January 30, 2016
See photos below.
They are not available to adopt yet!
You can pick your new dog up on February 20th. That is when they will be spayed/neutered.
But you can claim your pup today.
Please call Irma today! - 6230-3623
Irma is one of the volunteers with Los Animales.
The puppies's mom died. They were found homeless and hungry.
There were 6 puppies available, but Pat has already claimed one.
Currently they are alittle more than a month old.
I will update this post with more information, like their gender, when I get it.
Click on any photo to enlarge and start slideshow.
Learn more about Voluntarios Por Los Animales and other ways you can help the animals of Puerto Armuelles.
If you adopt a puppy, please let us know!
The landscape and garden design are certainly beautiful, but are by no means the best out there.
During the afternoon hours, the festival ground are relatively vacant.
In Panama, crowds only begin to filter in around early evening. In order to attain the lively festival experience you may need to sacrifice a good night's sleep in order to drive home, or money on a hotel room. During the evening & night, the festival adds amusement rides, live music and dancing to the mix.
Scroll down to see photos of the festival & Boquete
Of course if you don't mind a slower paced festival escapade or the hot sun, a one day trip to this festival is perfect.
Since this event was originally a coffee fair, it still offers up a large variety of local coffee brands. Boquete is known for having some of the best coffee in the world, so if you enjoy a good roast you should give this event a visit.
The festival is surprisingly small, especially for an event that has been held for over fifty years. Venders occupy most of the fair grounds, selling flowers, coffee, and traditional hand crafted souvenirs.
Though many people come for the coffee and flower arrangements, to me the real star of this event is the town and the scenery surrounding it.
During the 10-day festival there is an explosion of venders outside the festival grounds as well as inside. While in town you you might like to visit the plethora of restaurants, ice cream shops, as well tour coffee farms.
So if you come to Boquete solely for the festival don't forget to stay a little while, look at the views, and grab a bag of local coffee beans for the road.
The festival is the attraction, but in order to get the full experience you have to appreciate the town that puts it on, Boquete.
If you want to learn more, my Mom, Betsy, wrote some about the history of the Boquete Flower & Coffee festival.
This article was written by my 14 year old daughter, Skylar Vayda. Over the next 3 months, Skylar will be writing a Panama-related article each week. She will be picking the topic. We hope you enjoy them.
One of the things that makes this property so special is that it's on a ravine so it has an abundance of trees and tropical birds.
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Also, it is only 90 feet from our favorite beach.
The house is in the popular Corazon de Jesus neighborhood of Puerto Armuelles. A neighborhood that is only a 10 minute drive from downtown Puerto Armuelles.
The other day I took these photos (below) of and by this house for sale.
This link has more photos and details about this beach house for sale in Puerto Armuelles Panama
These 10 neighborhoods are the ones that most interest people moving to or investing in Puerto Armuelles, Panama.
In the near future, we will add at least 2 photos for each neighborhood on that page. I first need to format the photos to fit on the page property.
However, I can share photos of some of Puerto Armuelles' neighborhoods below.
Have you been to International Living's conferences? One on Panama is coming up on Feb 12-14, 2016 in Panama City
Fast-Track Panama: Lifestyle And Opportunity Conference
IL states that they will give you all the information you need to decide if Panama is right for you. They even promise to provide valuable contacts to help you make the move to Panama a success.
I have never been to one of International Living's conferences. Although, I do know people who have, and who enjoyed it. I have been told that their conference is not as over the top enthusiast as their written publications can tend to be.
I won't be at their conference this year either. It is happening during my birthday celebrations. We will be luxuriating somewhere in Panama (exact location is not yet known). Who knows, if you are in the country then we could run into each other. It is a remarkably small country. We seem to run into people we know everywhere we go in Panama.
You can get the conference details on their site by clicking here.
I know the conference is happening soon, probably too soon to make plans to attend. But if it looks interesting to you, you may want to sign up for next year's conference. As I said, I have been told good things about it.
In case you are wondering, I want to be clear, I receive no payment from IL if you attend any of their conferences.
When we had just started poking around to find out where we might want to live, we explored International Living's site and publications alot. Yes, we found its prose a little too rosy at times, but it had alot of good information as well.
If you don't know where in world your next adventure will be, International Living's magazine & website can be inspirational. Just make sure you conduct your own research as well.
At the time of this writing, it is only $49 for one year's worth of magazines. You can cancel anytime.
To be completely transparent, if you sign up - & keep signing up - for the magazine, I make a commission. It doesn't increase your cost at all. Regardless, you should only get the magazine if it adds value to your life.
Back when our family lived full-time in Seattle, I found that my days, weeks, and months were consumed with work, errands, and the basic maintenance of a life with children.
I never had a moment free from a sense of “rushing from one thing to another”.
I know people who seem unfazed by this “reality” of life.
I guess they have a higher threshold for stress than I do. Or, perhaps, they are just better at “faking it”.
Whatever the case, I was suffering from a lack of time to just “be”.
Our family’s decision to move to Panama was one of taking a chance, and of giving up many of the great cultural and social benefits of living in a bustling, artistic, cultural center like Seattle.
In exchange, we got a slower-paced lifestyle in the small Central American town of Puerto Armuelles. It was a huge trade-off for us.
What we have found in our over 8 years of living in Puerto is that, while we had much more access to events, institutions, and community that inspired us in Seattle, we have much more of the most basic element of a happy, creative life here in Puerto Armuelles.
That is TIME.
TIME. Free, abundant, time.
Time in which to think, to read, to draw, to go for a walk on the beach, to stop in the midst of our morning routine to listen to the sounds of the parrots, the howler monkeys, or to the horses that go clopping by our house.
This is pretty basic stuff, really.
And it is oh so essential to one’s sense of well-being.
It is amazing how much peace one can find, simply by removing the unceasing pressure to keep moving, and doing, from every minute of every day.
When one can just breathe, and “be”, one is able to connect with the moment.
With this gift of time, I have discovered that my mind doesn’t go racing ahead to the next moment, as if driven by a tyrant. I can stay in one place, and be peaceful.
Since we started our 8-year adventure in Puerto Armuelles, our older daughter has become a teenager. She is very happy living in Panama. She considers it her home.
As her parents though, we half-reluctantly realized it is time for her to explore the more tangible advantages that life in Seattle has to offer. Puerto is a wonderful place to be, but it is a small town. It does not provide the wide array of learning opportunities and experiences of a city in the States.
Knowing our daughter, we felt she would be glad she had those opportunities as she grew older and made her own way in the world. Therefore, we decided to spend part of each year in Seattle, and part of each year in Puerto Armuelles.
We have been engaged in this experiment for about a year now.
I am happy to report that everything is going really well so far.
At first our older daughter, Skylar, was very homesick for Panama. Now she embraces living in both places. Our younger daughter, Blaise, is 9 years old. She is not as enthusiastic about living in both places. She would still prefer to be living full-time in Puerto Armuelles. She does enjoy Seattle, but she misses our more laid back life in Puerto Armuelles.
Skylar, now 14, participates in a variety of home school type programs in Seattle. She studies writing with a favorite teacher at one school. She takes an amazing and renown college-prep science class taught by a ex-college professor at another location. She helps in the costuming department of a local theater company and studies ballet and modern dance at the home of a ex-professional ballerina. She took sailing over the summer and wants to sail more. She is also on a soccer team and is taking guitar. It is a full schedule. And she has more things she still wants to explore.
Many of her classes are within walking, or biking distance of our home. However, we definitely spend more time in the car in Seattle than we do in Puerto Armuelles. And the traffic in Seattle is getting increasingly bad.
After one year, we feel more inspired in BOTH PLACES.
By getting to spend 6 months in Panama, we are not affected as much by the traffic congestion in Seattle, or by the long stretches of grey days.
Spending half the year swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean, makes it much more bearable to be surrounded by all those lakes and Puget Sound in Seattle that are all too frigid to bathe in.
Not being quite so amped up by a year-long stint in Seattle, we feel that we have more time to explore all that Seattle has to offer, and to enjoy it. We go to the ballet, we see musical performances, we visit art galleries.
In the same way, after all the business of Seattle, we luxuriate in all the time we have in Panama.
Time to explore life on our own timeline. Time to enjoy the abundant nature and wildlife all around our house.
We find it is only by having open ended time that you can really discover and explore your interests and what you want out of life. Too much business kills creativity.
I think this article could apply to other parents of young children who have considered taking a “time out” of their lives in North America.
But for those with grown children, the notion that Panama isn’t necessarily an “all or nothing” proposition might be appealing too
We meet many retirees who enjoy going back and forth between their northern homes, and a smaller, much less expensive home and lifestyle in Panama.
In fact, we know several northerners, particularly Canadians, who enjoy seeing family up north during the warm summer months, and then they head down to Puerto Armuelles to relax and stay warm during the cold season up north. A cold season which corresponds perfectly with the warmest, driest part of the year in Panama.
They say that they are re-invigorated by the change, so that they feel fresher in both places. When they catch up with old friends up north, or their new friends in Puerto, they have some new stories to share.
Living in both places is more expensive. Not only do you have to cover airfare, but life is much more expensive in North America and Europe. So that is something to consider before embracing life as a part-time expat.
For folks on a limited or fixed income, the time in North America might be spent traveling in a motor home, or staying with several different children.
This gives grandparents a chance to really connect with their grandchildren, maybe travel together. It also gives you the ability to help your grown children to go on a vacation without their kids, but watching your grandchildren.
Right now our part-time experiment is working for us. Although, my family has admitted to missing spending more time in Panama. It still feels strange not be in Puerto Armuelles.
My wife feels that life is more of an adventure in Panama. More leisurely, less planning. She loves that you can decide to go snorkeling or hike in the mountains in the morning and be actually doing it by the afternoon.
See my post on easily enjoying the beach and the mountains within 2 hours in Panama
Life is definitely more busy and involves more planning in the States.
They say that we become our habits, little by little, day by day. So I am glad we are mixing the habits we have in each of these two places together.
The habits of exploration, adventure, and enjoying each moment.
Please comment below.
Learn about Puerto Armuelles here.
But that doesn't mean we don't like the mountains too. We do.
It works the other way too.
We are running into more and more ex-pats who live in the highlands of Boquete or Volcan who “love the mountains”, but who also like the beach.
Some of the hype you hear about Panama, says that these beach and mountain lovers can quickly go back and forth.
For example, the hype says that in one leisurely Panamanian day, you take a dip in the ocean, a hike in the mountains and eat dinner back at the beach.
I decided to test that out.
Recently, while my family was away in the states, I decided to see if I could use the mountains as a quick get away from Puerto Armuelles.
I was particularly enthusiastic since it was the dry (hot) season, and there were no waves for surfing.
What I found was that all the hype is true.
I took off my flip flops, drove to Volcan, put on my hiking shoes, and went for a brisk hike. I was back in my car before dark and driving home - all in the same day.
Specifically, I did the following.
- Left Puerto Armuelles after lunch
- Drove up to Volcan (1-1/2 hrs)
- Enjoyed a 3-hour hike
- Returned to Puerto in time for dinner.
When I left the beach it was pretty hot (high 80’s). I was up in the cool mountains (low 60’s to 70’s) of Volcan in a matter of an hour and a half. It would have taken 2 hours to go to Boquete.
I continued this experiment and visited Cerro Punta, which is ~2 hours from Puerto Armuelles.
I drove to Cerro Punta, took a nice afternoon hike, then spent the night at the wonderful Hotel Los Quetzales.
I woke up, had a lazy breakfast, then went for a real jungle hike. I kept a look out for the beautiful and elusive Quetzal, but never saw it.
I could have returned to my hotel, checked out, and been back in Puerto Armuelles for a swim in the Ocean before dusk, but I didn't. I stayed another night.
Obviously, I have always known that this was possible. But we had never tested it.
Our getaways to the highlands and other places in Panama, tend to be for 4 or more days. We haven't done many quick trips. More often then not we stay contendedly at home in Puerto Armuelles. I think that now that our children are getting older, and more adventuresome, we may start to take more quick trips to the highlands. Or maybe just Betsy and I will just take off more often for a night or 2 and stay at one of the many great mountain hotels
It seems that I'm not the only one doing more quick visits.
With increasing frequency, we run into expats from Volcan & Boquete here our beach town of Puerto Armuelles. They are indulging in a weekend getaway from their mountain homes and staying at Heavenly’s Hotel or the Tsunami Inn.
It was chatting with these expats that inspired me to try a quick getaway myself.
They told me it was easy. They were right.
But I did wonder why they didn't go to the beaches somewhat closer to them such as Las Lajas, Boca Chica, and La Barqueta. They told me that Puerto Armuelles is just a “whole lot more real” than those more resort-type beach areas. In Puerto, you get the beach, but you also get a real beach town, with 20k residents, and all the services and community that this entails.
For more about Puerto Armuelles, go here.
Updated July 4, 2017
Read this post for details on how to be healthy in the tropics
While there are health food stores and gyms in many locations, they are not available everywhere. Even when they are, they might not be up to the same standard as your gym at home.
And what you eat is only one factor.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle - with exercise - is also a challenge.
Suddenly being in a totally new culture, and often hotter climate can sometimes change an energetic and engaged person into a sedentary and lazy person. But that is easily remedied.
"We think longevity is probably about 70- 75% lifestyle."
Don't let the heat prevent you from keeping active. As the quote above indicates, you are the captain of how healthy and fit you are as you age. Your genes are not the prime reason for how you age.
You are in charge of 75% of how you will age. A key way to keep healthy and active is to keep moving. Even a regular morning jog cannot overcome the negative impact of sitting for long periods during the day.
The various studies show: no matter how "fit" subjects were, extended bouts of inactivity increased a subject's risk for:
Here are some ideas for integrating activity throughout your day.
One of the wonderful aspects of living in Panama is that nature is never far away. Go explore the tropical paradise around you, and make sure to move your body while you do it. To avoid the heat, do your most strenuous exercising in the early morning or evening hours.
You can grow your own food or buy from the many fruit and vegetable stands in Panama.
Buying your produce from street stalls is not only a great way to meet and greet people in the community, but you are supporting local business. Also, the produce is usually much cheaper than in the grocery store.
You may want to read this post about buying local produce in Panama.
In Chiriqui, we have a great resource in Finca Santa Marta. It is a 42-acre organic farm in Santa Marta, about 20 minutes west of David. They offer a wide range of organic items:
How To Shop From The Farm
Pick up Orders. You can pick up your order on Tuesdays. That is, from the Boquete Market on Tuesday morning or in Dolega or David on Tuesday afternoons. Order deadline for a Tuesday pickup: Monday at 7:00 am.
Deliveries. They offer deliveries of prepaid orders on Thursdays for any area served by Uno Express. For example, they deliver to: Bocas del Toro, Santiago, Las Tablas, Coronado, El Valle, Altos del Maria, Gorgona, La Chorrera, Panama City, Colon, and Puerto Armuelles. They also offer deliveries to Volcan on Fridays afternoons.
To initially set up deliveries, you will need to contact Richard, the bi-lingual farm manager, at 6242-9308. He is available Monday - Saturday from 7am-7pm. You will also need to set up an account on their website.
Facebook page: They have a facebook page too.
Phone Finca Santa Marta at 6242-9308 or 777-9229 or 540-560-9680 (USA cell phone) for further information.
Growing your own vegetables is also a good way to ensure you have a sufficient supply of basil, spinach, and other vegetables that you may love, but are not commonly grown or sold in Panama. You can also learn how to grow various indigenous fruits and vegetables. If you want to grow pineapples, we have a brief guide on how in this pineapple post.
Gardening is also a good way to keep active as well.
You are living in the tropics. The palm trees, coconuts, and warm sunny weather inspire all of us with visions of hanging out in a hammock sipping margaritas.
Life near the equator is more relaxed and carefree. However, sometimes new expats treat themselves as if they are on an extended vacation. The cocktail hours begins earlier and earlier in the day. Hammock time and indulging in special treats will become the norm.
While feeling like you’re on a permanent vacation is great, developing a habit of unhealthy indulgence is far from ideal. Too many indulgences can make you feel sluggish and unmotivated. It is better to develop healthy indulgences. You can try to make daily yoga, beach walks, sunset gazing, and cooking a healthy meal your new indulgences.
For most of us, the point of retiring is not to create a life of doing nothing. The idea was to engage in activities that you enjoy, to learn new activities, and to relish life.
So whatever it is you wanted to do before you moved to the tropics, do it.
Also be on the lookout for new activities and learning opportunities you can engage in.
For the most part, the more active and engaged you are more motivated and energetic you become.
Planning ahead can help you accomplish your goal of a healthy lifestyle.
Find out all the ways you can keep active. You are much more likely to keep active if you start by being active. Knowing that lapsing into a sedentary lifestyle is a danger, start scoping out your possibilities
Buy the seeds for your ideal garden. If you plan on gardening, arrange to have seeds of your favorite vegetable. Sometimes it takes a little searching to find seeds that thrive in tropical environments. Of course, you can also ask people in the area for the seeds from their produce. Ask people for tips on what grows best and how to grow those items.
Find out what organic produce is available in your area. Check out Finca Santa Marta's website and see how you can integrate their organic produce, meat, eggs, and more in your life.
Bring healthy cookbooks that have recipes featuring the produce that grows in your area. The best produce to use in your cooking is locally grown and organic. Panama offers a number of fruits and vegetables that will be new to most expats. If you like to cook, it is fun to explore these new Panamanian foods and recipes.
Discover all the different things you can do in your area.
To discover some of the outdoor pursuits you can enjoy in the Puerto Armuelles, click here. I am sure other websites have also listed activities available in their areas.
Check out more ideas for happiness-enhancing hobbies to pursue in Panama
With some planning, it will be fairly easy to achieve the tropical lifestyle you have been dreaming about.
July 2013
Listen in below.
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Us: Hello, this is Betsy and Reyn, with Living in Panama,
and today we are talking with Leif Simon about the cost of living in Panama.
Hi Leif, it's Betsy and my husband Reyn.
Lief: How are you doing?
Hi Reyn.
I'm good, how are you?
Us: Leif is not only an authority on Panama, having lived in Panama City, with his wife Katherine Peddicord,and their two children for the last several years,but he is an international real estate expert.
Welcome Leif, to Living in Panama with Betsy and Reyn!
Lief: Thank you guys, I'm happy to be here.
I think one of the reasons people often think about moving to Panama, is because they hear that it has a really low cost of living.
Some people couldn't afford the lifestyle they'd like to become accustomed to in the United States or Canada,or other places, are starting to think about Panama.
Us: What are your thoughts about the cost of living in Panama?
What generally do you think you could live on, and what kind of lifestyle would that give you?
And is it true that it's more affordable?
Lief: Yeah.The cost of living conversations that we have with people that vary in the gambit.
You can live off of your social security in Panama.
Us: What does that buy you?
Lief: It can buy your a beach lifestyle,like what you guys have in Puerto Armuelles,
where you can live off maybe $1000, $1200 a month.
That's not going to be luxurious,but where in the U. S are you going to live on the beach on $1200 a month?
So, you know, people come from Iowa, say,"Oh Goodness, Panama City is so expensive!"
Well, of course it is, if you're coming from Des Moines,it's going to be more expensive.
If you're coming from the West Coast or the East Coast,or any major city in between,
Panama City is going to be likely less expensive.
And you can live inexpensively in Panama City.
We know a guy, it's been a couple years since I have spoken with him, but he was living
here on his social security, and it was less than $1000 a month.
Us: Wow.
Lief: Biggest portion went to his rent, he was renting a house in a decent neighborhood, not one of the high end neighborhoods, but a decent,local, safe neighborhood for $650 a month,and the rest of it went to food.
He didn't run his air conditioner 24 hours a day, and he didn't have a car, but he was happy.
He walked and it went around by taxi and bus, and he was living on less than $1000 in the city.
On the other hand, you can spend as much as $5000 a month in a high-rise apartment,
overlooking the ocean.
You're budget can go to the extreme the other way in the city as well.
But overall, I think most places, if you're in that $1500 to $2000 a month budget range,
you can have a great lifestyle in lots of areas in the country.
Us: It sounds like if you bought property right, you had your own house, if you had the capital to do that, then you'd have even a lot more money to spend on living expenses.
Lief: Absolutely, and that's when we talk about budgets,we try and separate housing, because housing can be whatever you want it to be.
It can be a one bedroom, small, little apartment, or it can be a five bedroom,
two million dollar house.
Take that part [housing] out of it, and then you're looking at the cost of food for example.
And food costs in Panama are goIng to be less.
Unless you're buying the processed foods that they ship in from the U. S, in which case they are going to be the same or more.
So, you have to make a bit of a shift in your expectations if you want to save a lot of money.
But you can have all the comforts at home in Panama as well.
Us: For more on the cost of living in Panama, please click the link below.
Thanks for watching!
Start here for more information on cost of living in Panama.
