If you are considering moving or retiring to Panama, you may find this helpful.
In this video Robin Sare lists his reasons for retiring in Panama.
Transcription below
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Robin and his wife Diana bought their property in Puerto Armuelles Panama about 6 years ago.
The last 2 years they have lived here more or less full time.
Adventures and active sports for him and warm weather gardening for her.
This mean you know it will hold value. (Robin and Diana are Canadians)
Which means you don't have to worry about your house being destroyed in a storm
The temperature "ranges from 22 at night to 28 in the day. It can get hot in the sun, but with a ocean breeze or shade it is very pleasant."
Hi, my name is Robin Sare, and my wife Diana and I live here in Puerto Armuelles.
We bought land about 6 years ago and we have been living in the house pretty much full time for the past two years.
We're Canadians and I am now retired.
When we first bought the land, I was still working, but I'm now wonderfully retired, and enjoying it immensely.
We've always traveled extensively. We've probably visited about 50 countries around the world, and we've done a lot of adventure travel sea kayaking, skydiving, river rafting, hiking, mountain biking, that kind of thing, as well as cultural tours.
And so, there came a time when my wife was a little less keen on the adventure route, and I still wanted to keep it up, and my wife is a very keen gardener and loves the warmth and so we thought that Panama would be the ideal combination for the two of us.
The adventure for me and a place for a wonderful garden for her after the cold wastelands of the Canadian North. So, we ended up in Puerto Armuelles having looked at a few other areas in Panama. And really having looked back at our catalog of places through the world where we've been.
First of all, Panama was quite affordable.
Secondly, it uses the American dollar, so your money here will always have some form of value.
They don't have hurricanes here, so you know your house will be here when you get back from wherever you've been off traveling to. The climate is delightful. It goes down to about 22 at night up to about 28 in the day. If you're at noon hour in the bright sun, yes it's hot, but as long as you have a sea breeze or you are in the shade, its truly wonderful.
I do a lot of sea kayaking out in the bright sun and it's no problem being out on the sea, it's very very comfortable there.
Thanks for watching.
December 8, 2012
December 8th.
The whole country takes it off.
Government offices are closed. Everyone is off work.
Women are awakened at about 4am by being serenaded in the street.
To me - at this moment - it seems a punishment to be awaken in this way.
A band gathers in the back of a pickup truck and plays music for all the houses that have pre-paid for the honor. Loud music.
As you imagine, you can hear the music pretty well even if you didn't request the 4 am wake up.
We don't get these traveling typica bands in our small and quiet neighborhood. But when we lived in the densely populated San Jose neighborhood we experienced it.
Actually, it was kind of fun to see and hear it. A cultural experience. Maybe I would grow to love it. Maybe.
As my sister once told me, it is collective guilt over their treatment of women that makes some countries make a big deal out of mother's day.
Did I mention that Mother's Day is a National Holiday in Panama?
That is alot of guilt.
Happy Mother's Day!
December 3, 2012
He wanted it to cover both its history and its economic future.
I had fun creating it.
If you would like a copy, I'd be happy to share it with you.
For your 1 page summary, Click Here.
November 25, 2012
Drop On By The Tsunami Inn in Puerto Armuelles
While there are some places to rent, there are very few hotel options.
Thankfully, Scott and Bob have solved the problem of "where to stay".
They have opened a delightful hotel in Puerto Armuelles.
It is located by the beach in the San Vicente neighborhood.
The Tsunami Inn is a small hotel with:
Please tell them that Betsy and Reyn sent you.
If you are looking at property in Puerto as well, make sure you give us a call.
Reyn gives a killer tour of Puerto Armuelles and can answer all your questions.
November 17, 2012
I was doing some research the other day on the history of Puerto Armuelles.
Time and time again the Google translate tool automatically translated the Spanish on the webpages into English.
I had never noticed how it translates Puerto Armuelles.
Almost invariably Google translates "Puerto Armuelles" as "Waterford".
I was a bit confused until I figured it out.
I opted to correct its translations quite a few times.
I'm not sure how many times a correction must be made before Google takes it into account. My guess is that it takes ALOT of corrections before that happens.
I ask everyone who sees Puerto Armuelles translated as Waterford to correct it. Not necessarily every time but occasionally.
It is a pretty confusing mistake to get the name of a town wrong.
It can also be alittle confusing to figure out how to correct the translation. At least the first time.
Simply follow these steps:
Hover your mouse over the text with the incorrect translation. Then the Translation Window will appear, as seen below.
Hover Your Mouse Over The Text. The Translation Window Will Appear.In the example below, an "r" appears. In my experience, a variety of single letters could appear instead.
A Double Click Works - At Least SometimesNow a new window appears; giving you the option to correct the translation.
You spell it, Puerto Armuelles. Named after Colonel Armuelles.After that, the final window appears. Then you can continue reading that web page or correct any other incorrect translations.
That's It! Thank You!To visit the site I used as an example, click on the link below.
On that page, Google has one instance of translating Puerto Armuelles as PORT IS ARMUELLES.
It is also the only page that I noticed that Google correctly used the town name, Puerto Armuelles, at least twice.
It gives me hope.
It was conducted by the very personable Claral Richards and Mr. Francisco.
Both gentleman were born and raised in Puerto Armuelles.
Both worked for Chiquita banana for many years.
I hope you enjoy these videos.
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Chiquita Banana was an integral part of Puerto Armuelles from 1927 to 2003.
That is for about 80 years.
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We lost count of our pineapple plants after 120!
Each plant sprouts babies, some as many a 5 or more!
We began by just planting the green leafy top off the pineapples that we purchased and ate.
We were curious to see the process because we had never seen a pineapple grow.
We were told that it took a year or longer to produce a pineapple and that turned out to be correct.
However, once you have a mature pineapple, the baby sprouts produce within months.
Now we have so many we always have fresh pineapple.
We have never been happier! Yummy!
We have learned that it takes about 20-26 months to produce a ripe fruit when beginning from a leafy top.
We just broke off the top and planted it in the yard.
We have found when a plant is about 24 inches tall and 12-14 months old:
It is cool to see how the pineapple begins to grow from the inside and comes out of the top. Then they sprout babies as begin growing in every direction still coming out from the middle of a sprouted plant.
Once fully grown and ready to pick it is interesting to see how the color of the of the fruit changes from green to yellow,
The color changes from the bottom up.
During this time the fruit becomes sweeter and the flesh also changes from white to yellow.
Once the fruit begins to change from green to yellow you can pick it at any time.
However, it is worth it to wait and pick the pineapple when the entire fruit has turned yellow.
Our original pineapples weigh around 8 to 8.5 pounds and we have noticed that the more a plant produces the pineapples are smaller.
What is your experience growing pineapples?
Fun in the rainy season
I am very much a rainy season person. Maybe it is due to all my time in Seattle, Washington.
I love the sound of the rain hitting our tin roof.
I love the smell of the earth after the rain.
I love the sight and sound of my kids delighting in the downpour.
They love to immerse themselves in it: run and jump and get really really wet.
It is worth the wait to plant in the rainy season.
Things grow so easily - and fast - in the rainy season.
We have all sorts of gardening plans, so I am glad the time has arrived.
Really, the dry season is only about 3 or 4 months long, so relatively, it isn't long to wait.
This March was so very hot.
March is usually the hottest month, but this March seemed particularly hot - at least it seemed so to me.
The ground was looking so very dry - almost scorched.
Now every thing is fresh.
Everything seems possible during the rainy season.
Though I imagine the folks involved in the Fair are not happy about the sudden arrival of the rainy season.
Last week, the David Fair ended. Part of that fair came here to Puerto.
So now own more sedate, and in my mind more pleasant, Puerto Armuelles Fair is open.
We have plans to go to the Fair tognight.
Unlike Seattle, when it rains here in Panama, people stay home.
The fair folks are probably cursing the sky right now.
Come on down to Puerto Armuelles Panama and tour the the site.
This property is located in the San Vicente neighborhood of Puerto Armuelles.
Puerto Armuelles is the only true beach town in Panama.
Puerto is a town of about 26,000 people. It has all the amenities you need for daily life.
If you want something more specialized, you can drive to Paso Canoas (~30 min away) or David Panama (~1 hour away).
You can get pretty much anything you desire in David.
For us, David is great for shopping, but not a town we would want to live in.
We prefer to come home to our quiet town with its ocean breezes.
