(11-21-2015 01:03 PM)redpillage Wrote: WHERE TO GO? I am sure others in this forum have been considering the expat option and perhaps have been attributing time and resources into finding a new home somewhere else in the world. So the purpose of this thread is to combine our efforts and to produce a list of countries/cities that satisfy our minimum requirements for making a life there. On our end that would be:
- Low Muslim Population - preferably a Christian or heavily secular country.
- Relative Safety - by relative I mean not having to worry about getting shot or robbed on the way to the gym/market. That rules out many parts of Mexico for instance but not all. It also dropped Buenos Aires and many parts of Argentina off our list.
- Solid Basic Infrastructure - clean water and electricity with rare outages. A challenge in many parts of South America but it's a regional thing, and there are places in Mexico that have great water whilst you may get arsenic poisoning drinking water out of the faucet or mercury poisoning just taking a shower in others.
- Solid Internet Access - I am talking at least 5Mb/sec with rare outages. That'll be a tough one outside 1st world countries.
- Good Weather - note that I mentioned 'good' and not 'great' - if I have to choose between L.A. or Mediterranean weather and living out my days in peace/safety I rather deal with a bit of seasonal discomfort.
- Food We Like - that sounds like a luxury but I have learned in my life that living in a place where you hate the food is almost impossible. Forget about organic food of course - we hope to find a place where we make friends with local farmers and perhaps grow our own vegetables.
I had visited Panama several times and finally decided to make it my permanent home. I just bought a small business and am in the process of buying a house now. There are a few legal hoops to jump through (Panama is very paranoid about where your money has come from, as they are constantly excoriated by Western nations and it is incorrectly assumed that it's a haven for illegal money), but once you've jumped through those hoops, your life is golden. You'll need a decent lawyer.
Renting a place and working here is easy though, and many people do rent for a year before buying.
Panama is a very family oriented nation. They have no time for U.N. nonsense. They don't like "sex education" and other degeneracies that western nations try to impose on them.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/100000...yle-sex-ed
Quote:A hundred thousand Panamanians took to their capital city’s streets to oppose a new national bill that would introduce both sexuality education and gender ideology into their schools.
“This law is a colonization attempt. It was written and imposed on Panama by UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and it is not the fruit of our legislature’s will,” Juan Francisco de la Guardia told the Friday Fax. De la Guardia is president of the Panamanian Alliance for Life and Family and one of the march organizers.
That's about 1 out of every 40 Panamanians showing up to protest.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortc...ke-denmark
Quote:Cultural attache for Panama, Laura Montenegro, thinks it is down to the fact the country has a thriving economy and has maintained its traditional values. “Family bonds are very strong here, and on Sundays everyone still gets together,” she says. “So even when people are struggling they don’t feel alone. We have a very beautiful landscape too and even in Panama city you never feel too far from nature.
The people here are very happy. Control of the canal has reverted back to the government and people of Panama since the American lease ended a few years ago. The economy is booming and we have a very pro-business government here.
https://internationalliving.com/2016/01/...n-in-2016/
Quote:It’s that time of year again…International Living’s Annual Global Retirement Index is hitting the presses. And in the top spot: Panama.
I should say: Panama again. Because this tiny powerhouse has topped this index more times than any other country. (International Living’s first Annual Global Retirement Index was published in 1992.)
Every year, International Living’s experts and expat contributors compile data and real-world insights about everything from climate and healthcare to cost of living and ease of fitting in. The result is an “only the best” list of retirement destinations that offer comfortable and convenient lifestyles for less.
What makes Panama stand out amongst so many wonderful countries? For most of the expats who have chosen Panama as their home, the welcoming people and the variety of climates and landscapes are some of the things that make this a great place to live. More importantly, the overall value and convenience of life in Panama is hard to beat.
Lot's of retirees choose to live here also.
Other than certain areas of Panama City itself, crime is very low. Where I live, if you leave something on the bar while you go to take a piss, someone might steal it, but physical assaults rarely happen.
The infrastructure will depend on what area of the country you live in. It varies dramatically. I live in a poorer area, power might go out for an hour or two every week or so. The water also gets rationed in town. Neither of those things bother me as I'm going to live completely off grid. I don't mean the stingy type of off grid, I'll be able to generate enough power and have enough water to live the same type of lifestyle I had in Canada.
Growing a lot of my own fruits and vegetables will not be a problem either, you push a stick in the ground and it will sprout branches in days. The girl next door to where I'm staying planted a papaya seed in January, and now it's already a nine foot tall tree that's bearing fruit. Whatever fruit or vegetable you can think of, it will grow. Coffee, cacao, pineapples, mangos, corn, beans, tomatoes, etc. etc.
The weather and landscape varies depending on which region you live in. Panama has a few island in the Caribbean sea, and life on those islands is very much like life on other Caribbean islands. They were mostly settled by Jamaican canal workers 100 years ago, and there's a great reggae vibe. This area is called Bocas Del Toro, and it's quite warm, but the scenery is spectacular and you'll never run out of things to do.
There are also islands on the Pacific side too and they tend to be a little more upscale. I don’t know a lot about them, so I’ll just link to a website that can tell you more.
In the middle are the mountains. At the moment I’m just laying low in a little town called Boquete. It’s about 3 hours from where I live, but I wanted a little change in scenery for the weekend. It feels so refreshing to be up here in the mountains. The climate here is fabulous, about 20 degrees year round (I’m Canadian, so that’s Celsius). Lots of expats choose to live here, so any store I walk into English is spoken. I’m really enjoying my time here so far and I’ve never tasted better coffee in my life. I had to close the window in the place I was staying last night because there was a breeze and it was making me feel cold.
Panama has 2 airlines, COPA being the main one which flies back and forth to many North American and European cities (and Istanbul for some odd reason), but there’s a smaller one called
Air Panama which offers discount fares to nearer destinations in Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica and other destinations in South and central America. It’s really cheap to take excursions to Medellin, Bogata, Lima, san Jose, etc. The flight attendants are young and pretty, the way flight attendants were meant to be. Flying is such a pleasure when you’re attended by these ladies instead of the chunky French Canadian cows and saasy mantendants that Air Canada and British airways now offer.
Food here is alright. The service in restaurants can be lacking, but it’s not very costly. There are a few staple dishes that are always good, chicken, rice, beans, fish, the kind of dishes that one would expect in central America. When you live here though, you buy your own groceries, and for the most part, you’d ber familiar with the brands, as they are the same as you’d see in the U.S. or Canada. Of course there are Chinese, Indian, Italian, Mexican restaurants tooand on average the price would be about half of what I’d pay in a similar restaurant back in Canada. There’s a little local restaurant that i frequent which offers me an open air view of the ocean. I usually get a dish of rice, fried plantains, ‘pollo frito”, and a cerveza. My bill come to $5.50, and I usually can’t finish my plate. Panama wouldn’t be a place where I’d rave about the food in restaurants however, but if you enjoy cooking, there’s no reason you can’t cook up whatever you want, everything is available in the stores.
I hope to make a bit of money when I’m down here. There's a reason why many businesses register in Panama, whether a small or large business, there are tax breaks, different ways of registering a company, including a
Sociedad Anonime (it is what it sounds like), and negotiations that can be had with authorities. They are eager to build up a middle class here, as minimum wage is $2.50 an hour, so locals can be hired at a good cost. The currency is the Balboa, but everyone uses $U.S., as the government has wisely pegged the Balboa to the U.S. $ at a 1:1 ratio. They don’t even print bills, just coins, but rarely do you ever see Balboas, 95% of commerce is carried out with American coins and bills. A very wise move, if the U.S.$ starts tanking, they can unhitch themselves from it.
At the moment I'm going back and forth between here and Canada, but once I've wrapped up my loose ends in Canada early next year I might only go back once a year or so to see friends and relatives. I'm very happy with my life here.
Here are some links to different sites.
Bocas Del Toro (where i live)
http://www.bocasdeltoro.com/
Pearl islands (on the Pacific side)
http://pearl-islands.com/
Boquete (in the Highlands)
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/panama/chir...ce/boquete
Darien Gap (the reason why you can't drive from Alaska to the tip of Argentina - 100 miles with no roads)
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/09/...ce-of.html
Casco Viejo (gorgeous old world architecture)
http://cascoviejo.com/
Those are only a few of the places. I'm sure an older Panama hand might know a few more.