Category: The move to Panama

The best place to explore from…Panama!

I’ve talked at length in my book and newsletter about the amazing travel opportunities for retired people living in Panama. Part of the reason for our retirement location decision was the travel we wanted to do as we approached our golden years. We wanted a home where travel is essentially easy to destinations worldwide. Recently, we reported on the opening of the new cruise port on the Amador Causeway in Panama City. When Norwegian began servicing the port, we learned of an amazing cruise itinerary. It turns out that we were among several expat couples who noticed the extraordinary opportunity. We booked the cruise with no concern for air travel.

Rendition of the completed cruise port

We traveled with two other couples from our home in Coronado by private shuttle on February 22. The cruise port is still not 100% complete due to construction delays caused by Covid, so our driver dropped us at the amazing, new convention center where our luggage was collected, documents were processed, and the immigration process was completed. We waited in the comfortable facility to be called in groups for shuttle to our ship. The Norwegian Jewel is one of the smaller ships on their fleet, however we were told that it was leaving port at full capacity (about 2400 passengers).

Newly completed Panama City Convention Center

The passengers were all checked in and comfortably settled into their staterooms by 3:00 and the beautiful ship pulled away from the dock headed to the Gulf of Panama to get in the que for the Panama Canal. We began exploring to find the restaurants and bars aboard. We had dinner overlooking the Gulf of Panama. Following dinner, we found entertainment that surpassed belief. The ship had vocal musicians and dancers/acrobats who entertained the passengers at several venues, including the Stardust theater where nightly shows played.

At 6:00 a.m., the ship began its transit of the Panama Canal. An esteemed member of the Panama Canal Authority, Mr. Jaime Robleto, gave a full narration of the history and construction of this amazing structure. As we passed through each lock and Lake Gatun, the ship moved effortlessly under the direction of the Panama Canal Pilot, who boarded and took control of the ship’s transit. It was amazing how quickly the day passed before going under the Atlantic Bridge and traveling out into the Caribbean. The Panama Canal Pilot had exited the ship, and the captain regained control for the overnight passage to Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

Whether drawn to beautiful scenery, fascinated by history, or craving adventure, the best way to explore Puerto Limon was to take home a story from an exciting shore excursion. We opted to take the Caribbean Train, Eco Cruise, and Countryside tour. We boarded the open-air train and traveled through the rainforest and banana groves of Costa Rica until reaching our tour bus and being transported to a canal adventure. We motored through mangroves where we witnessed wildlife indigenous to the Costa Rican paradise. Forgive me, but the opportunity for great pictures here was limited. Following our adventure, we were returned to the ship.

The ship left Costa Rica for travel to Curacao. The trip took us through the night and a full day at sea, during which we were able to enjoy the pools, spa, driving range, casino, sports courts, jogging track, and numerous other activities. We enjoyed the tribute to Elton John by Jeffrey Allen in the Stardust Theater after dinner. During the cruise we found ourselves also enjoying the music of Louis Razon in the Magnum Bar. Every stage on the ship offered different entertainment and it was often difficult to decide where to be.

Our cruise package gave us dinner at one of the premium restaurants. We opted for Cagney’s Steakhouse, where our group enjoyed prime rib which we rarely get in Panama. The dinner was a highlight of our trip and the only time we took pictures of the food. I must say, however that the food aboard was all spectacular with one exception. We checked in at Chin Chin for Asian Fusion one night, and everyone at the table was disappointed. Nobody finished their plate. The great thing about a cruise is if one place disappoints, there are others. We slipped into a different place later for appetizers and dessert. O’Sheehan’s Pub was open 24 hours and proved to be a favorite venue for some of our meals. We all enjoyed Azura for several dinners and The Palace for other dinners and breakfasts. We enjoyed the buffet for other breakfasts and a lunch or two. Most of us tried to avoid the buffet for portion control reasons.

On day 5 of our adventure, the captain parked the ship in the port at Willemstad, Curacao around 2:00 p.m. Willemstad is the capital of the Dutch Caribbean Island, Curacao and its beauty hit us as soon as the ship pulled into port. The island is known for its pastel-colored town square as vibrant as tropical flora. Unique to Willemstad is the floating pedestrian bridge that spans the deep and narrow channel splitting the city’s two districts. We opted to explore the shopping, a fort at the port, and have an ice-cold local beer at one end of the floating bridge. It was Sunday and we found several of the shops closed. After a couple of hours, we returned to the ship and continued to enjoy the onboard activities. We left port around 9:00 p.m. for an overnight transit to our next destination Bonaire.

We arrived at Kralendijk, Bonaire around 7:00 a.m. on day 6. The countless coral reefs surrounding its shore are home to more than 400 species of marine life, earning it the nickname diver’s paradise. Many on the ship took off for dive or snorkeling adventures, while others boarded a glass bottomed gondola for prime undersea views. Still others explored the Washington Slagbaii National Park which covers a fifth of the island. Bonaire offered endless outdoor adventures with a healthy dose of colonial charm. Our little group of adventurers opted for some local shopping. The ship departed at around 8:00 p.m. for an overnight transit to Aruba.

The ship docked at Oranjestad, Aruba at 7:00 a.m. on day 7. Oranjestad, Aruba is a bustling harbor city whose streets and malls are dotted with international luxury retailers, diverse boutiques, and dazzling jewelry stores. Fascinating restored landmark buildings can be found along the way, such as Fort Zoutman, Aruba’s oldest building dating back to 1798, which was built to protect the city from pirates. There’s also the Willem III Tower built in 1868. It was once a lighthouse and public clocktower. The Historical Museum, positioned between the two buildings, houses a permanent exhibition outlining the main events in Aruban history. We opted for a best of Aruba tour where we were treated with one of the best guides around. She drove our bus across most of the island stopping to allow us to explore some of the most talked about sites on there. We motored past Haystack before stopping at Casibari, a natural rock formation. We exited the bus and were allowed time to climb the rocks and explore. Once we returned to the bus, she drove us to a very interesting Aloe plantation and factory for a tour. Then we went to the California Lighthouse, all the way getting interesting history and information about “one happy island.” She drove us past all of the beaches and resorts before our final stop, where we were able to spend a few minutes at Eagle Beach. We saw wind surfers and pirate ships along the way. This was a private tour that we arranged outside the ship. She kindly dropped us near the shopping district, so we could explore before returning to the ship. The captain departed around 8:00 p.m. despite the fact that everyone had not returned. Must be that those 2 people were having much too fun and lost track of time. A cruise ship has to maintain a rigid schedule. This was the busiest of the ports we visited with at least 5 other cruise ships docked. Our next stop was Santa Marta.

After 1 day and 2 nights of onboard activities, we made landfall at 8:00 a.m. in Santa Marta, Colombia. Santa Marta is described as pure flavor. The city’s diversity is evident in its landscape, people, and every aspect of its culture. It’s a destination that truly embraces its visitors and makes them feel at home. Santa Marta’s beautiful terrain is its most distinguishing feature with unforgettable landscapes, green foliage, blue sea, yellow sun, and sand. The contrast between the beaches and the white peaked Sierra Nevada, makes Santa Marta a must-see destination. We opted for a full day journey to the Taironaka Indian Reserve. Our tour bus transported us through the city and into the highlands of the Seirra Nevada Mountains, where we exited and hiked to the reserve. This was a difficult hike for many of us and it wasn’t recommended for anyone over 60 years old, children, or anyone with medical conditions. Our tour group had all of these, and a medic hiked with us to the reserve. The reserve had been restored to resemble some of what it may have looked like when occupied by the indigenous people. A museum there contained artifacts uncovered and our guide filled us with history and culture of the people. These were believed to be the first inhabitants of the country. They were gold crafters who also made beautiful pottery, textiles, and baskets. The Spanish had looted their graves which contained gold, jewelry, and other artifacts. Fortunately, their only interest was the gold and much of the rest was left behind for us to enjoy. There was a river nearby and several of our fellow adventurers walked down to wade into its cool water before making the hike down. Our bus returned us to the ship. The exhausted passengers rested and recovered on the ride.

The ship departed at 5:00 p.m. for the overnight journey to Cartagena. The crew on the ship told us that this was the first time they had stopped at Santa Marta.

We arrived on day 10 of our adventure at Cartagena, Colombia. Cartagena is a gorgeous fishing village on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. It has excellent beaches, a historic old town, and colonial architecture. Often considered one of the safest places in Colombia, it’s no wonder it’s a popular cruise port. The first thing one notices when exiting the port is the fabulous estuary between the dock and the street where taxis are available. Our small group got a taxi into the walled city. The taxis and traffic were brutal. The taxi drivers were trying to get usurious fares, and we negotiated before getting into one. Even with careful negotiations we paid $5 USD each for the hot uncomfortable ride. We explored part of the walled city and bought some small trinkets before returning to the ship. Our return taxi ended up costing a more reasonable $10 for four people.

Once onboard the ship, we were all feeling sad that our cruise was coming to an end. The ship departed port at 3:00 p.m. for our final leg of the trip to Colon, Panama. We all went to our staterooms to pack. All luggage had to be in the hall by 9:00 p.m. We went for a final delicious meal at what had become one of our favorite restaurants, Azura. We visited some of our favorite crew members who had served us well on our journey and took in a final show at the Stardust Theater.

Our favorite Bar Server has just brought us a round of mini beers. He takes a mean selfie.
Forbidden shot during one of the acrobatic performances.

I woke early, showered, packed my carry-on bag, and went up on deck to enjoy our arrival to Colon. I was taken back by how beautiful the port town appeared as it slept. I know from experience that this is one of the most dangerous towns in the country. We had our private transportation picking us up on the dock. The extreme poverty was evident as our driver navigated his way to the highway and our return to Coronado.

Jen and I are happy to be returning to a normal schedule of adventuring. Later this year, we will be visiting Riviera Maya in Mexico, where we will stay in a resort near Cancun. In December, we will be traveling to Peru where we will visit Machu Pichu and take an exploration into the Amazon Rainforest. From Peru, we plan to travel to the United States for a few days in Florida. Although the arrangements are still fuzzy, we are planning a cruise from Santiago, Chili around the entire continent of South America, which will conclude in Rio de Janeiro. That will be in March and April of next year. Stay tuned for more. If you want to hear about all our exciting travel, make sure you subscribe to get our blog delivered to your inbox. We will never spam you or sell your information.

Blessings from Paradise,

Greg and Jen

#welovepanama

 

The Passion To Write

Since returning from our COVID19 abbreviated adventure in Israel I have been spending some of our lockdown time to organize photos and complete my first book. I never imagined the task of writing, editing, formatting, and creating a cover for publication would be so daunting. All of these things must fit into the parameters set forth by the publisher. The cover is featured above as my featured image. In the weeks to come I will be completing the publishing process.

In the book, which is based on the blog, I lay out in detail the immigration process and everything that went into our move to a developing country.  My goal was to educate and entertain in a fact filled book for anyone considering the expat lifestyle. Everything in our life over the past two years has been an adventure and my goal was to give readers honest straightforward information for what to expect as they explore retirement options.

For Jen and I, we wanted eternal summer on the beach with a relaxed lifestyle. We wanted a location that would not break our budget and we found all of that in Panama. I found tons of information on the internet for would be expatriates. I will however warn you right up front that many of the websites, blogs, and companies promoting living outside a person’s home country are not all on the up and up. Many only want to attract the attention of investors, home buyers, and others with money to spend. A savvy researcher must glean information from those sites that will support one’s own agenda. Perhaps you have considered retiring, moving overseas, and even reinventing your life as an expatriate. I hope that you will read 2 Retire In Panama?.

In the next few weeks I will begin promoting the book. I will send the blog followers and all the others reading it on Facebook,  Twitter and Instagram a link to buy the electronic version or the print copy of the book. I hope to be putting a clickable link in the blog to purchase, review, and comment on the book.

I want to thank all of you for the continued support and encouragement. The writing has been a passion of mine for quite some time. My friends following the process who have read excerpts think that I have a winner; and it has been a pleasure preparing to share it.

Above all, I must thank the great God from whom all inspiration and encouragement has come.

No work is ever complete before it passes through many hands to help with the fine tuning.

I must start by thanking my patient and understanding wife without whom we would never have had any of these adventures. She also encouraged me, proofread for content, and was my first check for mistakes. She was instrumental in helping with the formatting and she never once told me that I could not do it.

The adventure partners are numerous and a group that will continue to grow. Thank-you to Ty and Lyn Gilbert who are always ready for an adventure. Thank-you also to John and Barbie Yoder who showed us an awesome adventure in Costa Rica. And a special thank-you to all the people who have visited and participated on the many other adventures that went into the writing of the book (you all know who you are).

Thank-you Lynda Allison for being that special person who mentored me, answered all the questions and was my guiding force to get the book to a publishable form.

The cover is about the most frustrating and yet important parts of a published work. I toiled over cover art and asked for help from friends and family who came up with the idea for my cover. An exhaustive search of photo sites helped me to discover photographer, Valentin Antonucci. The cover photo is his work and the book would not be the same without him. Check out his other works @NeonStdios and @antonuccival on Twitter.

Last but certainly not least…Thank-you to Vicky Ireland for the many hours spent editing and organizing the manuscript. Without her I never could have finished it. The book is immensely better with her input and finishing touches.

Once the worldwide borders and that of Panama begin opening up, and we are all allowed to move about more freely I will be blogging more frequently. Everybody here is ready to embark on more adventures. In the meantime, please scroll down to like and share. Oh…and pick up a good book.  As always if you are not yet subscribed, it would be a great time to do it (the subscribe link is on the right margin). Many of my blogger friends have taken the COVID lockdown as an opportunity to rant about it. I did not feel the need.

Blessings,

Greg

Buying A Home In Panama

We will talk here about buying a home in Panama; however our advice easily computes to almost anything or any place when moving overseas. As a caveat, this blog is a summary of our experience and, as we have learned, not every experience here in Panama is the same.  It is not intended to give legal advice, but to inform people of the process we followed.

First and foremost, use every fiber of your due diligence. We have continually advised that people spend at least a year on the ground in the country prior to buying real estate. Being on the ground and meeting your future neighbors, exploring your future neighborhood, and getting involved in a community are the only ways to be sure you are making a solid decision. This is also a way to make sure that buying real estate is right for you.  It is easy to buy real estate in Panama, but hard to sell.  It is a depressed real estate market at this time, but appears to be showing signs of turning around.  We have met several ex-pats that rent and will continue to rent with no intention of buying, and that was a decision which was right for them. Also, living abroad is not right for everyone. We do not want people to jump right in and buy real estate without knowing that this move is right for them. Because it is so hard to sell property here, making a quick decision to buy can be bad. We knew that this was at least a 10 year adventure for us, and we knew that Panama was the place we wanted to be. As a result, making that decision to buy was good for us. We did not buy our home to use as an investment.

Second, learn the customs and laws of the country of which you are considering.  This is done by reading blogs, doing internet searches, and asking questions.  There is a lot of information out there, and you need to decipher through that information.

Third, and certainly not least, obtain wise counsel in a reputable real estate agent and an attorney.  You may also want to speak with your financial advisor and your CPA or tax person.

In any developing country everyone must understand that they are no longer in the United States or Canada. Laws to protect consumers are practically non-existent outside of those places. Things like mortgage loans are rarely available to expats and if you find one, it will be a high interest rate and unusual terms. Be prepared to pay cash. That being said, you will need to know how you will get the money to the seller. Bringing more than $10,000 cash into Panama is scrutinized by the U.S. government due to concerns about money laundering. There will be requirements and documentation at the IRS.   Make sure you understand the consequences, so it is a good idea to talk to your financial advisor and CPA about this topic.  We cannot speak for the Canadian government requirements.  There are also costs to do international wire transfers, whether it be from the U.S. or from Canada.

An arms length transaction will usually require a 10% earnest deposit which is non-refundable! We discovered that this is negotiable, but the 10% is “standard”. That money is spent to pay the agent(s), seller’s attorney, and ready the paperwork for closing. Make sure that your decision to buy is solid. Ask questions and make sure that you have a licensed real estate agent and your own capable, tried and tested attorney. It is important to know that both these occupations are protected by the Panamanian government and reserved for Panamanians. If you choose to deal with an American or Canadian agent for ease of communication, it is unlikely that they are licensed. Most of these people work for an unknown person who holds a license and pays little attention to how they operate their business. This goes for rental agents as well. There is a form of the Multiple Listing Service here in Panama, but it is not used or accepted as readily as it is in the U.S. Real estate agents here in Panama appear to strive to sell their own listings and, as a result, are not as apt to share information with other agents.  We know several people who used several different agents to sell their property, as well as to purchase property.  Also, attorneys may engage in many different businesses and many are not full time in law. Please, ask friends for referrals to find an attorney and a real estate agent who will get your business done in a timely and fair manner. Be careful and use your own due diligence, instinct, and intuition when hiring these professionals. Just because one person had a good experience does not mean that you will. We are choosing not to provide referrals on this blog. This blog does very little advertising and we have not collected any referral fees for endorsements. Our intent is to entertain and educate. If you would like more information on who we used, we will be happy to provide that in a private message.

There are numerous horror stories that float around about properties being sold to multiple buyers, sellers who do not have the right to sell, and buyers who do not get the documentation necessary to have clear title to their home. Make sure your new home has a deed. Make sure that your attorney and real estate agent do their job and both are honest and upright in their dealings. We have met, know, or are friends with each of the above mentioned. We know an individual who came home and found her house seized by the government (including all the contents). The seller didn’t have the right to sell this home or any of the others in the neighborhood. This realtor should be in jail but is not. Advance purchases at substantial savings are often a bad idea. Another friend here bought a new home at the beginning of construction in 2012 and is still not moved in. Their home is within hours of completion but no certificate of occupancy has been granted. The developer has several projects and none are being completed.  Buyer beware!

Currently the real estate market in Panama is very depressed. Most sellers are trying to get more than the market will bear. The diligent buyer must also be concerned with over paying. This means knowing what is on the market. We viewed at least 20 different properties in different locations to get a feel for what is out there and what would be a good price to pay. The current President has been in office for five years and will be replaced in the election just a few days from now. Most people here are waiting to see who will replace him before making buying or selling decisions. It appears that the current president has done little to promote business and tourism. The result is a suffering economy. That being said, it can be a buyer’s market for the savvy buyer. Keep in mind that buying in an area with a lot of expats has advantages and disadvantages. Expats tend to drive prices on consumer goods higher in that area. We elected to buy in an area of other expats. We pay prices compared to the States on some things while other things are much less. For the most part, our dollar goes further here than it would back home. We have a very nice home and enjoy dinners out often without blowing our budget. If an expat wanted to live on a very small monthly pension or social security it is possible by selecting a place to live away from the expat communities. That involves immersing into the local culture and definitely being fluent in the Spanish language.

We made an exhaustive list of “must haves” when we searched for our home here. Our agent was aware of our requirements and usually only showed us homes meeting most of those requirements. We wore her out searching for the perfect home without sacrificing any of our “must haves”. In the end she found us a place that required very little compromise and left us some money for a bit of remodeling. She helped us find local contractors to do the work and helped us with the language barrier.  She is a full service agent, and went above and beyond every step of the way.

The original purchaser of our home in 2009 placed the home and its contents in a Panamanian corporation.  Our seller, who was the second owner of our home, maintained the corporation.  We had the choice of purchasing the corporation or having the corporation transfer the deed to us individually. We decided to purchase the corporation. In our research, the corporation has some benefits, even though there is an annual cost to maintaining it. It is a very common way to hold property here and that made the purchase very clean and simple. We actually bought all the shares in the corporation from a Canadian seller. We bought all the benefits, including a country club membership, and, as a result, were able to maintain the balance of 12 years of tax exoneration. Our corporation is the owner of our home and its contents and we know that the corporation will pass to our heirs to do with as they please upon our passing. We opted to use the same attorney as the seller, who was also the attorney and resident agent for the corporation. The attorney prepared the stock purchase agreement as well as all the corporation transfer documents and she will handle the annual corporation renewal on our behalf in the future. Our other assets held in Panama can be protected by a Panamanian will, if we choose to do that. We choose to keep our other assets in Panama at a bare minimum.

Our stock purchase agreement was completed in both English and Spanish, side by side. The law here does not require this contract, or a buy/sell agreement, to be in Spanish to be legally enforceable, but if there is a legal dispute, the court will require it to be translated into Spanish. We liked the way our attorney prepared it.  In the agreement, you want to make sure that all the shares of the corporation are transferred and that there are no encumbrances or liens on the shares or on the corporation.  Also, you want to make sure that there are no unpaid home owner’s association fees, taxes, or utilities (including cable/internet).  It is also good to ask if there are any special assessments being requested.  One condo we looked at was making improvements to their pool area and assessed $10,000.00 per owner to be paid at $5,000.00 per year for 2018 and 2019.  Had we not asked, we may have never known about that until after closing if we had purchased that unit.

Make sure there is a title search and, if the property is in a corporation, a due diligence investigation is done on the corporation. It is our understanding that real estate deeds are not very old in Panama. There is something here called owning property by “right of possession,” but we did not encounter this in our home search. If you are buying property from an owner with this, please do additional research and ask more questions of the professionals to make sure the owner has the right to sell the property. Our real estate agent took care of our title search and the attorney took care of the corporation investigation.

Title insurance is very common in the U.S.; however, it is not common at all here and is very expensive. We felt pretty safe on the title since our building was built in 2009 and we were only the third owner of the unit. Also, the attorney was the attorney for the corporation, so she had an interest in making sure the title was transferred properly. In addition, escrow accounts or escrow agents are not as common and are relatively new. We used the attorney’s escrow account to handle some of the money transfers. She told us she maintained a separate account to handle these types of situations. As a result, we transferred our 10% deposit to the attorney’s account when we signed the Stock Purchase Agreement.

The seller had to pay some taxes (a 2% title transfer tax and a 3% capital gains tax) and our attorney took care of this payment for the seller. As a result, our contract required us to wire money to cover the taxes to the attorney’s account and the balance was a wire transfer to our seller in Canada. As a side note, one of the main reasons real estate was put in corporations was to avoid these taxes as the taxes are triggered when the transfer of title was filed at the Public Registry. However, a recent change in the law (which is common in Panama with each president) now assesses a 5% share transfer tax when a corporation owns real estate and sells its shares. As another side note, the international wire transfer to Panama required a lot more information (like the purpose of the transfer) and took longer than the wire transfer to Canada.  Our seller received her money within a day while it was a week before the attorney received it.

The buyer and seller each have closing costs, including notary fees and attorney fees. Expect those costs and fees to be between $1500-$2000. It took approximately 3 weeks from when we made our original offer (which was verbal) for us to “close” (when we received the keys, paid the balance we owed to the seller, and received copies of some of the corporation documents).  However, there was additional paperwork, we, as buyers, needed to receive, such as final documents filed with the Registro Publico de Panama and the original corporation documents. We received those documents approximately 7 weeks later. Closings can take a lot longer, depending upon the title search and the attorney’s schedule. We were lucky in that our closing was relatively smooth and quick.

We moved into our new condo full time at the end of January after doing some remodeling. We are very happy with our decision and with our choice of professionals used. Each person has a different experience, so, as previously stated, do your due diligence. Do not be afraid to ask questions to make sure you understand the process.

We have given a lot of information here, and realize that many of you who follow may not need this detail. There are others who will find this helpful. We would like to encourage questions, comments and feedback especially from those of you who have experience buying and selling real estate abroad. Thanks for reading and sharing. Good luck with your move overseas.

Until next time,

Greg and Jen

A New Home In Panama

Often, too much time passes between my blog posts. For this I often feel guilty. I have been attending writing workshops with Lynda Allison. Her encouragement, and that of the other attendees, has been priceless in my decision to continue writing. In the future I hope you all will notice subtle changes in the way information is being presented here. I want our readers to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell Panama in the same way Jen and I do. I am, also, committed to pushing out shorter, but more frequent posts.

In our last post I eluded to our impending move to a new residence. We stand by our advice to rent and explore for a year prior to purchasing here in Panama. We fast tracked our purchase of a home by a couple of months, when we got the opportunity to buy a nice place that met 100% of our criteria. Our research was complete and we moved forward. We absolutely love our life in this Coronado community. There is a huge core of American and Canadian expats living here; with many others spending portions of the year here. There is also a trend of people from South Africa relocating here to escape a deteriorating political climate. We are becoming involved in a local English speaking church and a multitude of outreach activities. We are becoming fully engaged in learning Spanish, even though you can easily live here without knowing a word of Spanish. We have developed friendships that we will cherish for life. All that being said, I think you all may see from where the future of this blog will come.

We bought our new home in late December and engaged in an aggressive, minor renovation. We hired a local Panamanian Electrician for some additional outlets and to move a couple of switches. We then employed a local Cabinet Maker who built some new cabinets to match the existing and add some crown molding. We are sharing some before and after pictures. It feels good to have most of the fine detail done, and be completely moved from our rental. One of our biggest motivations to buy this condo was that it needed very little. We are in the El Alcazar Building in the Coronado Golf Complex. It is within walking distance of beautiful Pacific Beaches, golf, tennis, an all-inclusive hotel, beach club, restaurants, and country club style facilities. Every window of our condo has panoramic views of the ocean, mountains, and surrounding community. For readers interested in the details involved with purchasing real estate in Panama, we will explore them in detail in an upcoming post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last several weeks we have done far more than work on and move into our new home. We had a two day adventure to Colon where we enjoyed an all-inclusive hotel deep in the jungle on Lake Gatun. Lake Gatun makes up a large part of the Panama Canal. We were located only a few minute drive from the Agua Clara Locks, which are part of the recently expanded Panama Canal. These new locks accommodate the largest of ships. We watched as a container ship carrying over 10,000 containers (1 container is the size of a semi trailer) passed into and out of the first chamber. It was interesting to watch. The canal passage for this particular ship was in excess of $800,000. We also got a look at the new bridge over the canal. It is nearing completion. You may remember pictures of it in our post from October of 2017.  

In keeping with my goal to make shorter, more frequent posts I will wrap up for now. Please feel free to go back through our archives. We love feedback and questions. If you have not subscribed to get our posts automatically delivered to your e-mail, please do it now. Like and share our blog to keep them coming. we remain excited to share our experiences and adventures.

Hasta Luego,

Greg and Jen

 

They Are Called Effigy’s

About two weeks ago effigy’s started showing up all along the Pan-American Highway. The effigy’s are also referred to as Munecos, Dummies, Old Year Dolls, and Judas Dolls. They are life sized “stuffed people” and they make up one of Panama’s many New Year traditions. Folklore has it that the effigy should be stuffed with fire crackers, beaten, and set on fire. The sins and evil spirits of the old year are destroyed to make way for good fortune in the new year. It is believed that ghosts are afraid of light and noise. The fire crackers, therefore, help drive the evil forces away. We went for a short drive and returned with a bunch of pictures to share. They usually try to make the effigy look like well known politicians, movie stars, or other popular people from the past year. We saw candidates for the upcoming Presidential election here in Panama and of course there were a few attempts at President Trump.

As you can see the imagination is off the charts. We find the whole thing a bit sacrilegious, so it was difficult to create a blog post using this tradition. As we thought about it, we decided that it would be unfair not to share fun and interesting cultural traditions regardless of our beliefs.

Other popular traditions for Ano Nuevo in Panama include eating 12 grapes at midnight making a wish with each. After eating the grapes you spit out the seeds and count them. The number of seeds is your lucky number for the new year. Use this number when playing the lottery (lottery is popular in Panama). Make sure you have a little money in your hands while eating your grapes. Having money in your hand at midnight ensures that you will have money throughout the new year. You should wear yellow underwear to have good luck throughout the new year. Wearing red will attract love in the new year. To get rid of bad energy from the old year you should burn incense. Hanging a bunch of oranges, rice, and wheat behind the front door will give you prosperity, work and health. Putting rice in a pot will attract wealth in the new year. Last but not least,  it is believed that a swim in the ocean on New Year’s day will clean out the bad from the previous year and bring good things in the New Year. In all fairness, we found most of this information on livinginpanama.com. That is where we turned when the effigy’s started showing up along the road.

The people in Panama like to have a good time. We actually spent our evening with friends at the restaurant right here on the property. It was much safer than driving. Our evening was capped by great fireworks and we didn’t see anyone burn an effigy..

Dinner at Terrazas
Dinner at Terrazas

Life is indeed good here. Over the past few weeks the snowbirds have started to filter in. January to March is high season here and we expect to catch up with some old friends from last year and make new friends this new year. We bought our own condo at the end of December. We put in a lot of time researching and looking for the place that was just right for us. We are doing a small bit of remodeling prior to our move. Stay dialed in to this blog, to see our new place and we will share the details for transacting real estate business in Panama. It really was like our own episode of “Beach Front Bargain Hunt”.

We consider it a privilege to share our life in Panama with you all. Please, like and share so we reach everyone. If you have not subscribed to receive our posts by email now is a great time to subscribe. We will never spam you and our security is outstanding. It is also a great complement to have your input and comments.

Feliz Ano Nuevo,

Greg and Jen

 

Casco Viejo, Contadora, and The Amador Causeway

Yes, you are about to hear of our awesome adventure over this past weekend. Things at our house have been extremely busy over the past several weeks, so we have to apologize, with explanation, for the lack of recent posts. Shortly after our last post we had a wonderful visit from friends who live in Michigan. We shared some adventures with them that would be a repeat to our blog, but were great never the less. One adventure of note that we have yet to talk about is the Playa de Panama which is just a few short minutes from our condo. The beach is generally quiet and secluded. The best part is that there is a shack at the entrance where you can get a great meal of Lobster or Corvina with Patacones.

Playa de Panama Lobster and Corvina
Playa de Panama Lobster and Corvina

The price for Lobster is $10 and the Corvina is $8. The purveyor usually has ice cold beer for $1, but it is not a problem to bring your own drinks. Once our friends departed, we found ourselves busy dealing with the sale of our house in Michigan. As of now it is scheduled to close by the end of the week. With the sale of our house looming near we have resumed actively looking at homes here in Panama. Last week was the Thanksgiving Holiday in the States. It is just another day here in Panama, however we opted to create our own grand celebration. We shared our meal with new friends from five countries, including Canada, Germany, South Africa, Panama, and The United States. There were traditional and non-traditional Thanksgiving food with Turkey and everyone bringing a dish to pass. We also made sure that the staff here at our condo was fed. A great time was had by all.

This is where we catch up to the present. We left early on Friday morning with our good friends and neighbors to share a weekend adventure. Our adventure started with a stop on the Amador Causeway to explore the Biodiversity Museum.

Bio Diversity Museum, Panama City
Bio Diversity Museum, Panama City

The experience was, without question, one of the most interesting experiences. Readers may recall our previous post T- 21 Days To Departure . In that post we presented research where we found some great adventure destinations. We were able to cross a couple of these destinations off our list, and more, this past weekend. The Bio Diversity Museum was self guided. Each of us had a device that we could listen to, which guided us through the museum in our native language at our own pace. There were also real human guides all along the way who were all multi-lingual. They helped fill in the blank spots and answered any questions. The museum explained how Panama was formed by volcanoes, rising from the ocean which created a land bridge from South America to North America. The result was the convergence of two populations of plants and animals on one single land mass. The museum also helps teach how to live in harmony with the other plants and animals with which we share this space.

Following our visit to the museum we explored the Amador Causeway. The Causeway runs out to the Pacific along the Panama Canal. It is lined with marinas, bars, restaurants, and shops. We located a great fonda where we had lunch.

The Flamenco Marina is just down the way. This is our destination Saturday morning. Our ferry to Las Perlas  (The Pearl Islands) will depart from there. We have round trip tickets for the ferry ride to the island of Contadora where we will spend the day. Following our lunch we found our way to the Raddisson on the Panama canal. We got checked in and took Uber to Casco Viejo. We enjoyed Casco well into the late evening. This was our second trip to Casco. There is so much to do and see that we will entertain friends there for years without ever tiring of it. The Cathedral on the square is being renovated and it is nearly completed. When we were there the freshly refurbished bells were waiting on the sidewalk to be returned to the bell towers. We also toured another Cathedral where there was a scale model of Jerusalem. It was just incredible. Our night ended with dinner then a half block walk to the Presidential Palace. It is Independence month here in Panama and we enjoyed fireworks over the bay near the palace. Panamanian people love fireworks.

Saturday we were up early for our 7 a.m. ferry departure. The Pearl Islands are a string of islands about 1 1/2 hours away by boat. Survivor fans will remember a season of that show was filmed there. We visited Contadora. It was a beautiful beach destination, but not the same island where the popular television program had been filmed. We rented a golf cart on the beach and took off to explore. The island has several restaurants, beaches, a few bed and breakfasts and an airstrip. We enjoyed two different beaches, one of which we did not share with any other people. We all agreed that this was someplace where we could spend a few days. The surrounding islands made for spectacular views.

There is so much more to share, and we are feeling a bit guilty that we have allowed so much time to pass between posts. We hope that you all have enjoyed our pictures from this weekends adventure. We are preparing for special guests this next week from the States, and there are a couple of great new adventures planned for their visit. We are committed to sharing those in a little over a week. We are hopeful that we may, also be able to share more about our pending home search here in Panama. We wake every morning feeling thankful and blessed to be retired in such a beautiful place. Please like and share our blog to keep us out there. The new rules at FaceBook are continuing to drive us crazy. We will post a link, but they seem to block our ability to share as we used to.

Blessings,

Greg and Jen

Safety in Panama

Recent world events spark conversations daily about how safe it is to live in a developing country. Yesterday a gunman walked into a gaming event in the United States and killed participants before turning the gun on himself. Our dinner conversation last night was interesting. Does this happen here in Panama and we just don’t know it? Are these events isolated to the United States? The short answer is that this is a problem worldwide. We have done research on the safety of life in Panama and have concluded that we have to be diligent in protecting ourselves. We do not live in a vacuum ignoring local news, however it is much less “in our face” than media in the States. We live in a gated community with armed security. Our choice to live here is not as much about security  as it is to reside in a place we love and enjoy. The majority of crime in Panama isn’t murder. It is crime of opportunity like petty theft (people helping themselves to something that is easy to take). The prevalent crime victim tends to be people who let their guard down or enter into transactions without due diligence. We do neither of these things and have had no problems. That being said, we don’t want to make this political at all, but believe that the news media often dramatizes stories to keep people watching the news. Our blog is another example of security in a developing country. Some of our viewers will notice that we changed our physical address to Panama today. Some may also have noticed over the past few days that when signing into our site there is a pop-up stating that we are not secure. This is false information. We compose on a secure network and pay for layers of security. We get weekly updates that show no security concerns. We pay big bucks to make sure that all of you can read our blog without concern for security. We have WordPress, VaultPress, and Jetpack investigating the source of our problem and will keep it safe or shut it down. Please let us know if you experience problems with our site.

That is about enough of things that keep people awake at night. It has been several weeks since our last post. We spent a couple of weeks at our home in the States and are returning to normal here in Panama. We love our friends and family, but frequent visits to Michigan are stressful. We have a great deal of interest in our home and are looking forward to turning it over to a new family soon. Our advice in this matter is that you should get your home sold before relocating. Remote care for real estate is difficult at best.  On the flip side, we have stated on numerous occasions that you should not purchase property in Panama until you have been on the ground for a year. The real estate market in Panama is quite different from the U.S. and this time is necessary to gauge the market and find a location that suits your lifestyle. Rent for at least a year. We continue to stand by that advice.

Before returning to the States we had visitors at our church from Logos Hope. Logos Hope is a floating mission/bookstore to take Christianity throughout the world. Our visitors shared testimony and told of their experiences aboard the ship. Over 60 countries and nationalities are represented aboard the ship. Many people who live on the ship are from countries where they would be persecuted for sharing Christianity. We were intrigued by this awesome mission so upon our return to Panama we went to visit the ship. Due to persecution, taking pictures was difficult. We are sharing limited pictures from the ship.

 

The ship left late last week to continue its mission. It will dock next in Guatemala. The wonderful people on board carry their message and bookstore to all parts of the world. Please check out their website.

Since our return to Panama we have been crazy busy. In addition to the Logos Hope adventure we spent a day (including the night before) in Panama City. The purpose of our stay was to complete the  paperwork for our Cedula. A Cedula is the national identification carried by all Panamanian people. Most Panamanian people do not have driver’s licenses so this is the instrument that identifies a person and gives credibility for their ability to conduct business. A Cedula is not a requirement for our residency, however it will make it easier for us to conduct bank business and make major purchases. Our appointment was at 7 a.m.  Our attorney had a  solid agenda and got us finished very quickly by Panama standards. We highly recommend our attorney for all immigration needs. We are happy to provide her contact info to anyone by private  correspondence. It has been our experience that her rates are very fair and her ability to get things done are without reproach. The process was entirely done at the Tribunal Electoral. The building was beautiful and well organized. We got our business started at 7 a.m. sharp, and waited the hour for paperwork processing, in a great cafeteria where we enjoyed an authentic Panamanian breakfast. Once the paperwork was complete we waited in line to have a photograph made and pay the fee. As a Jubilado there is a discount for the fee to get your Cedula. We took  photographs below at the Tribunal Electoral.

We made good use of our time in the city. We made reservations for future travel and paid for our tickets using our Jubilado discount. We also learned that one of the future trips planned would require a vaccination, so we made our way to the Minister of Health and got our vaccination. As residents, we got the vaccination at a substantial discount. The experience was interesting to say the least. No officials there spoke English and we had a few communication issues. Fortunately there are wonderful people all over who know a little English and they helped us be understood. We used our due diligence and read the container which contained the vaccine to be sure we were getting what was required for our travel. They then provided a document that states the time in which the vaccine remains effective. This is called a yellow card and we must always be able to provide it before travel. We have committed to keeping it safely stored with our Passports. We have heard that people have been denied entry to some countries without the proper documentation of vaccinations. We plan to travel extensively in our retirement. We are anxious to explore and Central America is an excellent place to explore from.

Waiting for our vaccination
Waiting for our vaccination

We also got in a little retail therapy while in the city. We didn’t really buy much but we had a nice lunch at the mall. We have become big fans of Leonardo Pizza. Our lunch for two pictured below was just over $6 with our Jubilado discount.

lunch for two
lunch for two

Yesterday we traveled with friends to El Valle de Anton where we frequently enjoy the fresh vegetable market. We had purchased a huge clay pot for our balcony and wanted to fill it with tropical plants. Our visit was a great success. Our pot now has some colorful plantings that we will enjoy. We also picked up our usual supply of salad fixings.

Balcony Planter
Lovely tropical plants from El Valle.

Every day proves to be an adventure and it is the most relaxing, inexpensive, and beautiful place to spend retirement. We know that this life isn’t for everyone, but it suits us well. We continue to learn Spanish. The language barrier is only an inconvenience, and most of the time our English is enough to survive daily life. That being said we have volunteered to help teach English to Panamanian people in our community. The people here can get better jobs and prosper with the ability to speak English. We know that God had a plan when he moved us here and in some small way this may be our way to give back.

Dios los bendiga,

Greg and Jen

2 Retire In Panama? celebrates its 1 year anniversary

It was an easy decision for us to decide to retire in Panama. We continue to learn; and will continue to share. We just renewed our domain for 5 years and will continue to operate under the same address even though it is no longer a question for us. We realize that many of our readers are doing their own due diligence and are reading for information. We have shared our experience and it is mostly positive. For those following along who want to learn from our mistakes, we are trying to share those as well. We have done extensive research so, fortunately our mistakes have been few. We are currently on the ground in Panama. We have completed the visa process and are officially expats in Panama. Our visa is issued based on a pension we receive in the States. The Panamanian government gives us a ton of perks to get us here spending the pension. Please, feel free to check out our archive post from November 2017 Pensionado Visa Process to get a feel for the visa process and the benefits. We are finding that the whole thing is very much as we expected. Keep in mind that we used a very reputable attorney for this process. The government does frequently change things here so when things change we just have to accept it. We also have to learn how to take full advantage of our discounts. One example is Copa Airlines. They offer a 25% discount for expats with a pensionado visa. You have to purchase tickets in person at a Copa ticket counter or a sales office. This was one of our hard lessons. We purchased tickets on-line to return to Michigan in a few weeks and went to a sales office within 24 hours after purchase to receive the discount.  Because we had already paid for our tickets, Copa would not give us the discount. Lesson learned…cost $320. We have responded to every legitimate question from our readers. If you are interested in a recommendation about anything we write about, send a message and we will do our best to accommodate.

We are hesitant to say we are fully moved from the States, as we still have our home there so officially we have two homes. The sale of our house in Michigan was solid and after almost six weeks our buyers financing failed. We lost the most valuable window of time to sell lake property in Michigan. With the home back on the market we are committed to making frequent trips back to keep things moving along. In Panama, we are renting. This takes the financial sting out of the fact that our Michigan house is still not sold. To put things in perspective for cost: we save enough on insurances in Panama to more than pay our rent. Really, nothing here costs more than in the States, except maybe electricity. Yesterday I bought 2 pairs of flip-flops and 3 t-shirts (practically all I wear here) for $9.58. Groceries cost about the same. We get a lot of fresh seafood and there is very few preservatives in anything. We find vegetables at the market straight from the farm. We get fruit (pineapples, melons, avocado, bananas, etc) at stands along the roadside. Our lifestyle/diet is better with very little effort.

Delicioso

fresh catch of the day

fresh vegetables

We have started settling into the community here. Coronado Bible Church has provided us with relationships that extend far beyond the community of faith. We have been able to find English-speaking people to refer us to nearly everything one needs on a regular basis. Yesterday we had our car serviced at a shop owned by an American family. They did a great job. We have also attended a couple of meetings of English speaking business owners here on the Panamanian Riviera. These meetings are intended to help people like us find local vendors who make it easy for us to live here without speaking much Spanish. Even though it isn’t really a business, the folks in this group are showing a great interest in our blog. We are connecting with our Panama insurance agent later this afternoon. It appears by the quotes we saw, that we will be insuring our car (full coverage) and getting a renters policy for a total of under $600 per year.

We have been able to go into Panamanian businesses and successfully communicate. We bought a 2nd key for our car at the Nissan Dealership yesterday. Some things are not without challenge. The key had to go to a locksmith to be cut. We will have to return to the dealer to have the key-fob programmed.  The dealership is over an hour from our house and we had to schedule an appointment for the programming. Our cable speed was 5mb and we were having a bit of trouble streaming U.S. TV programs. A visit to the cable company proved to be a challenge, but we were able to up our speed to 100mb for about $10 per month; problem solved.

CableOnda

In our last post we alluded to having to renew our drivers licenses. We bravely went to SERTRACEN (Panama’s DMV) to renew our drivers licenses. Without an interpreter, we had success. There was no English-speaking people in there, and we were able to make ourselves understood. Jen is much better at this than I, but we are both working on our Spanish daily.

Our visit to Sertracen

Panapass installed

Installation Center at Panapass

One other experience that merits mentioning is our trip to Panapass. Panapass is the toll tag for toll roads here. There are no attended lanes so it is important to have this for using the toll roads. We had to go to the place in order to have a new tag installed on the car.  The story was the same there and we found nobody who spoke English. We got it done and set out for our commute home. The traffic had cranked up pretty bad and it was difficult to navigate out of the place. Using our navigation app Waze, we went right through a transportation hub. There were hundreds of buses, taxi cabs and people walking everywhere. Waze kept taking us around and around until we were nearly crazy. We finally figured out that with five lanes of traffic gridlock all going in the same direction we just needed to be in a different lane to get where we were going.

We find ourselves considering every day an adventure. Most days we set out to do far more than we actually accomplish. It is beautiful here so we love to spend time at the pool or beach. This time of year there are very few tourists here so we have the place to ourselves. Last night we enjoyed fresh lobster at the beach club Terazza Restaurante. There were only 3 other couples in the place. As we complete this post it lacks photos. We will gather some appropriate photos today and publish later this afternoon. We appreciate that all of you are checking back, commenting, and asking questions. We know it sounds like a broken record, but please share and like if you’re reading on Facebook. If you haven’t joined the blog, please do so to get e-mail notification when a new post is available. This also helps us recognize our audience. We will never spam you, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Chau,

Greg and Jen

 

Our Move To Panama

Forgive us for our lack of frequent posts over the past few months. Our back story is well known by our Facebook friends, however we recognize that our blog followers may not know what has happened since returning to the States in April. Let us fill in some of the blanks…

Immediately upon our return to Michigan we began to interview Realtors for the marketing of our home there. We selected an agent and put our home on the market. In less than a week we had it under contract so we began the tedious process of selling nearly everything we owned to prepare for our move. It is amazing how much stuff one collects over the years. Mitzi Casey, our Panama agent, found us a rental that met all our needs and we signed a lease. With all these things in motion we learned after 6 weeks that our buyers financing failed. We were at the point of no return, so we moved forward with plans for our move. Our big fear was maintaining our home in Michigan from Panama. We contracted for lawn care, housekeeping, and security and moved to Panama at the end of June.

Everything that we brought to Panama is in these 5 check and 2 carry on bags
Everything that we brought to Panama is in these 5 checked and 2 carry on bags.

A move overseas has many moving parts. We elected to bring only what we could carry ourselves by air. Many people who we’ve met here, have moved using shipping containers, which is very expensive. We found it liberating to get rid of everything and start fresh. That being said, we did lease a place that was furnished. We also sold both cars and bought a car in Panama. We have possession of the vehicle, however the final transfer of title is not yet complete. We will post later about the vehicle purchase process. It is difficult, but doesn’t have to be. We bought a nice, used vehicle from an individual.

Our Car In Panama

Once we arrived in Panama, we had to complete our Visa process. This required about a half day with our attorney at Immigration. We had to surrender our temporary Visa cards, and have new cards issued. This is our permanent residency card which is issued for an indefinite time. The process is now complete. We have applied for our Cedula which is the ID carried by all people in Panama. The Cedula is recognized for doing business. It is easier to conduct bank business, make large purchases, and other things. Our drivers licenses will have to be renewed before the end of next month, because upon their original issue they were only good as long as our temporary Visas. We can do that right near where we live.

A lot of our research indicates that we can live on a very low budget in Panama. What we are finding is that with our Pensionado Visa we get great discounts and our costs for healthcare, insurances, and taxes are significantly less than in the States. We will be living on the Pacific Ocean in a great condo for around the same price as our home in Michigan.The difference is our home insurance is more than 1/3 the price, and we will not pay taxes for the next 10 years. After that the taxes are very low. In future posts we hope to start laying out direct comparisons for cost of living in Panama compared to the States.

We have spent the last several days getting settled into our condo in San Carlos. Our view of the ocean and marina over the golf course is incredible and our new place checked off all of our needs. It is a rental so we will have to settle for some things that we would do differently. We still stand by our decision to rent for a year until we are sure that we have chosen the right neighborhood. Inquiring minds want to see our place, so we are sharing some pictures.

Las Olas

condo living room

condo kitchen

condo master suite

The pool

Our view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That will bring most of you up to speed. We are still waiting on a buyer for our home in Michigan. We are amazed by the interest, and know that God has a plan for everything. We will be making frequent trips back until it sells. We know so many people who maintain two residences, and we have a new respect for all they do.

As we get settled here in Panama, keep following while we continue to develop new relationships, and learn Spanish.  We know that some of you follow to see what we are up to and some follow to learn about the Immigration process. We want to continue to mix everything into this and illustrate our experience and best practices. We love to have you all viewing. As always we hope that you will like, share, and comment. If you are a subscriber, please start adding content. We know that there are multiple perspectives to what we are experiencing.

For now Buenos,

Greg and Jen

Our Return To Michigan

As you all may be well aware, we made the journey home the first week in April. Neither of us was ready for the adventure to end and we both were in agreement that our new forever home would be in Panama. We are in love with the Pacific coast west of Coronado.

Upon our return to Michigan, we met with three real estate agents and interviewed each to find our best option to market our Gravel Lake property. We selected an agent and put the house on the market. Within 7 days we had it under contract and began preparing for our move. Our decision was to move to Panama with a foot locker, toolbox, and 2 suitcases each. We met a lot of people last winter and most told us that it was “liberating” to sell everything and replace what was necessary once settled into their new home. Most homes in Panama are sold furnished.

We put our agent in Panama to work in search of a reasonably priced rental. We decided to rent for a year while we look for our perfect home. Well, in case we haven’t mentioned it before our agent, Mitzi Casey, is awesome. She found us a beautiful condo that checks off all the boxes on our must have list. The unit rent is below our budget and it is for sale within our budget. We are optimistic that this may be our forever home. Once we get settled, there will be plenty of time to make an educated decision. She negotiated first right of refusal for us, in case they find a buyer during our lease. We are slipping in a few pictures here. We signed the lease sight unseen, but we had a great video tour on Saturday. The video tour showed things that you cannot possibly appreciate by just looking at pictures. Everything in the pictures is included except a couple of art pieces.

condo living room

condo kitchen

condo master suite

condo masterbath

condo balcony view

condo golf view

Las Olas is a condo in the Vista Mar community. The complex has multiple pools, golf course, beach club, marina, meditation garden, and three restaurants. We spent a lot of time in the community, but have not seen our condo in person. Needless to say we are a bit excited. Our official move date is June 26th.

We are now working through all the moving parts of an overseas move. We have everything we own for sale.

Garage Sale 1

The first garage sale is behind us and the second and final sale is Memorial Day weekend. The following weekend is reserved for a rain date and we have the Hospice Thrift shop scheduled to pick up everything that is left on June 11th. Our closing date is June 15th for our Gravel Lake house. We have agreed to immediate possession for our buyers. We have temporary accommodations through the 26th when we will fly out for Panama.

It has been a while since we posted. We hope you understand that our time is at a premium. We continue to be committed to documenting this adventure, and promise you will not be disappointed. Keep checking back and subscribe to e-mail delivery if you haven’t already.

Adios:

Greg and Jen