Country Article / Postcards
We're Moving to Panama...and it's All Your Fault!
Date: 09/29/2004Dear International Living Reader,
It's all your fault!
Had it not been for the glorious--and accurate--description of a semi-tropical paradise in a real estate report from International Living, my wife and I wouldn't be selling our house in Maryland this month and going down to claim our already-shipped household goods and auto in Panama. That's right--we're moving to Panama.
"Panama: The Owner's Manual" was invaluable to us. After reading it, and going on an affordable real estate tour, which we found through International Living's Panama Office, we decided to buy a charming four-bedroom chalet in the mountains about an hour and a quarter southwest of Panama City--a surprisingly bustling and cosmopolitan capital. We've already discovered three jazz clubs there, and who knows, maybe we'll discover a few more.
Many of your readers already know about the mountaintop community of Altos del Maria but our IL-affiliated real estate agent, a 20+-year expat himself, knew of a wonderful smaller "development" near the town of Sora. He showed it to us, and we fell in love with it. On our near-acre of paradise, the gardener is maintaining the landscaping and the fruit trees he nurtured for the former owners at a very affordable cost for us and a very fair wage for him. In addition to the beautiful flowers (the bougainvillea are amazing) and lush colorful vegetation, we have banana, apple banana, cashew, mango, peppers, papaya, and, we're told, shrimp and crab in the brook that runs along our property line. We may never leave!
We look forward to hearing more from IL…almost as much as we look forward to stretching out in our hammock-for-two with a cool drink, listening to some jazz blending with the natural sounds, and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean in the distance.
Bill Keene
for International Living
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