Thank you to all for the warm welcome!
For Happy Gilmore and PhysAssist, here are a couple of Sunday morning views from my back yard. The long skinny barrier island directly to the south is Isla de Canas. It's one of the major sea turtle nesting grounds in the Pacific, and a protected area. It's reasonably safe to predict that there won't be any high-rise resorts in our view. The other view is to the southwest and is the mountains behind Bucaro and Tonosi.
For PhysAssist and dragoneggs: We've been here nearly 3 years and have not regretted our decision to move here! We first moved overseas when I got a job in Kuwait at the beginning of 2002. We found that we really enjoyed the expat lifestyle and we found our fellow expats (from all over the world) to be generally more interesting people than the typical folks back in Houston. That's when we decided that there was no need to return to the US, and we started looking for a retirement home. After a lot of thought, discussion and research we decided on Panama. Among the factors influencing our decision (and in no particular order);
- cost of living (We live quite comfortably on SS, including having a full-time handyman to help maintain the property)
- infrastructure (One of the best in Central America, due in large part to a strong US presence for so many years. The Canal provides a significant income to the country and helps to keep it solvent and functioning.)
- government (Functioning democracy, and no standing army. Yes, there is government corruption just as there is everywhere including the US - Generally speaking, the government offices that we deal with work reasonably well and we have very few complaints.)
- incentives and visa (The government actively encourages retirees to settle here by offering a variety of residency visas, one of the more popular of which is the Pensionado Visa. This includes a set of mandated discounts on all sorts of things such as restaurants, hotels, bus and air fare, doctor visits, electric bill, and property taxes. Note that Panama has become what Costa Rica used to be - as Costa Rica has become a less friendly place to live.)
- safety (A statistic which I've heard but can't verify is that in Latin America, Panama has the lowest per capita crime rate, and that Los Santos province where we live has the lowest crime rate in Panama. It's easy enough to believe. It's quite peaceful here.)
- fellow expats (There's a large and growing community of expats throughout Panama. Lots of folks from US and Canada. Israelis developing beachfront property about 15 minutes east of us. My neighbor and his wife are from France and Sweden, respectively. A Belgian couple live close by. The Prince of Lichtenstein lives about 30 minutes from here.)
- health care (Top notch care is available here, particularly in Panama City. Several of the hospitals in P City have become destinations for medical tourism. Out here in the hinterlands, it's a bit more iffy - if we have anything that requires serious attention we hop a plane back to the Texas Medical Center in Houston, where Medicare takes care of us. Costs are a fraction of that in the US, my BP meds are half the cost of the US prices, and we get name brand products.)
I could go on and on, but probably shouldn't. If anyone is seriously interested in further information, send me a private message and I'll be glad to further converse.
