Posted on 08/26/2019 12:43:21 PM PDT by plain talk
Mary Taft lives with her two daughters, seven cats and two dogs in a mansion in Panama — and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
But the former teacher and school administrator didn’t always know that a Panamanian retirement was in store for her. Indeed, as she consulted with her two adult daughters about where to move, dozens of spots were on the table. “We had this blue-sky conversation — where can we all go and live together?” the 63-year-old former Springfield, Mass., resident recalls. “Canada was out because it was too cold. We wanted the tropics because we were sick of winter. We ruled out Asia because it was too far and [because of] the language barrier. Australia was too expensive.”
The Spanish speaker had been to Latin America numerous times, and her older daughter, a musician, worked a lot in Brazil, so they began looking around there. They ruled out Belize because of a “lack of infrastructure,” and Costa Rica because of its cost and “poor track record with health care,” according to Taft. But Boquete, Panama — a lush, mild-weather town in the Panamanian highlands that’s popular with expats — checked nearly all their boxes.
“The U.S. has gotten so out of control — the social fabric is shattering,” she says. “It is an act of insanity to continue to stay in the U.S.,” she adds, noting that in Panama crime is low, you see guns less frequently, and life can be more affordable.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
I’d like to hear from some FReepers in Panama on their experiences there......
“Mexico has some excellent health and dental care, if you know where to look, and it’s much cheaper than the US. Why?”
If you limit malpractice awards, medical becomes much cheaper.
Lake Bled certainly is beautiful. However, the cost of living right around there in real estate is about 4x higher than the countryside 1 hour away. Also, the closer you get to the Adriatic the more prices go up. However, there are places in the mountains to the west right on the Italian border that are inexpensive. Then you are 1 1/2 from Venice. An hour or less from the Adriatic. An hour from Croatia. A 3 hour drive from Vienna. An 1 from Lake Bled.
I think you do need to be careful of some of these old communist factory towns. I was looking at a house online last night in the area I described. The town was the sight of a former MERCURY MINING site. In the US it would probably be an EPA superfund site. In former Yugoslavia, under Tito=, not so much.
True dat. Same as NYC, or any other big city.
That is why these are nice places to visit, but I would not want to live there.
It is just like watching House Hunters International on HGTV. When they have a show regarding living in St John, USVI there are never bars on the windows. If the next show is on Puerto Rico you will see bars on all the windows and doors. So, I would not buy a place in PR because of that. Same with Panama outside gated communities.
True dat. Same as NYC, or any other big city.
That is why these are nice places to visit, but I would not want to live there.
It is just like watching House Hunters International on HGTV. When they have a show regarding living in St John, USVI there are never bars on the windows. If the next show is on Puerto Rico you will see bars on all the windows and doors. So, I would not buy a place in PR because of that. Same with Panama outside gated communities.
I don’t drink moonshine here in the US. I certainly would not drink it outside the US.
It is like these people who have gotten sick or died in the Dominican or Mexico over the last few years. They drank bootleg liquor. The bottles probably did not say Bacardi, Absolut, Jim Beam, Jose Cuervo or other legitimate worldwide brands. They probably were some off brand they had never heard of before. What the H#LL is was free. What’s the worst that could happen. Well, you could die.
So, no in foreign countries or even traveling in the US, I am always careful what I eat and drink. It is like being aware of not eating SHELLFISH unless it just came off the boat. Even then you are still taking a chance.
It’s still a third world hell-hole even if next to Haiti it looks like the Champs Elysee. I have no faith in living in any of these countries and I’ll stick with the USA.
Indeed and I imagine it’s very livable with the usual limitations compared to here which is often centered around medical care
I lived some and worked a lot in the third world 1981-1996
I was replying originally about Panama banks to a poster who’d referenced them as unreliable and I disagreed hence the focus on Panama City P.A.
I was surprised when watching that move “Snowblind” IIRC when Noriega just confiscated the guy’s Million Bucks but then, “Noriega” so not surprised. Boquette is very much not typical third world. It’s on the side of a dormant volcano and at some serious altitude, like 5 or 6 thousand feet IIRC. 75 degrees year round. Surrounded by coffe beans and forest. Mists every morning. Decades ago someone brought trout in. Most buildings look like Swiss Alpine architecture. Some 15 years or so ago the Panamanians started panicking when Americans started to actually go home so they changed the laws radically allowing one to own property and even avoid taxes.
There are even gated communities where the homes are far less expensive than a comparable home in the US. Stands to reason because a fireplace is cheaper than a heater and no AC is required. In fact one needs a sweater most times. The firearm laws there used to be better than ours but no Second Amendment is a concern. We spent a week at the Bambito Hotel and drove all over the place everyday. Even though I had a CCP and a 1911 I never felt it was needed. Which is more than I can say for most of the US. I have given moving to Boquette serious thought more than once.
There is a modern hospital in Chirqui, about an hour’s drive from Boquette, IIRC. I looked into it. At the time,IIRC, they had a CT scanner but no MRI. I would expect anything there would cost about half of what it would here.
Please see my posts. I lived there, at Fort Clayton for almost 4 years. I know every fishing hole. The only tourist places I didn’t go were diving in San Blas, the Mosquito Coast, and Tropic Star Lodge. Places you had to fly in.
Oh, and did I fail to mention IMHO one of the best beers in the world is brewed in Chiriqui? Crystal. It used to be 25 cents for a 7 ounce can.
You sparked my interest...looks very nice actually
Like Chile but more lush
I’ve never been outside PC or Colon or Golfito
We actually got everyone passports so we could visit Costa Rica and wanted to visit the Golfito area. I wanted to see if you really could catch 20 sailfish in a day. We went to Bambito instead. I forgot to mention. There was one other place beside Bocas Del Toro and San Blas we didn’t go (and the Tropic Star). Colon City. I heard it was a bit dangerous and there was just no reason to go there. I knew plenty of people who went for the “Duty Free” shopping but we weren’t too much into shopping.
If that's the place I'm thinking of, my cousin bought a bunch of acres on a small island that's accessed by that little town and built a house on it. My memory is failing but I think he said it was about a 20 boat ride from Bocas to his island. I don't know if he still owns it since he and his wife moved back to Florida and he took up gainful employment....LOL!
I didn’t fly to any of those places because we pretty regularly heard that planes had “run off the runway” which meant “ended up in water”. In those days I didn’t fly in anything that wasn’t flown and maintained by the US military. Which is too bad because I really did want to fish Tropic Star just once (and almost did with a couple friends who did go). But we did go just about every place one could drive to and visited about every island I could with my boat. Several times I would call the hotel on Contadora and book a room for the weekend and dump my wife and daughter on the beach with the suitcases while my son and I went fishing.
My first year there I did a massive amount of scuba diving along the coast around Portobelo. There used to be bunches of young kids with 30 foot canoes with an outboard who would carry you out several hundred yards into about 60-70 feet of water and then follow your bubbles and pick you up. $5 for a “boat dive”. An enterprising guy built an open air “restaurant” near Portobelo where the scuba divers would go and drink after diving. “Los Canyones”. He was a good guy.
http://www.chagres.com/
Maybe 20 years ago (1999) I found the site and signed the guest book recounting my experience in the army while there between '69 and '72.
A number of years later (maybe 2004), I got an email from a guy who read my message and as it turned out, it was one of my buddies who I briefly shared an apartment with in Panama City after I arrived and was stationed on Flamenco Island with the 252nd Signal Company.
I was only there for about 5 months before being transferred to Ft. Clayton. I never saw my buddy again.
We corresponded on and off for several years via email. Finally after a two year absence of he not responding to me, I finally searched for him on the internet and discovered he had passed away from cancer about 5 months after our last correspondence.
Soon after my cousin built his house down there, he met the owners of a hotel on Contadora who asked him and his wife to manage the place. I don't know how long they lasted but they were treated like crap so they quit........
The Panama experience for my cousin was somewhere between 2005 and 2010 I think.....
I don’t recall there being more than one hotel on Contadora but there may have been. I do remember that if you looked from Contadora back toward the mainland there was another island across the way from the end where the hotel and airport was. Offhand I don’t recall the name but there was a “resort” on that island. I was told it was owned by Germans for Germans. No one I knew went there, ever, but you could see it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.