Weekly Newsletter
May 16, 2005

So you want to retire to Panama.
Newsletter #8 Volume #1
The Causeway and Boquete

The Causeway

Three times a week, my wife and I make the 30 mile round-trip to the Amador Causeway. She usually skates and I usually ride my bicycle, but sometimes we walk. We like to arrive about 6:00 AM, both to enjoy the cooler early morning and avoid the heavy rush hour traffic. No outing is ever boring. During the last month, besides seeing the usual early bird walkers, joggers, skaters, and bicyclers, most of whom are friendly and with whom we exchange greetings, we've seen many varieties of birds, squirrels, a pair of racoons mating, even what we are convinced was a pod of pygmy or dwarf sperm whales, though they may have been large sluggish dolphin.

Last week we saw a drunk driving his large SUV on the bicycle/skating path. Taking refuge on the adjacent walking path, we placed a cell phone call to 104 (National Police Emergency Number) and within 5 minutes a pair of bicycle patrolmen arrived and conducted the errant driver to the Balboa Police Station.

Like most everything else, there are a few negatives about the Causeway. There are a number of now-uninhabitable houses visible from the walking area and it is depressing to me to see the way they have been allowed to deterioriate and be stripped of anything usable. The houses were being lived in only a few years ago. Toilet facilities range from an occasional Porta-Potty to non-existant. Last week there was just one Porta-Potty on the lower one mile stretch, and it was basically unusable for women, because of the filthy habit many men have of urinating on the toilet seat. I find this incomprehensible when there is a urinal right beside the toilet. There are too few trash containers, and some people don't bother to use the ones that are available.

Nevertheless, the Causeway is uncrowded early in the morning, the view is spectacular, and one never knows what may be seen on a given day. We highly recommend it as a place for city dwellers to enjoy the outdoors.

Boquete

The temptation to add 'Paradise Spoiled' after 'Boquete' is strong. True enough, the beauty of this delightful mountain valley town is still there, but one frequently has to peek behind a 'for sale' sign to see it. At first glance, it appears that every square foot of mother earth within 15 miles of Boquete has a price tag on it. The second Gringo invasion of Panama, while a lot more peaceful than the first, is working a lot of change. Land that nobody particularly wanted 10 years ago has become too valuable to keep in the family, and some Boquetenas are selling off property that has been in the family for generations. Some of the gringo newcomers seem determined to expand the definition of the term 'Ugly American'. Most of the expats we met in the Chiriqui Highlands were nice folks trying to fit into a new, different culture, but it doesn't take too many loud-mouthed braggerts to paint us all with a broad brush.

We are fortunate to have a very good friend who lives in Boquete and has an extra bedroom, so we were spared the price of a hotel. We did, however, make the rounds of hotels in Boquete and found a wide mix, from very cheap to moderately expensive, and barely habitable to very comfortable.. Some we consider unacceptable for various reasons. In one, the manager sits at a table in the restaurant, chain-smoking. Another was simply over-priced for its amenities. The really cheap ones were well-located on the river and might suffice if you aren't picky and are on a severely restricted budget.

We found several that we thought nice enough to stay in ourselves. They are Kalima Suites, Panamonte Hotel, Villa Marita and Cabanas Sabrin.

Kalima Suites (http://www.kalimasuites.8m.com/)_has an internet cafe and you can make international telephone calls from there, but we found the phone service expensive at $.50 per minute. Kalima Suites has nice clean suites with refrigerator and cooking facilities. There are two available at longer term rates.

Panamonte Hotel (http://www.hotelpanamonte.com/) is older, but comfortable and nice, with a very good restaurant, and reasonable prices. They can accommodate up to ten people in a medium sized house across the street from the hotel. A caution about the restaurant. The menu clearly says that service is added to the bill, but when I examined it, there was no service charge. I asked the waiter about it, and he told me they only charge service if there is a large group. So if you dine here, be sure to check the bill, and make sure the waiter doesn't get short-changed.

Villa Marita (http://www.panamainfo.com/marita/) features cabins and offers free breakfast, but you must let them know you want breakfast the day before. You can enjoy one of the most spectacular views in Boquete from here.

Cabanas Sabrin (http://www.paginasamarillas.com/pagamanet/procesos/web.aspx?ie=1212008&tipo=1&web=www.cabanassabrin.com) is very close to Villa Marita but does not share the view of Volcan Baru seen from Villa Marita, though it has it own beauty. They do have very nice, fully equipped cabins with three bedrooms and an available conference room. We found the music piped into the flower beds to be a turn-off, though.

The Boquete city council has found the lure of those bottomless Gringo wallets to be irresistable and the city announced, while we were there, that building permit fees for structures over $50,000.00 would be doubled from 1% to 2%.

I'm not an oracle, or even a low grade fortune teller, but I predict that the Boquete flower has bloomed and will soon begin to fade. The very qualities that attract foreigners will be diminished with the influx of foreigners and the hucksters and criminals who prey on them. I hope I'm wrong.

For pictures of Boquete, click here.

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