Abundance of Fish, Trees, and Butterflies

That’s the Official Definition for the name of our latest country, Panama. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt on the fish piece, since we don’t do much fishing. But the abundance of Trees and Butterflies is definitely true! Aside from what small bit of the country has been developed for towns or the occasional ranch, the entire country is basically jungle and rain forests. It’s pretty amazing to see, and even better to explore.

Once we were booted out of Europe (Okay not really, but kinda felt that way) and went back to the States for the Holidays, we had to start planning the next leg of our crazy adventure. Originally we were going to spend some time in Puerto Rico, but unfortunately the specter of Covid again foiled our plans. Whether it was reports of far too much testing and restrictions, or just not being able to find a good answer as to what those requirements and restrictions were, we decided Puerto Rico would have to wait until some other time. We like to refrain from brain swabbing our toddlers as much as we can after all. So the next place on our list got bumped up! We packed up and shipped off to crazy little Panama!

If you look up a list of countries that are most moved to for retirement and expat living by people all over the globe you’re likely to run into a pretty short list. Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, and sometimes Ecuador, Mexico, and a few others. Belize we mostly ruled out as there’s just not quite enough of what we need to have when raising two children. A place you’d love to live in as a retiree is a much different place when you’re taking crazy little boys with you. Panama has a lot of things going for it that we liked. A stable government and economy are always high on the list. The fact that their official currency, the Bolivar, is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar makes many things easier. In fact it’s fairly tough to even find a Bolivar or two to show the kids. A good quality healthcare system is another very important thing we look at. So Panama seemed like a good contender for our final settle down spot. However, as they say, All that Glitters is Not Gold…

When you fly into Panama you’ll be just outside the capitol, Panama City. Whether it’s night or day, you’ll know you’re there if you look out the window of whatever airliner you’re on, as you’ll think you took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Miami. Panama City is not the type of skyline you envision when you think about lush, tropical Central America. Slender stacks of Condos shoot straight upward from the streets below one after another for miles along the coastline. Among them, giant commercial skyscrapers edge just a touch higher, and are exceptional in their design and sparkle. The city at ground level is peppered with every glamour boutique and franchise restaurant you can think of, along with casinos, malls, and high end car dealerships. It’s hard not to find yourself asking “How the hell have I never heard of this place?!”

We stayed in Panama City for only a couple of nights. Since so many flights and other accommodations were being cancelled due to the high spread of Covid, we didn’t want to make too many reservations and end up unable to get our money back. So as soon as we hit the ground we began looking for where we wanted to spend the next few weeks and experience Panama. One issue we’ve found when researching places to go, especially those that are recommended by fellow expats, is that it’s tough to gauge exactly what type of experience these other people were looking for. Because often it’s not the same experience we’re looking for. The area around Coronado, about an hour South of Panama City, was very much a good example of this.

Coronado is usually one of the top spots on any list of expat favorites in Panama. There are certainly a lot of them there, but not in the way we were hoping. I guess it’s the fact that it’s next to the beach and not too far from the big city that makes it attractive to expat types. But I have to say, the way most of these people live is not attractive to us. For the most part they live in giant gated communities, blocked off from actual Panama, and only emerge to drive right through the town up to the shopping areas up by the highway. So to say they live in Panama is a bit of a stretch. I’d say they live in a bubble, inside a cage. The shopping areas up by the highway exist mainly to support the expats, as I’m not sure the KFC and Papa John’s were there before. Outside of the gated communities the surrounding towns are fairly beat up and/or neglected, with a large number of houses and properties either half finished or altogether abandoned. I don’t like saying a lot of this, because it’s not like the locals chose for it to happen. And while I can only assume they enjoy the new larger supermarkets and easy fast food, as we saw many of them there, I think overall it’s not a healthy addition to their lives. The few small shops in the towns are barely hanging on, and unfortunately it feels as if the bit of economic activity that existed there has shifted to the flashier companies up the road that don’t benefit the local community at all, aside from perhaps the new jobs they can get. And while I’m sure the additional jobs are a blessing in some ways, I can’t help but get a sense of exploitation in the whole thing. So long story short, Not high on our list of favorite places.

Before we moved on we took a short trip to a resort in one of the national rain forest parks North of Panama City. If you’ve not ever been to a rain forest, I suggest you find one and walk for a while. The diversity and sheer abundance of life surrounding you cannot be properly described in common words. You think you know what’s going on. You’ve seen the discovery channel. There are trees, shrubs, flowers, some birds n stuff. But the way everything there is so intricately intertwined, competing for resources yet at the same time working together to survive, is stunning. Again, the word “Stunning” is an altogether benign description, as I don’t know the words to convey what I want to. It’s not just that there’s life everywhere around you, of every shape and form. It’s that all of that life is bombarding every one of your senses, the ones you know about and the ones you’re not even conscious of, at the same time.

I think modern life has had the effect of dumbing down many of these senses because we’re just to busy to really utilize them. But if you can slow yourself down, and really take in the entirety of everything around you in a place like this, your Soul will benefit from it. Move too fast and you’ll miss some of the coolest parts. Did you see that massive line of leaf cutter ants that crossed your path on their way to one specific plant almost 100 feet away? Did you hear the hollow clanks from the grove of bamboo over there swaying in the breeze? Did you smell the blossoms of that vine that only bloom when migratory birds are around? I know you missed the 3-toed Sloth in its favorite nesting tree just overhead, because even if you’re specifically looking for those things you might never realize you’re seeing one. The primal feeling of being one with nature in a place like this is very rare these days. Perhaps because not many people are trying to feel it. I urge you to find a way to a place like this and just let yourself be absorbed by everything around you. I promise it’ll be one of the most life affirming things you ever do.

After our adventure in the rain forest, on our way back to society, we stopped at one of the primary locks on the Panama Canal. The canal is probably the one thing most people recognize about Panama, and for good reason. The canal is one of the most amazing feats of engineering ever accomplished by man. Rather than have ships full of vital cargo travel all the way down around the tip of South America, a region of horrendously brutal seas, the canal allows them to pass rather quickly straight through the landmass of Panama. In addition to shipping companies saving a great amount of time, and not having to risk losing Millions in cargo to the angry seas of the South, the canal provides Panama with a very significant portion of its GDP. The canal is a system of locks on each side of a massive man-made lake that is itself 85 feet above sea level. These locks are basically giant sealable tubs that allow a ship to enter, and then either add or remove water in order to raise or lower the ship around 15 to 20 feet at a time. Over the course of several locks a massive cargo ship can be raised or lowered to or from that 85 feet of elevation so it can travel across the lake to the other side. It’s a very simple idea that is accomplished in an expertly engineered manner, and was completed over 100 years ago. Every year approximately 15,000 ships pass through the canal. A trip that takes a little under 12 hours to complete. It’s an incredible operation to get to see!

Since we loved the Coronado area so much, we decided to leave early and headed to our second destination. A small mountain town called Boquete. The interesting thing about small central american countries is that although they’re not very big, their topography and weather make a large number of climate zones within them. Panama is so near the equator that obviously it’s pretty hot and humid most of the year for the most part. However, you can get away from that, if you don’t mind going Up. Boquete is positioned a touch under 4000 feet in elevation. This is just enough elevation to drop the humidity level quite a bit, and lower the average temperature by 5-10 degrees. This means that although still somewhat humid by our standards (coming from Colorado where it’s almost like Negative humidity), the temperature ranges from about 65 to 75-80 most days. In other words, the climate here is fantastic. The high mountains here in panama are a fairly narrow strip, so the weather systems pass over them pretty easily, meaning both sides are very lush and moist, even during the dry season (January to March more or less).

Just like Coronado, Boquete is one of the more popular expat locations, but it’s a very different feel here. There are still a large number of wealthy people around town, but they don’t live in gated off bubbles. Instead they have their houses right next to the locals, and love being a part of the community. While there are more burger spots and high end coffee shops here than elsewhere, it doesn’t feel segregated. And you’re much more likely to get a smile and a Buenos Dias here than in a place like Coronado. The downtown area is very busy, and very friendly, with a wide variety of businesses, from souvenirs and ice cream, to electronics and artisanal woodwork. We very much like it here. And we’re extremely sad that we can’t stay.

Whether it’s due to Covid, or politics, or economics we’re not sure. But things down here in Central America are in a high state of flux over the past couple years. Have you heard about El Salvador’s experiment with Bitcoin as Legal Tender?? One of the things that countries are a bit indecisive about these days is residency requirements. To make it very simple there are 3 levels of “living here” that most countries have. There is your typical Tourist Visa, which is anywhere from 90 - 180 days, and each country has a few extra specifics like driver’s licenses and time out of the country to renew, etc. There are actually a lot of things you can do on a simple tourist visa in many of these countries, such as buy a house, or even start a business. But you still have to leave every few months, and being that you don’t have residency status, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get back in if things go funky. And let’s be honest, these days there are a lot of funky things going on. The next level, and the most realistic one, is Residency. This is basically just a few legal steps short of full citizenship. And most of the time full citizenship is very hard to acquire, if you even really wanted to. With Residency you have much more right to come and go as you please, and be able to live like a normal person within the country. You no longer have to leave every so often, and there are other rights and abilities you have beyond just a visa.

The problem is that countries are starting to mess with the requirements to attain Residency. Some places, like Costa Rica, are starting to make their once very strict requirements more lenient. Probably a good thing for them overall. Unfortunately, Panama is not one of them. Whereas the requirement used to be as easy as a one time fee of a relatively small $5k and a few months of paperwork, as of THE MONTH WE GOT HERE they changed it to a relatively Not Small $200k or more depending on details. Why they did this I can’t imagine. Perhaps they had too many people move here to live and decide against it, leaving their new homes to squalor, and adding to the general sense of apathy like we experienced in Coronado. Perhaps Covid made this type of thing worse. Again, I don’t know. But what I do think, is that they’re going to end up with more Coronados, and fewer Boquetes. Making the requirements too high means that average people like us, that just want to make a life here as a part of the community, can no longer feasibly make that happen. And we’re pretty sad about that. We really like it here, and it’s going to hurt leaving. But if Panama has decided they don’t want us, we’ll find somebody that does. On that note, we’ll be heading back to Costa Rica, and hopefully a better life. Onward and Upward!