I get a lot of questions about what it’s like living in Panama. It’s such a broad question, mainly because people who move to Panama do so for different reasons and have different expectations from person to person. There are lots of reasons why people move here…

the tropical climate…

to stretch retirement or nest egg money…

the roads, infrastructure, shopping and dining options may be farther along than where they’re from…

religion…

people fleeing tyranny and starvation occurring where they’re from…

a haven for expats with easy immigration laws…

the natural beauty…

sportfishing and the love of the outdoors…

clean living…

but really I can only tell you about what my family experiences are living here, how they compare to where I’m from, and how close or far away our reality living in Panama is when compared to our original expectations. Hopefully you will come away with an appreciation of what life in Panama is like, if only it’s through my eyes until you find your own way here.

Why Panama for Us?

When my wife and I decided to move abroad to Panama we did so for several different reasons. In touring the countryside it felt very safe, the people were very friendly, there were plenty of things to do, there were several places were we could find pockets of other expats who spoke our language and that we could identify with. The kids would be able to have a friend set, and we could too.

Plus, the country was alive with construction projects everywhere. Everywhere you look you could see skyscrapers being built, commercial buildings being built, malls being built, roads being built. The economy was booming. We saw an opportunity for us to make our own way in Panama and have a safe place to raise our family.

The Beach

Being from Kentucky we had always been essentially landlocked. Growing up my family always took vacations to water destinations, usually Kentucky Lake, and my hometown was a river city so I grew up boating on the rivers and lakes of Kentucky. I had always wanted to live on the water, so if we’re going to move so far away from home, why not move to the beach? That’s exactly what we did, and we spent two years living on the Pacific Ocean in an expat community located in La Barqueta, Chiriqui.

La Barqueta was great! You open the back door, walk out onto the beach, and you could jog literally miles in either direction breathing in the salty air. We enjoyed seeing tons of dolphins and even a few whales right out our back door. One of our neighbors taught our kids how to fish using a bottle as a reel like the locals do. We enjoyed seeing the fishing boats that would troll by and the oil tankers that would pop in and out of the Gulf of Chiriqui heading over to Puerto Armuelles to access the cross-country petroleum pipelines. We were able to teach our children to have a healthy respect for the ocean and to be aware of the differences that they could expect in the water between high tide and low tide. Riptides are real and they can steal your life away from you in a heartbeat!

We enjoyed hanging out at the beach resort there, ordering food and drinks at their swim-up bar, and meeting the tourists as they would pass through week in and week out. One of the favorite things I enjoyed there was hanging out on the ocean side of their pool, looking out over the beach and the ocean. Tremendous views!

I credit the salty air and the constantly hot temperatures I breathed in for the two years that we lived there for completely eliminating the lifetime of allergies that I had suffered from. I came to Panama loaded up with Zyrtec and nasal sprays. I can’t tell you when, but somewhere along the way I just quit using the nasal spray, and then sometime later I quit eating Zyrtec.

The Mountains

We learned something interesting about living in a land of constant temperatures. If it’s hot there’s never any relief! We learned that day 700 at 100 degrees Fahrenheit is a whole lot hotter than day 10 at 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We loved the community and the friends that we made at the beach, but for us we decided it was time to head to higher elevation where the temperatures were milder. So we chose Volcan, roughly an hour away from La Barqueta, and almost a mile higher in altitude.

Aside from the beach resort in La Barqueta there’s not much else in the way of shopping. There’s one very small tienda on the entrance road where you can buy basic necessities and that’s about it. In Volcan, we have seven different supermarkets, six or seven different hardware stores, a plethora of restaurants, and three different gas pumps, as well as several hotel options to choose from in the area do its tourist attractions that revolve around Cerro Punta, birdwatching, and climbing the volcano.

Volcan is a true Panamanian community. Unlike La Barqueta, which is basically an expat haven made up of expats and the Panamanians who work in the resort area, Volcan is a thriving agricultural community made up of people who work hard and play hard. The local festivals here are something to see. People take the time to decorate all up and down the roads in flowers of every color that you can imagine, and the vaqueros get all dressed up and parade their horses through the city for all to see. Whenever there is a festival or parade the street vendors come out by the dozens, selling their merchandise and their foodstuffs.

There’s a strong community of expats here in Volcan as well, and there’s always something going on. The restaurants here are great. We’re surrounded by abundant natural beauty. There is plenty of things to do outdoors, from hot springs, to coffee shops and coffee farm tours of the best coffee in the world, to pre-Colombian artifact dig sites, to hiking and horseback riding, ziplines, you name it… the outdoors are here for you in Volcan if you’re a lover of the outdoors like we are. After two years of having to make a one hour trip to buy most basic things, we find value in living closer to an established thriving community. Jumping in the car and being in a hardware store in 5 minutes is a real life convenience!

Making Friends

We’ve found that you make two kinds of friends in Panama. You make Panamanian friendships. You make Expat friendships. Panamanians are a proud people and they love their country. Expats are a mix of people who are here for different reasons. Expats bring along with them ideas and opinions on how things in Panama can be changed for the better. Panamanians are protective of their culture and their way of life and don’t want you messing with anything. We understand both viewpoints.

Panamanians are a happy people and are easy to talk to. It’s hard to make friendships with them, especially if you don’t know Spanish. It’s not that they don’t like you or want to get to know you. It’s that they’ve seen you before, come and go, blow in and out of their lives. They take the time to understand what makes you tick before they let you in to their trust zone. I don’t blame them! While there’s a lot they can learn from us, there’s a lot we learn from them. I’ve found that true happiness transcends your pay check or how big your house is or how many toys that you have, which is a different way of life than the way I was brought up.

Expats are easy to strike up friendships with because you instantly have a common bond with them: you’re living in a land that’s not your own. Not being a fantastic Spanish speaker, I learn just as much from the expats as I do from the Panamanians about living in Panama. Wherever it is that you call home, I can assure you that Panama is different. You’ll need to make friends with people who know the ropes, and I’ve found that expats understand this at a fundamental level, that we all kind of rely on each other to make each of our lives better.

Also, since people usually move abroad with only their immediate family, I’ve found that expats are more than willing to serve as substitute grandparents, substitute aunts and uncle, substitute moms and dads, substitute brothers and sisters, and substitute sons and daughters. We know many people who moved to Panama and met friends here who take vacation trips together to other countries. Nobody can really understand what it’s like to be a nomad I suppose like other nomads, so perhaps this is why birds of a feather tend to flock together.

Medical Options

Panama is blessed with modern healthcare options and a broad spectrum of medical services that are disbursed throughout the country. Panama City offers the best care regarding major medical issues. For everyday things you can find quality doctors and quality care almost anywhere. Many doctors who practice in Panama City will serve at a Chiriqui hospital once every couple of weeks as well.

Our youngest daughter was born here at Hospital Chiriqui in David, the largest city in province of Chiriqui. We had a great birthing experience with her. Having had children in both the United States and Panama, Megan and I can say that our Panama birth in some ways was better than in the United States. The doctors and nurses all stayed in the room with us the whole time, and the nurses were more motherly and nurturing than in the U.S. Our pre-natal care over the months that led up to the birth was similar. After care attendance by both the OB/GYN and the pediatrician was similar. All in all it was very U.S. like from our perspective, but how many different ways really can you approach hospital childbirth and maternal care? Maybe it’s the same everywhere!

Just this week, my little girl fell and split her head wide open. We took her to the hospital here in Volcan. Within a minute the nurses were attending us. Within ten minutes she was in the doctor’s care. Within another fifteen minutes she was all stitched up and bandaged. They kept us for two hours checking for signs of concussion, and while we where there they performed x-rays checking for possible cranial fractures.

People often come to Panama for medical vacations. 1st class dental care can be had here at a tenth of the price of the United States. Braces for kids are around $1,200. Our childbirth experience, from prenatal care, to doctor’s fee, to hospital stay, to all the drugs and pediatric care after birth, was $1,600. Our little girl’s stitches, from emergency room care, to doctor’s attendance, to antibiotics, was completely free.

Public Transportation

There are tons of public transportation options. In Panama City, you have the metro subway, which transverses the city and will soon stretch all the way from Tocumen International Airport all the way to La Chorrera.

There are a variety of public buses that are cheap, some which go from city to a specific city, some which go from Panama City to the Costa Rican border, and Some which go from Panama City all the way through Central America.

Taxis are everywhere. Sometimes it seems like half the cars that you see are yellow paint. Prices are affordable, you can get pretty much anywhere in the city for $5.00.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure in Panama is good and getting better each year. Here in Volcan we’re on both public water and electricity, rates running about $80 for electricity every month and $10 for water, and we’re pretty big consumers sorry to say.

Panama has huge hydroelectric projects as well as windfarms, and they sell energy to other countries. If you live in a populated area you can be sure that you’ll have access to cable and internet, electricity and water. There is no natural gas services, but bottled gas is readily accessible and most companies will deliver to your home.

The internet in Panama City is blistering fast, and most populated areas enjoy internet speeds of 20mb or greater. Unlike the United States, a lot of the internet services that you can get run the bandwidth in parallel, meaning that you upload speeds can be just as fast as your download speeds. If you want to live on the wild side I hear there are people floating around who can set you up with satellite service directly from the U.S.

Dining

Eating out is something that we really enjoy here in Panama. First of all, in the city, you can find all kinds of fine dining, with many internationally recognized chefs at the ready to provide you a quality 5 start gourmet meal at a fraction of the price you would be charged in Paris. It’s still expensive though!

Here in Volcan, you can find everything from Italian to gourmet, Mexican to American, roadside hamburger stands and roadside Colombian Arepa stands. Yesterday I payed $6.00 for a burger and fries at a bar and grill that was excellent. We’ve also come to appreciate typica food here in Panama, which is a piece of chicken, a small salad, rice, beans, and a fried plantain all for $3.50!

Shopping

Shopping is best in Panama City of course, where you can find almost anything made throughout the world for sale, including high dollar luxury car dealerships. As you drive through Panama City there is a never-ending plethora of shopping options that line both sides of any road. You name the product, you can find it in Panama City.

As you move out towards the west you’ll still be able to find most anything you want at the American-style malls, and you’ll find really good deals at your Panamanian outlet stores. What’s built up since I’ve been here in Panama is shopping centers that stretch all across the Inter-American highway. They consist of the major Panamanian-based chain stores such as Panafoto, Audiofoto Do-It Center, Novey, Conway, and Cochez, usually surrounded by a McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut, and then complimented with an array of smaller stores.

For cheap prices, it was a real shock at first to walk into El Campeon and see whole rooms full of clothes that cost no more than $4.00. Ropa Americanas are really big here, which are basically mom and pop clothing storefronts that sell name brand rack clothes from the U.S. for pennies on the dollar. My wife likes these. I like the CD Player!

Banking

Banks… ho hum. Panama known as the banking center of Central America. In Panama City you can find global bank branches from all over the world. Panama participates in the SWIFT system and it’s relatively easy for citizens and residents to establish checking and savings accounts, debit cards and credit cards, personal loans, car loans, and home loans. If you’re in to that type of thing.

Expats will need to prove who they are, have reference letters from a bank back home and an attorney, and a personal reference from a friend. You’ll also need to plan to make up to 10 trips to the bank to get your accounts set up. There’s no real reason for this that they can tell you. But it’s true!

Of note to the cryptocurrency community is that Crypto Capital is here. In fact there a lot of cryptobusinesses here. There are plenty of places that are set up where you can buy and sell Bitcoin, and Localbitcoin has a pretty big presence here locally. Also, if you know where to look you can find Bitcoin ATMs in the city.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed the little tour around Panama life through my eyes. One thing I would like to leave you with about living in Panama is the taste of freedom. You can live free in Panama. Life is slower here, you can pursue your passions, and you can thrive. You won’t be buried underneath an endless amount of paperwork and cumbersome taxes. You won’t feel like the police are trying to chase you down to give you a speeding ticket all the time. You won’t feel like you’re a slave to endless deadlines, unless you’re writing daily articles on Medium. You’ll live your life the way you want to. You’ll feel free. You’ll live free. You’ll be free!