in an ocean suite.  A more affordable new resort is Bocas del Mar just across the water from us where rooms go from $139 to $200 during the “green season”.  And, by the way, the “green season” or rainy season is my favorite time in Panama!  First everything is lush green.  It generally will rain, sometimes hard, sometime in the late afternoon, but usually the mornings are bright, blue and sunny with clouds building up after lunch and a thunder storm in late afternoon, just about the time you are ready to curl up with a book and my newly discovered “Panama Red” rum.

OK, it’s tiny, but bigger than a lot of suites on cruise ships!

Paradise Lost

Not exactlyESCAPE TO PARADISE but a movie entitled “Paradise Lost” will be shot in Chiriqui starting next week.

“Paradise Lost”, a romance-thriller involving the niece of late Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, to be played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro . . .The source refused to give details about when the shooting would begin or at what precise locations, saying the production company has asked for “maximum discretion”.

But media outlets said some technical staff had begun arriving in Panama, while Del Toro, 46, will be in the Central American country next week when filming starts in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica, and Cerro Azul, a mountainous area outside Panama City.

The film will be the directorial debut of Italy’s Andrea Di Stefano, who also wrote the screenplay. As an actor, Di Stefano has appeared in more than a score of TV productions and movies, including Taiwanese-American filmmaker Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi”.

“Paradise Lost” tells of the romance that develops between Pablo Escobar’s niece, Mary, and a surfer named Nick (Josh Hutcherson), who falls in love with the young woman during a trip to Colombia.

Hunting For Scorpions

Our friend and neighbor, and renter of our casita, Shaun, has officially become Panamanian – all in less than 2 months! They’ve bought a house, a car, opened a bank account, and their container is even already here and sitting at Chiriqui storage awaiting the move in date for their new home. Does all that make you officially “Panamanian”? No! But the other day, on his birthday no less, Shaun dutifully shook out his slippers before putting them on, but never-the-less there was a scorpion inside! A big sucker! So now having been bit by a scorpion, even although he hadn’t managed the appropriate swear words in Spanish, Shaun is officially Panamanian!

James send me the picture of the black light flashlight. James has been here checking out Panama on several Panama Relocation Tours and he is now packing up his container for the move. Wisely, he ordered the black light flashlight from Amazon so he could go “scorpion hunting” when he gets here. Like tee-shirts washed in Tide, in the black light the scorpions show up a brilliant white!

Speaking of the Panama Relocation Tour . . .

Panama Relocation Tour Wine & Cheese at our house

How do you think James knew to pack a black light flashlight?   I doubt if that practical fact is mentioned on the pricey real estate relocation tours that are pitched by companies whose business is getting folks to Panama and where the presenters generally pay to participate.

The Panama Relocation Tours are boots on the ground tours where nobody is selling anything.  You just get to see, and experience what life is really like in Panama in many of the areas expats like to call home.  Of the recent tour, 1/3 of the group, three couples, are escaping to paradise.  One couple to Volcan, another to Valle Escondido in Boquete, and a third planning to come down and rent and explore further.  My connection?  My book ESCAPE TO PARADISE: LIVING & RETIRING IN PANAMA is the textbook and required reading for tour participants.  And whenever we are in Panama we always have everyone over to our house for wine and cheese.