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Panama: Eight Destinations in Which to Spend the Winter Months

First Time Reader: Why Panama? – This blog explains the rationale of the trip and this series of blogs.

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/excursions/1266327384/tpod.html

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Have a look at the most recent blog from Victoria, British Columbia – the photos are amazing

Whale of a Story – It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/victoria__2006/1271347809/tpod.html

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Coronado

Destination No. 2 of 8 (in no particular order)

Coronado – Lobo's Featured Expats

Part 2 of 2
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Have you read Part 1?
Coronado: The Crown Jewel of Expat Living
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lobo/excursions/1265269003/tpod.html
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Expat No. 2 of 25

Duane

Duane and his wife are from southwest Florida. Since he had been travelling the world for most of his working life he has seen many attractive destinations. This makes it all the more amazing that he has chosen Coronado as his destination of retirement. What were his reasons for coming here?

For one thing, air travel to Florida is cheap and quick. With a price of $250 for the round trip there is no problem with him and his wife flying back to Florida twice a year to visit family.

Another reason he likes Panama is that it is a civilized place where the locals are not unfriendly. Duane and his wife also feel at home here because they have a lot of friends in the area. Services are readily available as he can have someone come to fix his air conditioning within 15 minutes. Surprisingly it is also a place where he can have his mechanic come from Panama City to fix his car. That must be some car that he is driving.    


Having said that, he mentioned that the locals do not have a lot of integrity nor common sense – it doesn't exist. He recently read Path Between the Seas by David McCullough that has a chapter on Panamanian workers during the building of the Panama Canal. Duane said that the chapter could have been written yesterday.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671244094/ref=cm_rdp_product

Apparently most Panamanians couldn’t handle the hard physical labor of the canal as they seem to lack the appropriate work ethic. As a result most of the workers were imported from other parts of the world. 

He gave as an example their housekeeper who is a good person but who has to be shown each week what to do. He said however that his greatest virtue in dealing with this problem is patience. Duane has been well trained in patience having lived for extended periods of time in the Far East and India.

For 11 months of the year he lives in nearby Vista Mar in a large beautiful tiered development with twin condo towers.

A Google search provided this link as to where Duane may live:

http://www.thepanamateam.com/listings/listings_details.php?listingID=1073

Speaking of real estate, Duane said the greed in the real estate market started 6 to 8 years ago when developers began to arrive in droves. Overdevelopment occurred rapidly with no real urban planning. This was aided and abetted by the government of the time being in cahoots with the developers.

Recently, due to global economic conditions, banks have backed out of some projects. This resulted in the bankruptcy of various developers and a pause in an overheated market. 

Another reason Duane liked Panama was for its stability and that it is one of the few countries with no standing army. That certainly makes a military coup a lot less likely.

Duane indeed seemed like a patient man as he waited for his wife to finish the shopping.

Debonair and cosmopolitan Duane seemed well placed in his Coronado expat world.

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Bill – Expat no. 3 out of 25

I caught Bill during a smoke break from his Internet session at Mail Boxes Etc. in Coronado.

Bill was born in Panama of American parents during a time when his father worked in the canal zone. He did however move to the U.S. only to return to Panama in 1992.

What he likes about Coronado is its closeness to amenities. Everything is here – beach, mountains and Panama City. He felt secure here in the company of his fellow expats.

He mused about the fact that there is too much economic and political turmoil in the United States from which he is glad to escape. Bill emphasized the personal freedoms that are to be enjoyed here in Panama. He felt that in the U.S., after 9-11, you could be stopped for anything with no regard for personal rights.

- Bill

Bill was definitely optimistic about Panama as he felt it was the most stable country in the region. This was a feeling he did not share about Costa Rica. He would rather live in the States, but not Costa Rica. Costa Rica had recently withdrawn the benefits of its "Pensionado" Program that was a big reason for expats to retire there, taxes were up, crime is up and it is a country with bad roads. As a result there are a lot of North American expats coming to Panama from Costa Rica.

Bill is an artist and finds lots of subject matter in this beautiful part of Panama. 

He finds Panamanian people friendly and Panamanian women beautiful. He emphasized the point by pulling out a photo of his beautiful young girl friend.

He also enjoys the good inexpensive fishing of this Pacific coastal region.

If he gets bored, Panama City with all its amenities is only a little over an hour away on a bus that costs $2.40.

He repeated a point that I heard elsewhere several times and that was that expats can live well on a minimum of $1,500 a month in this area of Panama. For example rental property is inexpensive.

Life is good with the discounts offered by the government to those who are officially retired in Panama.

For a quick review of these benefits go to:

http://panamapropertyforsale.com/retire-in-panama.html

Bill seemed like he was truly enjoying life in Coronado. I wonder if that girl friend had something to do with that.

Of the three expats that I interviewed, Bill was the only one who actually lived in the gated community of Coronado.

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Mike and Jeannine

My first inclination would be to say that the best place to meet expats would be at the clubhouse of the Coronado Golf and Beach Resort. But come to think of it, when I was there I only saw two golfers from afar at the practice hole. So maybe the best place to meet expats would be where I interviewed the four expats for this blog – the Mail Boxes Etc. store.

This is the world of Mike and Jeannine, two expats from Montreal, Quebec. They are the owners of the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise in Coronado located just around the corner from the Rey Supermercado in the Corowalk Mall.

It was two and a half years ago that they made the jump into entrepreneurship by buying the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise. Most expats come to Panama to retire and that is stressful enough. To come to a strange country and start your own business must be doubly challenging.

For franchise information go to:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/upsstorethemailboxesetc/282553-0.html

Operating their new business venture for two and a half years has been a huge step towards creating a new life in Coronado for themselves and their son Maxime. 

Come to think of it - what a great setup. Buy a store that a lot of expats frequent and along with it you have the social contact that is so essential to a successful expat life. You need to be a people person to do this kind of work and both Mike and Jeannine fit that bill.

- Mike, Maxim and Jeannine

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The main advantage Mike cited for living in the Coronado area was its proximity to Panama City. He and his family were going to a concert in Panama City on the day that I was there hence the interview was a bit short.

- Mail Boxes Etc. - the local meeting place

He also mentioned the microclimate of this region that favored Coronado over Panama City. The Coronado area is located in a “dry arc” which results in a lot less rain during the rainy season as compared to Panama City.

During the rainy season it is typical for it to rain for about an hour per day. Panama has two seasons – dry and rainy.

Schooling for expat children can be a problem in Panama and Mike and Jeannine have chosen home schooling for Maxime. With home schooling there would be no problem with taking French courses at a level appropriate for Maxime.

I asked Jeannine whether she had any feelings of “mal du pays” or homesickness for the French culture of Montreal. Her response was “not at all” – she is happy here in Coronado.

Having your own business and being in an area where there are lots of expats and perhaps even other French Canadians may have something to do with that.

…. so off they went for a concert in Panama City.

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Kay and Jody – Expats no. 4 of 25

Note: Of all the expats featured, these two ladies are different in the sense that I have never met them and I therefore did not interview them. 

So why are they included here? 

On their website they do such a good job of answering some of the questions of interest to potential expats that I included them. I hope they won’t mind.
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After leaving the Coronado Golf and Beach Resort on foot headed for the beach I came upon an advertisement for “Panama Concept, Inc.” with a website. Having since had a look at the website there is a lot of useful information and in essence another expat interview in the form of a video.

Have a look at the video as it touches on some important questions about Panama and Coronado. 

http://www.conceptpanama.com/
(scroll down to find he video)

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Back to Robert – Expat no. 1 of 25

Sometime after my return to Panama City from Coronado I sat down with “local expert“ Robert from Quebec City to get his take on Coronado. He was expat no. 1 featured in a previous blog from Panama City. 

 Here are his comments.

- the who’s who of Panama have vacation homes here

- if you have money you have a second home here

- the smaller homes are owned by Panamanians

- the large ones are mostly empty except for weekend use

- some people are very noisy with loud music being a problem in less expensive areas

- there are lots of condos for sale here

- rents have been depressed by the large number of condos for rent here

- rent is down to $500 a month for a smaller condo

- much more expensive during Semana Santa and Christmas

- small houses can be rented in nearby Santa Clara or Gargonza

- these areas are like Coronado but not as big

- Coronado can only be accessed through a check point that reduces the number of visitors or the casual passerby

- limited access gives it an air of exclusivity

- the area is well organized with an excellent golf course and a marina with a who’s who members list

- it is a weekend place

- most Panamanians don’t make much use of their weekend homes because they are workaholics working many hours and maybe having two jobs

- the work force is not efficient but they work a lot of hours

- most people are heavily in debt

- the official work week is 5 and a half days

- that does not leave much time for a second house

I asked Robert if he would like to live in Coronado.

He answered as follows:

No, there is nothing to do there since I don’t play golf nor go to the beach.

I was offered an attached house there for $90,000 with a swimming pool and garden and security surveillance. I turned it down because of poor rental income. I like to go there once a year. They might develop a city around the commercial center that would make it more interesting.

I can’t see myself as being part of the retired set (he is 60) as I am still too active and do not drink and eat enough to be one of the guys.
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 Lobo's Final Comments
 
I am not normally one to complain about heat and humidity. I leave that to Barbara. However all that changed in Panama. The heat (over 35° C) that I encountered and the unprecedented humidity (80%) even had me complaining. This was especially true of the coastal areas where even the activity of sitting and having a coffee in the late afternoon brought out the sweat in me. I am puzzled by the following website that indicates the top temperatures to be around 32° C. Maybe it was a hot summer or the combination of high temperatures and high humidity makes it feel like it is much higher. Panama does not have four seasons so in theory there is no summer. There is only a dry season and a rainy season that runs from May to November.  http://www.climatetemp.info/panama/


Given these temperatures and high humidity there are three responses.
1)    grin and bear it or as my friend Bill Dunning from Ottawa would say – “get over it”

2)    use air conditioning despite the high cost of electricity

3)    flee to a higher altitude that brings lower temperatures and lower humidity

That leads me to my “Coming Soon” ending to my blog.

Panama - Destination no. 3 to Spend the Winter Months
 
 La Valle de Anton – A Beautiful Mountain Valley for Expats

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Feedback: travelswithlobo@yahoo.com

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