Thread: Planning a trip to Panama in April

Hello, my husband and I are planning to leave the US soon -- as soon as we can sell our house in Florida. We're making our first scouting trip to Panama in April.

Planning to visit David and Las Tablas areas.

Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Do your traveling around, spend time, make a list of questions, and see what you like. Your fortunate to be able to get direct flights from Orlando to PTY.

Welcome

Thanks, Mrwhoohoo.

Welcome to the forum, FutureExpat. This is a wonderful forum where alot of your questions will be answered. Like MrWooHoo said, make a list of what you need answers for down there. Make a list of what you need to be happy, buy a good map of Panama and tack it to your wall at home. MrWoo has a good map also of Panama here on the forum. Lee and I liked the convienience of having one on the wall so you can go to it at any time and look at an area.
Could I ask, what draws you both to Panama? Las Tablas is a decent town. Almost all Spanish speaking. Carnival will slay you if you dont like 5 full days and nights of noise and hard partying. David and Bocate are more expat and their community is growing. More English there if you dont know Spanish.
You really need to go and visit to see if the Country is right for you. We all suggest that you do not buy for the first year even if you think that it is a very good deal. You will want to rent first so that you can make a qualified decision in where and what you want. The country is diverse so one area is totally different from another area.

Thanks, India.

What draws us to Panama -- reasonably close to US so we can come back and visit family and friends from time to time, cost of living (we'll be on a very tight budget), opportunity to experience a new culture and new way of living.

If we end up in Las Tablas, we'll plan to be elsewhere during Carnival. :-)

Good advice about renting first -- that's exactly what we plan to do, maybe in several different areas. But first, we explore in April. :-)

Hi Future,
Then you will love the country of Panama. The people are so nice and will go out of their way to help you. Cost of living will really please you and depending on just how tight your budget will be, you can live like the locals for pretty cheap. Bring good cool, cotton stuff to wear as the clothing here is made rather cheaply. Toothpaste is $2.50 a tube, bring sunscreen as the price is rather high, good footwear, and raingear. Fruit is delicious and inexpensive, and going out for any of the 3 meals will cost you $1.50-$5. Las Tablas is a nice little town after leaving some of the larger ones. It mainly consists of one long main street, lined with assorted clothing and shoes. There are some nice little villages lying in the outskirts of Las Tablas that are nice to go and check out. Pedasi, out further on the tip of the Azuero Pen., is neat but quite a sleepy tiny town that is starting to wake up with new housing in gated communities. The peninsula is the driest area of Panama. It is pretty dry heat but to me felt good. over the humidity of the Caribbean. In the green season though the humidity is there The prices of everything is higher also.
I would encourage you to go play and if you like it, stay. America is not getting any better and if you can bail out, do so. When you go and if you stay, try and leave all the "gringo" back in the states. It does a person good.
Good luck, Futures.

Originally Posted by india

Hi Future,
Then you will love the country of Panama. The people are so nice and will go out of their way to help you. Cost of living will really please you and depending on just how tight your budget will be, you can live like the locals for pretty cheap. Bring good cool, cotton stuff to wear as the clothing here is made rather cheaply. Toothpaste is $2.50 a tube, bring sunscreen as the price is rather high, good footwear, and raingear. Fruit is delicious and inexpensive, and going out for any of the 3 meals will cost you $1.50-$5. Las Tablas is a nice little town after leaving some of the larger ones. It mainly consists of one long main street, lined with assorted clothing and shoes. There are some nice little villages lying in the outskirts of Las Tablas that are nice to go and check out. Pedasi, out further on the tip of the Azuero Pen., is neat but quite a sleepy tiny town that is starting to wake up with new housing in gated communities. The peninsula is the driest area of Panama. It is pretty dry heat but to me felt good. over the humidity of the Caribbean. In the green season though the humidity is there The prices of everything is higher also.
I would encourage you to go play and if you like it, stay. America is not getting any better and if you can bail out, do so. When you go and if you stay, try and leave all the "gringo" back in the states. It does a person good.
Good luck, Futures.

Hey india, did you already slide through Las Tablas?

Originally Posted by india

Hi Future,
Then you will love the country of Panama.

When you go and if you stay, try and leave all the "gringo" back in the states. It does a person good.
Good luck, Futures.

LOL! Planning to leave all the gringo behind if we can :-) thanks.

Friend Panama is the most horrible destination in the world. If you want to visit panama then read my experience before you actually go there.believe me this is true.

Originally Posted by jammartin91

Friend Panama is the most horrible destination in the world. If you want to visit panama then read my experience before you actually go there.believe me this is true.

Well, jammartin91, if this story of yours is so true, then why dont you give us all more details? for such outrageous claims, there is scant proof of it happening. Surely something that is the most terrifying time of your life would have more details, dont you think? My gosh, how did you ever escape 8 men at once? You must be awesome.
Also, I see that you are a very new member. You are only 3 days old. What is your purpose on our forum?

india , hi how you 2 doing ? i see you have your location as Santo Domingo , is that where you are going to hang your hat when you get here , did you prerent a house there already ? and i would guess jammartin91 is just a troll , he hit several posts all at once .

Originally Posted by india

Well, jammartin91, if this story of yours is so true, then why dont you give us all more details? for such outrageous claims, there is scant proof of it happening. Surely something that is the most terrifying time of your life would have more details, dont you think? My gosh, how did you ever escape 8 men at once? You must be awesome.
Also, I see that you are a very new member. You are only 3 days old. What is your purpose on our forum?

He changes names and jumps on and off sites all the time. I've seen this post many times everywhere. He usually goes away after everyone's b.s. meter gets pegged. Maybe he's a developer in Costa Rica.

Originally Posted by nakedguydb

india , hi how you 2 doing ? i see you have your location as Santo Domingo , is that where you are going to hang your hat when you get here , did you prerent a house there already ? and i would guess jammartin91 is just a troll , he hit several posts all at once .

Hey naked! Hi back to you. We are doing great. We are back up here only to pack 4 suitcases and have a couple of big sales. We are planning on being back in country on the 6th of July. My place is torn apart and things off the walls. The home is on the market and things are moving at a pretty good speed here. Our place in Domingo fell through a couple nights ago but we are not worried about it. Something good will come up for us. Right now my biggest hurdle will be to find 2 small dog kennels that will satisfy 2 different airline requirements and still fit them correctly. They will tuck up under the seats in front of us for the trip down. How fun....
Talk later, Naked.

India, what kind of dogs do you have? We have 3 papillons, and moving them from the US is going to be interesting. . .

Susanna

Hi Susanna,
I have 2 mini wieners. They think that they are German shepherds. They are about 10 lbs each and have never been in the kennels that are required for transport.
I cannot remember what Papillons look like? Are they snub nosed? I do know that it will be a real hassle but they are my "babies" so what can I say? and then there are the muzzles to put on them...or else they will bark at the stewardesses legs every time they head up and down the aisle. It is recommended to not sedate the dogs when doing air travel so I was thinking of filling up a balloon up with Nitrous and shooting some into their kennels if they start making a fuss...!
And what about yours, Susanna? How do you plan to do it? Can my doggies ride with yours??

We have six pets we are planning on bringing with us when we move - one black lab, three pomeranians, and two cats. I know it's a lot of animals, but my wife is (more than) very attached to them. It should turn out to be a very interesting experience!

I don't know how we're going to do it. Papillons are officially a toy breed, but ours are giants -- that's why we have them instead of the breeders. :-) They weigh in at 11 - 15 pounds instead of the normal 6-8. And where a standard Pap is about 10" high at the withers, ours start at 11. . . one is big enough that he can't fit under the seat. Depending on the time of year we actually make the move, and various other factors, we might put them in cargo if we're allowed to crate them all together (that's what they're used to at home).

Driving into Panama with them isn't an option because we'd have to take them through Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica with accompanying regulations in each country.

I'm actually looking at possibly going down in one of the cargo ships that takes passengers. We shall see. . .

Hi TennVol,
My gosh, I thought that I had it bad! Yours will be most interesting...I can just imagine it. The animals wont need tranqs-you will! haha.

Hey Future, let us know what you come up with as far as the cargo ship idea, will you? Really, not to bad of an idea. Do you have any idea what the cost would run you?
At least your animals know what a crate is. Mine have never been in one. They will just barely fit a kennel under the seat of the airlines.
These pups are our biggest stress point. Everything else is easy.

I hear you there!

Better check out the regs of your airline. Ours would only allow 2 dogs per flight in the cabin. Period. Fly into San Jose and rent a small charter plane into David.

I think the 2 dogs/flight in the cabin is pretty much industry wide.