An Expat On Why She Loves Puerto Armuelles, Panama

My neighbor, Veronica, graciously agreed to share
why she chose Puerto Armuelles, Panama to retire.  

 -- As well as why she likes living here.  

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Transcription of the Video 

Betsy of Living In Panama (off camera) asked:

Veronica, why did you decide to move to Panama and why Puerto Armuelles?

Veronica Answers Below

Costa Rica

Well, I had a farm in Costa Rica for many, many, many years and I really liked Costa Rica, but
things changed.

• A couple of very tragic things happened there [in Costa Rica]
• Crime rate went skyrocketing
• Bottom line was, it became dangerous to live there
• Very expensive to live there

Looking For A Place To Retire

And I started looking around.
So for 4 or 5 years I looked.

I came to Panama, in the beginning, to go to Boquete to a school, a language school there, Habla Ya, to make my Spanish much better.

So what we did was: 1st we made a list.

What things are important to us.

• Getting older so medical was a huge important issue.
  So medical is on top.
• Near the beach, near the ocean.
• Jungle. (We wanted it all.)
• Tranquil, peaceful little town.
• And we wanted friendly, friendly people.
• And we didn't I want to get caught up in the American Tourista kind of paying big bucks.  A lot of places are very expensive to live in, if you want to live well.

So we made our list.

Drew a couple of circles on maps.

Boquete

I had been to Boquete for a few months. I stayed there while I went to school.

I like Boquete.  However, for me it's too cold and I don't like the raininess.
To me that's .. And it wasn't near enough to the ocean.

And we started looking around for another place.

Looking For A Place In Panama

And I happened to see Puerto Armuelles on the map.

People didn't have a lot of things to say about it, buy you never know until you
go look. So we drove down.

One trip we came down here we were going to spend 3 months driving around, getting to
see all the places up close and personal.  We liked some other areas as well.

Puerto Armuelles

We got as far as Puerto Armuelles and stayed at the Tsunami Inn.
And we stayed and we stayed and we stayed.

We met nice people, looked at land and it fit all the criteria.
So this is home.

Now we have a farm, Finca Bella Vista, in the hills just above Puerto Armuelles.
2 kilometers out, I think, totally.

We just love it.

We are building a house and a barn, a stable. I do dressage, it's dancing with your horse, so to speak. And I also am a wildlife rehaber. I specialize in birds and small mammals.

And Puerto is nice. It really is very peaceful.
We decided to retire here and this is our home now.

I love it.

There's a lot to do. I ride the horses on the beach. There's all kinds of sports. We are heavily involved in calf roping.

It's fun. I love it here.
I absolutely love it.