Hello and thank you for visiting our channel. We are Thorsten and Starla from Canada, and we have chosen Panama as our retirement destination. Through our videos, we will provide an authentic portrayal of our experiences. Our content may lack professionalism, but we hope it will be enjoyable. Don't forget to subscribe, like, comment, and join us on this journey. For any inquiries, please feel free to contact us at freedom55adventure@gmail.com.
Excellent video, thank you! I'm sharing it with friends who ask why I'm moving to Panama. The drone video is especially beautiful! One thing I didn't care for in Boquete was the strong smell of exhaust in some of the roadside restaurants. I imagine it's not so bad when it's breezy, but I'd sit away from the curb otherwise. 😁
I have been watching your videos for over a year. I love the driving tours. I am planning my move to Panama. I am clearing up some paperwork with my attorney. You use to tours of properties for rent in 2023 are you going to do so in 2024?
Hi, thank you for watching and thank you for commenting. We show properties for owners as they come up. We enjoy doing it. It’s had to say if anything will come up, this is not to say that we don’t know if properties in Chiriqui. Contact us when you get here and we can meet and chat.
Unrealistic! It's no parking, bumper to bumper traffic most times! Shot during a holiday or quiet time. Very difficult walking thru town especially for seniors.
Unrealistic? Perhaps you mean unrepresentative? It's a tourist area, so it's reasonable to expect traffic would increase and decrease with the seasons. I understand locals use side roads to bypass traffic whenever possible during high season. There are no sidewalks in some areas, but I found others were easily walkable.
I LEARNED ABOUT CHIRIQUI ONE MONTH AGO: As I'm apt to do, I delved into researching the place as a destination for my upcoming retirement. I've traveled the world and I'm well aware that you do need to spend time in any place to really know what things are like. BUT, I also know that there is a lot of due diligence that can and MUST be done prior to planning that trip. In my case, I saw the issue of housing being central. Its cost and availability tend to set the pace for most other services and expenses, wherever you go. I must say, that after a month, I don't like what I see. This appears to be an early micro-version of the housing economy disruptions that have occurred in other hyped retirement destinations like Canada and New Zealand. In that scenario, Americans rush in, run up the prices of real estate, and this disrupts the housing economy. This eventually cascades into the other areas of the consumer economy. From everything I see online, land and housing prices all over Chiriqui are shooting up and out of control. Building lot prices are obscenely inflated, as are the prices of every class and size of home. Boquete is on an out of control trajectory. Even looking at ads for the outlying areas like Volcan, you can see the same trend occurring. Most disturbing is that I'm finding listings for newer, bigger, more U.S.-style homes that have been on the market for a while and are being price slashed. This suggests a lot of over-investment and buyer's remorse. At the same time, there are thousands of foreigners diving into this market now and this will only intensify the imbalance in the real estate economy. (I'm not even going to get into the number of slimy-looking real estate hawkers that are out there.) BOTTOM LINE: I don't doubt that the Chiriqui option is going to be good for many people and for those folks, I'm very happy. But, the reality seems to be that the prime period for finding cost effective real estate has peaked and is now in decline. This will eventually impact consumer prices elsewhere. Unless you want to live in a lower priced house with bars on the windows in David, where its much hotter, Chiriqui is probably not the best choice anymore. (I'm shifting my research to Medellin and Bogota, now.)
Hi, thank you. Our real estate videos are irregular since we are only promoting for sale by owner properties. There is not much more to see along that stretch of beach. But given the opportunity, we will be posting more.
You must have an issue on your computer. There are no popups complaints from anyone else. We have tested it on several different computers and there are 0 issues
Your videos are great! The best for getting a real picture of the area. Question: You call this "A Walk" but from what I see, Boquete does not look very walkable. Few sidewalks, etc. Like so many others, I am interested in that area, but I must be able to walk without getting run over.
Thanks for this video it is very informative and well documented. We are considering moving to Panama from the US and this video has really help us to learn about this city. Thanks
Hi, yes the condo fees are included. Evenings and nights are still very warm and it takes getting used to. That is no diffent in other Panama Cities or towns at that elevation. David virtually offers everything that you expect in a big city. Thank you for watching
Great channel you have, very detailed and enjoyed much. Just subscribed, looking forward to other uploads as well. Thank you for your due diligence. My wife and I are looking forward to our return. We have close to 5 acres in Caldera but have not been back since 2019 wrapping up on a pension then running into several obstacles after the fact. Looking to depart no notice any day now for a short trip to renew our Cédulas, contract out on an addiction to our place etc then quickly return for logistics for our 2 dogs and their transportation down for our perminate move. Can you post the app ( s ) you meantioned i.e. Farmers market payments and believe the road maps if I remember correctly. The new Quantum financial system will throw the locals for a loop in learning as well. We learned our lesson the hard way renting cars at the airport in David, they will rip you off (twice for us) and will not return deposits if paying by credit cards. Rent downtown if anyone needs. Take care, blessings.
Best series of videos ..really give you a great feel for each area. Are you from Calgary? Wondering if you find it very overcast, dreary and rainy in Panama? We are used to Calgary's 330 days of sun and not sure if we would be able to adjust.
Hi, Thank you for your comment. Yes we are from Calgary. It depends on where you live. In general there is a lot of sun, but it's humid all the time. That takes getting used to. Other things to consider are problems with infrastructure. Power outages as well as water shortage or outage. Police everywhere, 911 is virtually not available, my wife was in an accident and it took 4hrs for them to show up. I don't want to sound negative about Panama, but all these businesses like tour company's try to make it look like Panama is the next Paradise. We seriously suggest to rent for a while and "test the waters" first. On that note, the ocean is warm and so are the pools. The beach is often so hot you cant walk barefoot. Rainy Season is probably different than what you may think. It usually rains at roughly the same time of the day, rains for a few hours and stops. Rarely does it rain for days in a row. I hope i didn't kill the dream, but this is reality from us to you and we live here. Always take every advice, especially on those Facebook groups with a grain of salt. On the other hand, we dont miss Calgary one bit. I hope this helps a bit.
@@freedom55adventure Thank you for the details and glad you still live there! Calgary is definitely not the same these days. Looking at Anton Valley/Poterillos hopefully later this year! You didn't kill anything for us but we are looking for the reality of Panama instead of the rosey stories of youtube. That's why I love your folks videos and the drone shots ...showing how it is.
Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge, the video is very informative and helpful, I was born and raised in David and I really appreciate your support and help, thank you 🙏
I really like your video because you actually took the time to show us around. The only part at 48 minutes in I didn’t appreciate is when you advised against buying or renting in “red zones” but then stopped short of explaining what that was. All I found a reference online to this term was something called “Panama Red” which is reefer. Is this where this is grown? Please don’t assume your audience knows theses references. Other than you not being forthcoming at this juncture, you’re doing a great job. Please keep up the good work!
Red zones are dangerous areas, I doubt you’ll find much info about them on the internet, you’re better off contacting those who already live here, or locals. If you’re going to buy a property visit it first, you’ll know just by the surroundings if you’re in a red zone or not. The price of the property usually gives it away. $30-60k for a (not newly built) house? Probable red zone. $100k+ you’ll be fine. Just check how far away it is located from a red zone.
There are plenty of options. If you are used to a big city gym in the US with tons of classes & state of the art equipment you may be disappointed. The Haven Spa has a gym that one can join and they also have a nice pool. In addition, they have some classes (yoga). If one lives in a gated community they usually will have a pool and a small gym there.
We came to Panama last October and one thing we found that Panama didn't seem to have something that we enjoy back home was cream for coffee. We love our coffee with 18% cream. What choices do they actually have there for a use like this? We were only there one week so we were not sure if we missed something. Thx
