Trip to Panama

Panama is currently the “hotspot” for retirees and ex-Pats looking for a safe, civilized and cheap place to retire. Anyone on a fixed income wants to stretch it as far as possible, and to have an acceptable standard of living. However, I have heard from several people who have retired to Panama from Canada and USA that the cost of living is not as cheap as they had been led to believe.

In my limited experience, I think that if you retire to live in Panama and live as a Panamanian, then your costs will be much lower than elsewhere. Their staple diet, as elsewhere in the Caribbean and Central America, is rice and beans. Panamanians travel by bus, and drink beer, local fruit juice or tap water. They have houses with open windows to catch the breeze, and fans rather than air-conditioning. If you retire to Panama and want all the essentials you are used to expecting – quality ice cream, a decent bottle of wine, branded salad dressing, running a newish vehicle, living with an automatic washing machine and tumble dryer for example, then you will pay dearly for these imported luxuries.

Medical costs are the single biggest saving. A visit to an English speaking experienced and most caring local Doctor cost me $5. The prescription drugs prescribed were a further $1.60 – who needs health insurance for this? The downside is, I sat waiting with 20+ other locals for more than an hour in a corridor open to the elements, as the daytime temperature rose steadily.

There are more savings on local fruit and vegetables – a huge pineapple is just 75cents. I gave a street vendor 25cents for some bananas – and he filled my carrier bag. There must have been 30 fresh yellow bananas in the bag before I motioned “Enough!” Coffee beans are also locally grown and are a very reasonable $4 per pound.

Other foods are the same as the US or slightly more expensive. There is a Price Smart in several large towns in Panama, and their costs are much the same as their sister company Costco in the USA. Fresh chicken breasts are around $2.75 per pound, baking potatoes around $1 each; milk is $2.20 for 2 liters.

Buying and driving a car was more expensive than we had expected. There are no cars anywhere on the second hand market for less than $3000 – and they are basic Toyotas with at least 200,000 kms on the clock. The insurance is cheap at around $160 for the year including breakdown rescue, but gas is 10% more expensive than in the US. It was around $4.60 in June 2008. On the other hand, the local bus took me from Coronado to the center of Panama City (70kms) for just $2.50. Once there I could hop in a taxi and travel across town for $1.75.

Electricity is expensive, and only the mega-rich run air-conditioning 24/7. We had a small fridge/freezer, TV, computer and fans in all the rooms of our apartment. Our cooking and water heating was by gas. We ran the air-conditioning only in the bedroom, for about 10 hours and our electricity bill ran over $120 per month. Add a dishwasher, tumble dryer, and air throughout the apartment and the bill would have been sky-high!

Overall, with the right choices, the cost of living can be cheaper than in more civilized countries, but how much cheaper is in your hands. The choices you make directly govern your weekly costs, and if savings are your number one priority, then maybe Panama is not the place for you.

Albrook Mall is one of several large shopping Malls in Panama City. It is situated on the West side of Panama City, near to Clayton, and easy to find from Simon Bolivar, or from Bridge of the Americas. Just follow the signs for Albrook (or the bus terminal) and look for the parade of individually colored stores. This is the biggest closed air-conditioned mall in Panama, with 8 zones identified by animals, and it makes a great escape on a particularly hot or rainy day. It is generally less ‘designer” than the Multiplaza Mall, and has a lot more shops than the “Multicentro” Mall.

The best part about Albrook is its easy accessibility. The bus station is right alongside the stores, there are taxis galore to take you around the City and within the Zone for just $1.75. If you choose to come by car, there are plenty of car parking spaces.

Inside, over 2 floors, there is every kind of shop, store, restaurant, cinema and kiosk you could possibly want. Starting with the larger stores first, Titan has a huge range of cost-conscious clothing for the girl who wants to look fashionable. Collins is more up market, but still comparatively cheap for visitors from Europe and the USA. Their cafeteria is also very chic, with tasteful table décor and an appetizing menu for lunch. Ever popular, Stevens has cut-price clothing and household goods, and Conway has even more choice of kitchenware, glasses and home accents. The Do It Center offers a good range of Home and garden equipment for which it is famed, as does Novey which is situated alone on the car park.

There are plenty of well-known brands and American chains represented such as Zara, Hilfiger, Umbro’s for sportswear, and Adams. For more unusual styles look in Lolita boutique, and how about a hat to finish the ensemble? Panama Hats has many traditional brimmed hats but with a little twist – a bright ribbon, a broad peak or a shaped back to an otherwise traditional head covering. Shoe Plaza makes everyone slow down and look – what styles, and what great prices!

There are also specialist stores such as El Mundo del Tabaco or Daniella for beautiful embroidered tablecloths. Choose your furniture here from several stores offering both outdoor and indoor furnishings. Electrical goods are also well represented, from Costo to Panafoto, and kiosks for cell phones throughout the Mall.

No girl can resist the brightly lit windows of the jewelry stores, although there is plenty of cheap glitz in Stevens including belts, bracelets and bags.

After all that walking, maybe a little pampering. There are many nicely presented Salons for hair and nails. The newest to open is Only Nails (which bizarrely also does hair!) and Christian Salon and Beauty Supply with all the known brands of retail hair supplies from Matrix to Tigi.

And so to lunch. The food court has a huge choice of food chains from the obvious – McDonalds - to the traditional, at Lenos. You can dine on pizza, salads, steaks, fish, chicken, Chinese, Italian, ice cream and more. If the plastic tables and screaming children withers your appetite there are also many individual restaurants and coffee shops situated along the mall, including my favorite – Crepes and Waffles.

Albrook Mall is a great day out for all ages, easy to find, and there are some great bargains to be had.

Labels: Albrook Mall, Panama City, shopping

One of the joys of travel is seeing local arts and handicrafts of the region you are visiting. The standard of Panamanian handicrafts is exceptional and very distinctive. The indigenous Indians, who make these fine crafts for a living, live in the Comarcas of Kuna Yal, Ngobe Bugle and Bocas del Toro. Their products are sold throughout Panama at craft shops and markets. A fine selection can be found at El Valle, Boquete and in Panama Viejo. Trips can also be organized to visit the Indians. This may involve traveling into Darien along tracks, then a 3 hour horseback ride to a river. The Indians arrive in dugout canoes and sell their wares direct. Certainly a trip like this makes the souvenirs far more personal, and captures the whole experience, making treasured memories of a long-forgotten vacation.

Besides the obvious Panama hat, the most common items are “Molas”. These are beautiful highly colorful cloth pictures of birds, flowers etc of reverse appliqué. They are made by layering cloths, each of a single color, and then cutting through the layers to reveal the color required for the cut out. The edges are then sewn down with the tiniest of stitches, to create an appliqué effect. Details are then embroidered on to leaves etc to make a highly original panel of colorful cloth pictures.

The native Kuna Indians incorporate these panels into their traditional dress and make a stunning sight. A Mola can be purchased for around $170-$300 depending upon size and quality. Some haggling is expected when buying direct from the Indians, so be prepared. Considering the time taken to cut and stitch this ancient craft, this represents a fairly low rate per hour, and the tradition is slowly dying out, or being machine made for faster, cheaper production. The Mola can then be made into a bedcover, or mounted and hung as a beautiful picture.

The Indians are also renowned for their baskets or “Canastas”. The word basket does not really do justice to these incredible creations. Made entirely of natural products and dyes, the end result is a woven bowl or basket, built up by fine weaving to 10mm or more thickness. The weaving is so dense that the baskets actually hold water. The weaving incorporates colorful diamonds and other geometric shapes and the baskets can be many shapes, more like vases than actual baskets. These handicrafts can take up to a year to make and consequently the price of $1000-$3000 for a fine piece reflects the many hours of work.

One final unique souvenir to Panama is the Tagua carvings. The tagua nut is fairly large and smooth and is used to carve beautiful native animals, fish and birds including hummingbirds, golden frogs and parrots. The finished carvings are colored and have a perfectly smooth satin finish. Again quality demands a higher price, but simple tagua carvings start around $25.

Wherever you go, enjoy appreciating the ancient craft and talents of the indigenous Indians and local people, and remember that buying one or more of these gifts helps to keep these ancient skills alive.

Over a million tourists each year choose to visit Panama and traveling around the City and the country on the whole is cheap and safe. Arriving in the airport, there are desks from all the main car rental companies such as Avis and Budget. There are also plenty of taxis lined up to whisk you into the city in around 15 minutes, and if this is your first trip, taxis are an excellent way of seeing the city without greying your hair, or reaching for the blood pressure pills. Taxis are cheap. Pay around $1.75 for travel within a zone, for example from the shops on Via Espana to Albrook Mall. How they make a living I do not know, as tipping is not obligatory.

On my first visit I drove into Panama City at 5pm on Friday evening – not smart. There were 4 lanes of traffic, moving on a 3 lane highway – nerve-wracking - and I began to understand why all the cars looked like they had rolled down a hillside as they had so many dents and scrapes. There is also a distinct lack of signs for major landmarks like the Bridge of the Americas, or City Center. There are signs for roads not shown on your map, and roads named on your map that seem not to exist, so the co-driver and map-reader is just as frustrated! However, after a few trips you come to realise Panama City is actually very small with only a couple of major roads in either direction, and driving around becomes less formidable.

If you really want to blend with the locals, then take a trip by bus. They frequent the city and regularly leave for all the major cities of Panama. Certainly to La Chorrera, Chame, Coronado and El Valle they are every 10 minutes from the transportation center behind Albrook Mall and cost around $2.50 for the 50 mile trip to Coronado. Once you have purchased your ticket, you need a 5cent coin to go through the turnstile to get on the bus, so have one ready to avoid missing your ride!

The buses are old US school buses and are all individually decorated with artwork depicting saints, family members, cartoon characters or whatever takes the driver’s fancy, so they are all highly individual and very brightly colored. It is a pleasure to stop next to one at a red light and enjoy the scenery as it were!

The buses earn their name “Diablo Rojo” or Red Devils for the way they drive. Each bus is individually owned and run. Consequently time is money and the more trips that can be done in a day, the nearer the owner comes to making a profit. Since they are all operating on a tight margin, a day of lost work can make it difficult to make the loan payments they took out to buy the bus. Beware the very loud local music that plays throughout the journey. If you are lucky there will be a film showing on longer routes, otherwise just people-watching is a great experience in itself.

These buses also drive around the city at night as “Party buses”. The seats are moved to the sides and there is a wooden dance floor in the center. As the drivers continue to drive wildly and erratically, as only they know how, straps are suspended from the roof for you to hold on to and stay upright whether you want to dance or not. There is also a bar which is included in your $25 ticket. Stay on as long as you want to ride!

However you choose to travel, enjoy the journey, the people, the sights and sounds of Panama and the experience of being somewhere totally vibrant and different.