Our New Furniture

The furniture has been delivered by José and Rori, two very obliging young men who made sure everything was assembled properly, no mean feat since they were working in difficult conditions before the air condition had been installed. The truck you see was full to the back door.

Jose and Rori  in front of their truck

Pub style dining overlooking the ocean.

We are very pleased with the furniture. It is difficult (for me anyway) to visualize how a thing is going to look once it is in place. I have no flair for decorating.

I think the pictures speak for themselves. I done good!

Master bedroom-pillows hide lovely inlay on headboard

Enjoying the new loveseats with a friend (yes, that's the ocean in the background)

More next time.

Sojourn in Panama

Where was I?

I should mention about the car I rented, a small KIA from one of the internationally known vendors at the David airport. It proved to be inadequate to the demands of the Pan American Highway. Most of the road is well paved and maintained, but there are a few bone crunching potholes and bumpy stretches.

A friend put me in touch with Victor from Value Motors right in the city of David and a couple of days later I was able to rent a NISSAN X-Trail for a very reasonable price, with an option to buy. The vehicle was actually on his lot in Boquete and he arranged for it to be driven to David right away. 

(BTW for those who do not speak Spanish, the name of the city is pronounced Daveed)

Victor is originally from the north of England, so communicating in English was no problem. The Nissan is much more comfortable.

Anyway, I have gotten ahead of myself! I arrived at my rental house on Sunday afternoon. I have stayed in this house on the beach before. It’s a modern, three bedroom home with all “mod cons”. Owner Ken was on hand to greet me and help me settle in.

It's the house on this end. Do you wonder why I come here?

Later I drove the 2km to the Las Lajas Beach Resort to renew acquaintances with many of the friendly staff and take advantage of their great cuisine. You can always count on a good meal , despite the fact it is a small hotel. This is where I stayed the first time I came to Panama.

My Stay in Chiriqui Province, Panama

Today is the fourth day of my extended stay in Panama and I have a chance to catch you up on the details.

On November 16th I left British Columbia, flying to Calgary, then overnight to Toronto. After a two hour wait I boarded a COPA airlines plane bound for Panama City. COPA is an excellent airline and I was well taken care of. They fly from Toronto to Panama City on a regular basis, leaving at 8.40am.

International flights to Panama all land in Panama City and it is necessary to cross the city to get to the domestic airport. Each time I have landed in Tocumen International airport it has been a relatively simple process to exit and get a cab to Allbrook Airport.

However, on Saturday it was like a zoo and it took ages to get through all the immigration and customs lines. This left little time to get to Allbrook for the flight to David. Fortunately, my cab driver became a man possessed with the idea of getting me there in time and I arrived with ten minutes to spare!

Air Panama flies a comfortable Fokker jet to David, a journey of 35 minutes. Be aware if you use the maximum 50 lb allowance on international flights, Air Panama’s baggage allowance is much lower and you will pay excess charges.

I decided to stay overnight in the Hotel Ciudad de David before driving on the following day to Las Lajas. While the highway between David and Las Lajas is good, it is not for the faint of heart at night.

I can heartily recommend the hotel Ciudad de David (City of David). It is clean, comfortable and reasonably priced. My rate included breakfast. The staff is very service oriented and able to converse well in English. I am not fond of the food, though the restaurant is elegant.

On Sunday morning I rented a car, stocked up on groceries at the Rey supermarket and drove to Las Lajas. Rey is a magnificent store where you can find just about anything in a modern clean environment. Outranks any supermarket in my home town.

All signs are in English and Spanish.

Unbelievable Morning Views

Went out at 6:30 AM this morning to our beach.  See the picture for both the left and the right.  Not a soul on the beach, had a wonderful walk with my wife.  Then a great cup of Panamanian coffee on our front deck overlooking Panama's Best Beach.

Temperature perfect this morning.  A fresh crop of mushrooms has sprung up overnight right on the edge of the beach.  Go figure....

You gotta see this place ------

Panama's newest marina

Introducing

Marina Las Lajas

Another first for Las Lajas International!   Property developer Larry Traw today introduced the new Marina Las Lajas.

  

Pictured below is the new road connecting the marina to the development! The marina will have 62 full service water slips and on land dry storage for another 200 boats.

Reservations are being taken now for the 62 slips. A Deposit will guarantee you up to a 35 year lease with 5 year renewal periods.

On land dry storage will begin shortly. A fenced in, secure, monitored compound will offer insured storage with on site servicing and launch service. Rates are extremely competitive.

This is the only Marina in the Las Lajas area, which is the gateway to some of the best sports fishing in the entire world. One of the local myths is that lots of people go to Costa Rica for sports fishing and the charters go out from there and promptly cross into Panamanian waters for the best fishing. We now can put your boat front and centre for superior enjoyment.

Contact Donaldo at 250 595 5974  now to discuss your requirements and involvement in our exciting new marina project.

A Welcome Sight

Whether you drive the 437km to Las Lajas from Panama City, or the 75km from David, there's always a feeling of homecoming when you turn off the PanAmerican Highway and see the "Bienvenidos a Las Lajas" sign straddling the road to the beach.

As you can see, the road is in excellent condition. This is the case all the way to Playa Las Lajas. The last two kilometres to our development are still rough - but in time we'll have a good road.

The township of Las Lajas is the closest residential area to us. It's a prosperous community which has recently installed several very neat bus shelters.

The day I took the pictures, the dog you see to the left of one of them was feeling very threatened by the dolphin statue at the front. Each shelter is different. The slogan on this one means "Las Lajas, Mountain, Sea, Sky and You." All the murals were hand painted. The store behind it is a local bakery. There is a good general grocery store in Las Lajas where you can buy pretty well anything you want, although we prefer to buy our meat in the supermarkets in David, which are world-class.

http://www.laslajaspanama.net/

Why Choose Panama to Retire?

Many have asked me why I have chosen Panama as my retirement destination. A couple of years ago, we went to check out Belize, and came back firm in the belief we could never live in Central America. So we went to Panama in March 2011 with mixed feelings. We had read a lot about the attractive retirment programs offered by the government, so decided to go.

We flew into Panama City on Delta and stayed in a hotel our travel agent had found for us. We had booked on the spur of the moment, not realizing it was Carnaval in Panama - one of the biggest holidays in the country. So all things considered the hotel was pretty good - excellent food, friendly staff, convenient location.

Panama City itself was a big surprise. Futuristic, it looks like a movie set.

We planned to stay in Panama City only one day, then drive west. It was Sunday. We decided to check out a mall. Took a taxi - agreed on the price with the driver first. I can only say my jaw dropped open when we got there. The mall was huge, far bigger than any in the Canadian city in which I live. The stores ranged from very nice to high end. The crowds of shoppers were well dressed. Definitely not the Central America we saw in Belize.

We came back to the hotel, stood on our balcony overlooking Our Lady of Carmen church, and offered ourselves up to the universe. If it's meant to be...

The following day we rented a car, only thanks to the dogged persistence of the friendly hotel staff - did I mention it was Carnaval? We got totally lost, thanks in large part to the street closures for the holiday, but also a lack of what we would consider in Canada to be 'proper' signage.

Eventually we were crossing the Panama Canal over the Bridge of the Americas, on our way to Boquete in the western highlands. Many expats have settled in the Boquete area. As we headed west, we were surprised by the excellent condition of the highway, divided all the way to Santiago. Approval has since been given for the section from Santigo to David to be twinned as well.

However, I digress.

We have yet to get to Boquete.Why? Because on the way we stumbled upon Las Lajas, where we planned to stay overnight and instead remained for eight nights.

If it's meant to be...

Next time I'll tell you what we love about Las Lajas, and why we're building a condo there.