It’s great information for expats for hours a day and you can get it online. It’s the English speaking expat radio that broadcasts over the Internet and has been created by expats for expats or those thinking of becoming expats.  You must sign up and get a user ID and password by going to  http://bit.ly/sGjcrp. It’s not all about Panama, but the information is timely and interesting. Some programs are re-broadcasts and some are live. You can get the schedule online on the website.

The online “press release” about the launch states that,  “Overseas Radio Network has partnered with some of the most experienced and well-respected leaders in the expatriate industry.  The ORN team will bring our listening audience quality audio content regarding living, investing and retiring overseas.  This group of experts will cover topics ranging from real estate and global asset protection, to food and entertainment as well as adjusting to a new culture.

 Our hosts will be broadcasting from Panama to Paris; and can be heard live on the air for over 70 hours per week exclusively on the internet.  Our line-up of personalities includes doctors, lawyers, top real estate agents, and expert travelers from across the globe.  You will not find a group of individuals in one place quite like this anywhere but Overseas Radio Network.  ORN has been created to help our audience make educated decisions about picking up their lives and moving abroad.”

I’ve been listening in my free time (ha!) and find it to be a great resource.  What’s even better, is that you can listen to archived programs that are of interest to you. Go forth and listen!   http://bit.ly/sGjcrp

Panama, like almost any country that has a modicum of free speech, is occasionally subject to demonstrations. And these demonstrations can interfere with daily life in a far bigger way than we are used to here in the U.S. (Think student riots in France, but with less violence.)

 For example, when DH and I were in Panama last year, there were numerous demonstrations going on around the country against a new mining law. Panamanians, quite rightly, were concerned about what additional mining would do to their lovely country. At the time, expats were warned by their embassies not to participate in these demonstrations, no matter how much they concurred with the sentiment.

 A few months ago, a section of the Pan American Highway was closed, or at least nearly impassable, during demonstrations by locals who were being forced from their homes. In Panama, while it is more difficult to assert squatter rights, they do exist. These “squatters” were forced off land they had lived on for years after an American –owned company purchased the land.  To the Panamanians’ credit, I didn’t hear of any retaliation against expats, but it certainly wouldn’t have been surprising had there been some.

 The highway was closed again very recently while new anti-mining demonstrations took place. From what I read, the government didn’t fulfill some commitments it had made to last year’s demonstrators. Frustration levels were very high, though, again, not directed towards expats. Generally, the demonstrations just made for major travel disruptions, something we generally experience here only when foul weather fouls up our plans.

 The point is, even in very stable countries, disruptions can take place and they can be violent or potentially violent.  Expats are guests living in another country and need to conduct themselves accordingly or they may be ejected from the host country. They also need to be aware of personal safety issues when demonstrations or disturbances take place. While not typically the intended target, they can become collateral damage.

Panama has implemented a government-mandated minimum wage increase of between 15-18% beginning in 2012.  Edgardo Voitier, assistant secretary of the National Federation of Public Servants (FENASEP), said raising minimum wages by 15% to 18% does not even cover the increases to basic food costs. I’m sure this must be a big concern to expats and potential expats alike. It will undoubtedly launch a round of higher prices for services and products throughout the country, which will, in turn, likely lead to a new round of wage increases next year. Thus the inflationary spiral begins.

Agricultural producers and entrepreneurs predict they will have to implement staff reductions in order to cope with the higher wages they will have to start paying their workers. Virgilio Saldaña, president of the Manufacturers Association of the Highlands, considers the increase to the minimum wage approved by the government on Wednesday to be just, but he said the increase does not come at a good time considering that the agricultural sector is “in trouble.” According to Saldana, the new minimum wages set by the executive ‘will jeopardize many jobs’, as many producers will have to make adjustments in spending. In the agribusiness sector, the increase was 15%.

Saldaña’s opinion is shared by the president of the National Association of Micro and Small Enterprise, Gloriela Quintana, who said small business owners will have to implement layoffs in order to deal with the increase in the minimum wage.  

It’s unlikely that the wage increase will increase food prices by 15%, but labor probably does make up the bulk of the expense for most Panamanian farms and ranches.

I’d love to know if rising inflation will factor into your decision to consider Panama a retirement location. Please let me know your thoughts.

Living in the high desert of New Mexico may have its drawbacks (lack of moisture for one) but in one respect, it rocks: few creepy crawlies.

In my on-going effort to identify places I would live in Panama, I asked around for information on the insects and other nasties that reside in Panama. I got some interesting answers.

From Clara in Panama City, I learned that you could expect to cross paths with rats, ants, roaches and scorpions. She mentioned that worse things could be found in the jungle, but that’s not the consideration in this blog.

From the El Valle region came the response that cicadas and beetles abound in the wet season and swarm out of the earth. In the dry season, ticks hold sway. There are also roaches, spiders, winged termites and “Palomitas de San Juan” which were not further described to me.  A fellow New Mexican that relocated to Panama said that regardless of where she has lived in the El Valle region, tiny insects that are impervious to screens manage to invade the house and bite with regularity. She said spraying can help some, but then you’re left with the toxins the spray produces, and the spray is only somewhat effective.

She further shared that numerous geckos inhabit the area and leave droppings and eggs in and around boxes that you would swear were tightly closed. Her daughter, who lives in Albuquerque, would hate living in Panama, she explained, because of the bugs. It’s certainly information worth knowing. She suggested that anyone considering moving to Panama rent for a good year first to see if it’s right for you.

Information from Boquete provided the data that the black scorpions (apparently they are everywhere in Panama) are far less toxic than those in Arizona. My Boquete contacts also mentioned spiders, some the size of small Buicks, but happily, no mosquitoes. There are also no-seeums and coffee flies, but overall far less insect  activity than a former Floridian experienced in Florida.

I think Boquete has to have my vote on the issue of creepy crawlies!

In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned how impressed I was with the free one month emergency medical insurance provided gratis by the government.

One of the expat blogs I follow, mentioned that they had heard stories about the insurance not being honored.  In fact, a B&B owner shared, “More than once, we have had guests here that have tried to use this service. The hospitals have told them; sorry we don’t take these cards. In other words, another way Panama promotes tourism, but does not reimburse those who are expected to pay the bill.

 If a tourist gets in an auto accident, or is sick, and racks up a bill at a hospital, the hospital is stuck with the bill. The Gov of Panama does not reimburse them. So, now, they are simply turning the tourists away or make them pay their bill.”

I wanted more information and followed up on this post.

Another expat supplied the solution.

In the Oct 20-26 issue of The Visitor/El Visitante bilingual paper, on the back page (or online under ‘news’) are the following with phone numbers to report problems.  The notice is reprinted below:

“Panama gives free health insurance for 30 days to all who enter
the country through Tocumen International Airport. Cards promoting this
benefit are available at the airport. But carrying the card is not
necessary to collect on the policy to cover medical expenses for
accidents that occur while in national territory.

Visitors to the country who have a medical emergency must simply
show the entrance stamp on their passport to the hospital staff and the
Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) will cover the cost through a blanket
policy provided through Generali Insurance.

Through this effort, Panama expects to capture a greater
percentage of the tourism market by making visitors to our country feel
safer through providing this free value-added service. There is an
exclusive hotline for questions and concerns regarding the new policy,
reachable at 204-9300 and 204 2312.”

Traveling to Panama? Write down these numbers and keep them with your other emergency information. Hopefully you won’t need to take advantage of the complimentary health insurance, but if you do, it would be helpful to provide the telephone numbers to a physician or facility that might be unaware of the policy.

One of the aspects I really appreciated while traveling around Panama was the excellent Internet availability. They have both cable and satellite in the country, but cable is available only in the more populated areas.  When I asked about pricing, however, I learned that it wasn’t cheap. I guess that’s no real surprise, since it’s still a growing service and serves a smaller population than we’re used to here.

 I was dismayed, however, to find that I couldn’t use my AmazonBox download for videos. The error message I received something to the effect that I appeared to outside the U.S. and this service was not available for this area. It relates, I later learned, to broadcasting and licensing restrictions.

That got me wondering if my entertainment options would be severely curtailed if I moved to Panama, so I did some follow up checking. Here’s what I learned.

 Netflix has announced it is expanding into Central and South America, but the timeline for launch is unclear. Kindle appears to be the only e-book reader that enables downloading books outside the U.S. without major issues. (Nook is not set up for international delivery at this point.) I think, however, that if I were to buy a tablet and maintain my library membership back here in the U.S., it could still work to download in Panama, provided that…

 I use a VPN or Virtual Private Network to do my surfing and downloading. GH understood this immediately, but I was unfamiliar with the concept. A VPN effectively hides your Panama IP address and shows you as being somewhere else in the U.S. Think of it as a Magic Jack for the Internet.

 Several kind individuals explained VPN’s for me. Some are free and some cost only a few dollars a month. Apparently you get what you pay for most of the time. Using a VPN, Panama expats are able to stream Netflix, Hulu, RetroTV, Amazon videos, books for Sony and Nook, etc. Presumably I could also still satisfy my cravings for audio books as well.

 Future expats, fear not! You need not give up your entertainment downloads when you move to Panama.

According to a report out Tuesday, October 11, Boquete was named as the second optimum choice for a top expat retirement location. 

Ajijic, Mexico was named first choice due to its large 4000 Canadian and American population.

The article went on to cite Boquete because:

“About 3,000 foreigners live in this colorful mountain town. Migration continues, and the number of foreign residents in Boquete is expected to increase to 10,000 by 2016.

What’s the attraction? Beautiful setting, good climate, straightforward pensionado rules (for all Panama), yes, but, mostly, the draw in Boquete, as in Ajijic, is the established gringo community. This is a place to come to enjoy many of the benefits of being retired overseas without leaving behind too many of the comforts and conveniences of American suburban living.

In one private, gated, residential community development I know in this region, for example, amenities include a golf course, stables, even a small central town created specifically for foreign residents; and construction, for both the shared amenities and the individual homes, is to U.S. standards, with U.S.-style finishes, fixtures, and fittings. In Boquete town itself, shops and services catering to the ever-growing foreign retiree population continue to open. In the U.S.-style restaurants serving American-style menus (featuring scrambled eggs for breakfast and cheeseburgers for lunch), you’ll hear all-English conversation at the tables around you and all-American music on the speakers. People you pass on the street will greet you with a wave and a “hi” or a “hello,” assuming that that’s how you’d like to be addressed and that you’ll reply in kind.”

For good or bad, Boquete is well and truly on the expat radar and will likely change dramatically over the next few years.

BTW, the photo was filched from the Boquete Garden Inn website, a fabulously beautiful boutique hotel in Boquete.

I’m greatful to Fred Bishop for allowing me to post his story on this blogsite. Please be sure to check out his blog at http://shippingcontainerhousepanama.wordpress.com/

I think it demonstrates that while Panama can be a great place to live, there are still problems like crimes of opportunity to contend with.  As one of my earlier blogs state, you don’t go to another country expecting it to solve your problems or bring to no new challenges to your life. But as Fred demonstrates here, there are a lot of good people in Panama that are committed to keeping their communities safe and crime to a minimum.

Most crime in Panama is of a non-violent type, but poverty and the relative wealth of many expatriates can make them a target. Now, Fred’s recent experience…

No, we neither read the book nor sat back and watched the movie; this post is about catching a thief in our neighborhood. Sorry, no photos this post.

As part of my Sunday day off, Cynthia and I decided to go to our new house and sit and read for a while. You know, get the feel of being in our new home without construction going on. Cynthia had a new book on the Kindle, and I had my copy of 501 Spanish Verbs and wanted to learn more about the fourteen tenses (English has six).

Cyn was settled in reading, and I was talking over the fence with Abdiel who works for one of our neighbors. I was asking Abdiel about the name of a tree with orange flowers (acacia), and we also chatted about the six break ins in our small neighborhood during the past few weeks. Doors have been ripped off their hinges and security bars on windows have been cut and removed. Most of the take has been small stuff; propane tanks ($70 refundable deposit), cameras, stereos, etc. Cynthia and I haven’t been hit because we now have several layers of security at our rental house, and our shipping containers are locked up frog-butt tight with high security padlocks. But still, I am the president of our local neighborhood watch and want to see our barrio safe and sound.

While Abdiel and I were talking, a man that we didn’t recognize, obviously very drunk, crossed our neighbor’s yard and walked toward us. This was a red flag, because in Panama it is against the law to enter someone’s property without permission. Even when our gate is open, none of our neighbors will cross the property line without our permission. He had a garden hose over his shoulder and a spider plant in his hands. His face and hands were all cut up as if he had lost an argument with a barbed wire fence. He pleaded with us to buy his things, but we figured out what was going on and sent him away. The man went to the next neighbor’s house and while apparently scoping the place out, was chased away by the owner.

The man’s next stop was at another neighbor’s house where the entire family was having a get together. He brazenly walked through the front gate and right into the house. The owner (JR) chased him out.

I was watching and decided that enough was enough. He was a little too familiar with our neighborhood and I wondered if he was indeed the perpetrator of all our thefts. I talked with JR and asked if she wanted to press charges. “Yes!” she replied.

We live on the line between two Panamanian provinces. One police department is about 10 minutes away and the other is about 40 minutes. They like to shuffle the calls from our neighborhood off on each other. I called the closest one and made my report and requested a police cruiser (more likely a pickup truck) to apprehend the guy.

Then I ran home and got our car and headed after him. I found him on a side road, trying to sell his bounty to some locals who were waiting for a bus. I drove right up to him and he again tried to sell the hose to me. $10. I got one of the bystanders aside and told him what was going on. I thought I might string the hose vendor along and tell him I would buy the hose but my money was in town and I would take him there, however actually intending to drive right into the police station.

Although I didn’t know the bystanders, they strongly urged me not to do it by myself. They were obviously concerned for my well being and I was touched. I had to honor their request even though I had my hand on my pepper spray and thought I could handle the guy.

I pulled to the side of the road and called the more distant police and gave a detailed description of the man. “Ten minutes,” the officer assured me. Now the man was on the move again, clearly crossing into the jurisdiction of the closer police. I then called the closer police department and gave them the man’s description. While I was parked there, another neighbor called to tell me that they had seen the guy too, and he looked suspicious. But I didn’t get the call because we lost reception.

The man tried to flag down a bus, but it was full. Another bus came along and I ran across the street, warned the driver of the drunken hose thief (it was the thief, not the hose that was drunk), and the driver refused entry to the man.

As I waited for the police, any police, the man walked out of my view and disappeared. It turned out that the police had sent a patrol unit to the edge of town and simply waited for the man to walk into their dragnet.

I drove to the police station, pointed to the man, and made my statement about what had happened. I also got on the phone and asked JR to come and identify the perp as the one who had entered her house.

By then, police from the neighboring province showed up. I re-stated my statement, as did JR. I told the police about the recent Rash of Break Ins (why is it always a rash? Why not a Flurry? Or a Bevy of Break Ins?). The police asked that we try to identify the owner of the hose (which we have now done) and get them to also make a statement to the police.

One of the cops asked if I was in the military during Vietnam. He said that I looked very official and was brave to deal with this guy who could have become violent. It’s funny, or more like odd to me, that even though I really don’t like conflict, I wasn’t at all afraid to confront this guy. I stood right in his face and told him to never come to my neighborhood again. One of the policemen tapped the man on the head and said, “Listen to the man.”

The upshot of this several hour intrusion on my Spanish verb study is that the man was led off in handcuffs (called esposas, same as esposa, the word for “wife” — go figure) to the other precinct, facing at least three or four charges: attempting to sell goods that he most likely didn’t own, trespassing at JR’s house, being out and about without his national identity card (a really, really big oops), and being drunk and disorderly in public.

So I feel pretty good about all of this. We got a petty thief off the street, and perhaps he is the one who has been doing all the damage in our neighborhood under the cover of darkness. Now he knows that we will take him to task for his habits. I also feel really good that once again our Panamanian neighbors have shown us that this is indeed a village. By the end of three hours, seven households were involved to pull together the pieces to put this man in jail.

That’s all for now. Tomorrow I’m back to work. I’d like to get some paint sprayed on some interior walls.

After talking to numerous people in Panama about the wet season, most individuals pooh-poohed my concerns. It’s not bad at all, I was told. Then I came across a couple in Boquete who had moved from Colorado, which has a climate similar to Santa Fe, NM, where GH and I live. My new friend waxed poetic over the horrendous wet season they experienced as their first in Boquete. It was the worst wet season in 100 years, I was informed. You can appreciate my concern!

Others rushed to reassure me that the wet season last year was completely atypical. I researched it on the Internet and asked my Boquete friend again this year what the season was like. Here was her response: “The wet season this year has been a JOY! No wonder the locals were saying that last year was just not normal. We have had so many gorgeous, sunny days–lots and lots with no rain at all!”

An Internet acquaintance from the El Valle area contacted me and provided me with a link to her webcam. She invited me to check back on the weather regularly. Here it is:

http://www.whypanama.com/cam.php

Finally, my research online revealed the following encouraging information about the wet season, specifically in Boquete:  A more typical day during the wet season in the Boquete District is to wake up to generally clear skies and sunshine. As the day progresses, you see cumulous clouds developing in the south and then growing into towering cumulonimbus systems. By mid afternoon, the cloud systems move into the area and rain falls. The thunderstorm rains last for varying amounts of time, but usually not more than a couple of hours. Slow steady stratus cloud rains from from the Caribbean are unusual but occasionally occur during the wet season.

OK. I’m liking this scenario quite a lot, but I do wonder how, with the above description in mind, how Panama manages to get 70-100 inches of rainfall per year. The afternoon rainfalls must be doozies!