Welcome to Panama

Welcome to Panama, where the temperature is 70 all year round, maids and gardeners are $10 a day or less and the infrastructure is the same as the US, pothole free roads etc. Marketing at its best.........they need the punters to pass through their offices and buy!! Now, I live in Panama, and I love the country and its people. But!! Don't believe all you read on the web. Yes, temperatures in the 70s all year round........ but only if you live in the mountains. So forget about using cellphones or anything more than dialup internet unless you pay gringo prices for gated communities. Even in these your internet costs will be high due to lack of competition. And prepare yourself for a half to one hour drive to get to a supermarket. One to two hours to get into Panama city for modern entertainment. Its easy to make distance short on the internet, but the reality is that there is very little ouside the city. The places you read about are long drives away. Boquete or Volcan 7hrs, David 6hrs, Bocas del Toro 10hrs, beaches 1-2 hours. Pacific beaches in the main are not particularly good, the tides are strong too. The Caribbean side has better beaches, but they are few in number and not particularly accesible. Maids and gardeners. Yes, you can get them for $10 a day, even less outside the city. A full time live in maid in the city can cost as little as $120 a month. Beware of the local labour laws though.....once they become established you are stuck with them for life. Most expats who have learned prefer to use agency staff to get around this problem, so double the daily rates and avoid live ins like the plague they will become. Pothole free roads.........for about 6 months after a new road is built, which is not very often. Then the patching begins. Why are there so many 4X4's in Panama?? Believe me..........you need one!! Traffic in Panama city is close to gridlock at times, signs are missing and traffic regulations are regularly ignored. Lane discipline is non existant. Fairground dodgem cars would make a good training ground for driving here. Easiest way around the city is by taxi, they know how to avoid the worst areas and what they can get away with. Cheap too, if you learn the fare structure. If not you will suffer from the Panamanian culture of 'Juego Vivo' and pay gringo prices. Fresh air to breathe.........sure, if you live in the mountains, but forget it in the city. A daily wash of the floors to remove the greasy black film from traffic fumes is the norm. City temperatures are in the 90's, exacerbated by the number of aircon units pumping heat out. Humidity is high, its the tropics, so add another 10 or 20 degrees to what it feels like and be prepared to sweat. The rains dont usually last long, maybe an hour or so, but come down hard. Roads turn to rivers for a while, and then steam when the sun returns adding to the humidity. You don't speak Spanish?........no problem. In the city most Panamanians are bi-lingual. Wrong........the ones who do will be the ones who know how to inflate prices to gringo levels. Without a basic knowledge of spanish you will get fleeced. If you keep in mind that most of what you read on the internet is written by someone with something to sell you wont go far wrong. Panama can be a cheap place to live, if you adapt to Panamanian ways. Dont expect to buy the same things you are used to back home, imported goods are normally higher priced. Buy local produce to save. And dont expect to make a living here, unless you plan to become another 10 percenter fleecing other newcomers. Panama is a country divided between the few rich and the many poor. Average wage here across the country is around $300 a month. Teachers and nurses, what we would regard as middle class, earn about $500 per month. They survive by having multiple wage earners within a family unit. To survive here as an expat you need a minimum of $1000 a month coming in from outside, $2000 or more a month will make life pleasant. Make sure its a permanent source before you come here, Panama is cheap but nothing comes free. You may wonder, with all these negatives, why I choose to live here. The simple answer is, I love the freedom from government interference so prevalent in Europe, no nanny state here. I appreciate the fact that I am not paying taxes to support the ever growing number of welfare scroungers. I love the variety that this country has to offer. And I love the people and their laid back ways. I accept that Panama is an independent country, not little england or america, and have adapted to their ways. I have learned to drive to their rules, learned the short cuts and can get around the city as quickly as any taxi. I live in an area of the city that is Panamanian and have learned their language and ways. I understand that being an hour late for an appointment is normal. I know people that can get things done without spending hours in queues at government offices. And most of all.........I love my Panamanian wife and our son!!