by Helen
(Bocas del Toro, Panama)

San Cristobal 60 Acre Farm For Sale

New Home in Bocas

With 100 more scars on my legs from no-see-um bites that I got at a pig roast on Carenera island last week we have decided against the house on the water. Carenera is full of these bugs for some reason but the other islands are fine. Apparently, according to my sister it is bad Feng Shui to live over water anyway! What seemed romantic at the time would I think have turned into a bit of a nightmare so we have opted for a practical apartment in town with no sea view but no bugs either.

So here I am, sitting here in the Banana Inn, our new home for the next few months, listening to some reggae music coming from a large pair of speakers on the porch of shack with a rusty tin roof and patched wonky walls opposite our secure concrete apartment building.

It is a weird juxtaposition, as our studio is clean, modern and spacious with a delightful bathroom with twin stainless steel sinks set in a mahogany top as well as kitchen with large silver American fridge and flat electric hob. We have wifi and cable tv and a huge amount of storage space so that everything can be put away. We have an i-pod player, a toaster and coffee maker. We have washers and dryers downstairs as well as a gas powered barbeque.

From the window, however, the scene is rather different.

Our neighbours (at least on our side of the building) are living in wood, plastic sheeting and corrugated tin hovels on stilts over mangrove swamp filled with rubbish. They have a tv, a camping gas stove, a fridge that does not work that they use as a wardrobe and huge stereo systems with cracked bass speakers. I am not sure about the toilet facilities?.. but there is a bit of a funny smell that wafts in occasionally so?..

This is a side of Bocas that most tourists do not see when they come to Bocas even though it is right in town, which is probably no bad thing I guess. However, it is not all as you might think. The minute I step onto the street (I use that term loosely as it is a muddy lane actually round here) people smile at me and say hello (well they say ?buenos? actually) and they seem happy. I had a guy who stopped me in the street the other day and told me he loved me before walking on to sell his incense sticks door to door and then another told me I had sparkly eyes and that my husband should take good care of me! A boy yesterday asked me if I wanted to buy a tiger! They make me laugh and feel good.

We have been in Bocas now 10 days and feel most at home. I did a little work for the Hotel Angela when we first arrived but it soon became clear that there was no real desire to make any changes as in reality the owner just wants to sell the hotel and go and grow bananas and cocoa and listen to monkeys and toucans out at his farm on the sea at Terra Oscura on the mainland. If anyone is interested, he wants $900,000 for it. Eleven bedrooms and a large restaurant right on the sea in need of modernisation.

On the other hand, if, like Claudio, a farm is what floats your boat I saw a wonderful 60 acre farm with a teak plantation on San Cristobal island last week for just $299,000 and he would go even lower on the price. One could be totally self sufficient in such a place and had we had the money right now I would have jumped at it. It is beautiful.

We have found out something about the weather here in Bocas del Toro. Whereas there is a wet and dry season on the Pacific coast (with no rain to speak of and a cool breeze between December and May) it is different here in the Caribbean. There is no dry season and it is wettest between November and February although no one tells anyone that because it is the best season to attract people from cold climates. It means some days are gorgeous, some days are cloudy and it rains at some point in the day or night most days. It is always warm however and it just means you have to get a pair of rubber boots to match your bikini!

Joel is now working in real estate and already has a couple of prospects. I help out a bit scanning the internet for owners looking to sell. Sales are of course not what they were a year ago but people are still buying here. Rather than holiday homes they are now looking to buy a home to live or retire in or buy land and build a small community and opt out completely from watching the US and European economies evaporate like an illusion before their eyes.

I watched a few minutes of Obama?s inauguration last week and wished him well. The turn out for him was moving to say the least. I don?t hold out much hope for him though in the sense that he seems to be continuing Bush?s policy of printing more dollars to save the skins of the big institutions that created a lot of the problem to begin with and this will only create a much worse scenario down the road. However, I do think that the hope that people feel having him in power will have a positive effect on the collective consciousness? intention for what happens next.

I was reading the book ?What the bleep do we know? yesterday and it was explaining about a machine that they made that randomly tossed a coin over and over (creating 1 and 0) and of course it averages out a 50/50. However on certain days like OJ getting sentenced (the fist time) and on 09/11 the odds changed quite significantly. When a group of people get together and focus on something happening it actually does change potential of it happening in their favour. We are such creative little quantum creatures you see! Anyway, all this to say, I have stopped watching the news for a few years now and feel much better for it and I try to focus my mind on positive things as much as possible. All this attention going onto doom and gloom is just creating more of the same I am sure.

Anyway with any luck all the happy smiley people in Bocas are helping sway the ?coin flipping? machine?s results back the other way!

January 31 2009

Rent for property in Panama tends to be high in relation to the value of a property. Often, it will will be as high as 12% or even 15% of the sales price of the apartment or condo over a year. This is due to a shortage of places to let. However with the huge amount of building going on we would expect prices to fall, perticularly in the city, as 10s of thousands of new units get completed.

Renting in Panama City

Rentals in Panama City come in two flavors – furnished and unfurnished. In Panama City you can get a nice two bedroom unfurnished apartment in a decent neighborhood for about $1200. If you want to live in a high end neighborhood by the water it can get up to $2500 which would be very nice.

Penthouses in luxury skyrises with all the facilities, in Patilla or Bella Vista for instance can go as high as $3 or $4,000 a month. Any less than $800 for a one bedroom apartment and the area starts to get a bit rough.

Furnished units are harder to come by. Not only that but they will usually have furniture that shows wear and may not be so clean, even if you spend $1900 a month.

However, furniture in Panama is good and cheap. Like a comfortable king size bed for $500. You can easily furnish a 2 bedroom apt for $3000 assuming there are appliances which it probably will have. A brand new washer, dryer, stove and refrigerator will run about $1600 – $1700 delivered and set up. Dishes, lamps and stuff like that are really cheap too.

Check Encuentra24.com for a large listing of rental property
NB If you look on Craig’s List be very wary of anyone asking for money before you see the place. We came across a couple of scammers doing just that, for what looked like gorgeous properties at half the normal price! Don’t pay before you see somewhere and only when there is a contract to sign with a good lawyer.

Renting in Bocas del Toro

You can find both short term and long term property in Bocas town or on the surrounding islands. The prices range from $350 for a room and a bathroom to $500-1000 for a condo or from $600 to $2000 for a house on the water. Properties here are usually furnished.

Looking in the Bocas Breeze newspaper is a good place to find local places as opposed to holiday lets.

Renting in Boquete

When you are looking for a house in Boquete for more than a month, the best way to do it is to come, stay at a mid-range hotel for a couple of weeks and look for yourself, because this will be the only way to find something that you really want. If you plan to stay for only a month, you are better of staying at a Bed & Breakfast like el Oasis, at Isla Verde, Boquete Garden Inn or at Cabañas Sunny Hills.

Most of the time, real estate agents will not have a lot of options on their hands if you are not willing to spend more than $1,000 per month. If you are looking forward to spend less, around $300 – $800 per month, post on the following sites exactly what you are looking for and then you will get answers with specific houses or apartments that are available. Most people find their house driving around, because a lot of places aren’t posted on internet sites or with real estate agents.

Check out:

Noticias Bajareque Times: Boquete’s local bi-lingual newspaper published each month. Look for their classified ads section.

Boquete.org: a discusion forum in which users share information about living in Panama with special emphasis on the expatriate communities of Boquete and the rest of the province of Chiriqui.In their classified section, look for the title Real Property for Rent/Lease (Wanted and Offered) and post the specifications of what you are looking for.

Panama’s Craig’s list: the 7th most viewed English website in the world also has a section for Panama devoted to housing for sale and for rent, wanted and offered. We recommend posting your specific needs and you will receive specific answers.

Viviun: International Property Listings with upscale more expensive offerings.

Encuentra 24: just do a search for Boquete and then select what you are looking for (to buy, to rent, vacation rental, etc.) and it will normally deliver a good amount of results.

Panama is divided into nine provinces and three provincial-level indigenous regions.

The nine provinces are: Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocle, Colon, Darien, Herrera, Los Santos, Panama and Veraguas.

The three areas for the Indians are Embera, Kuna Yala and Ngobe-Bugle.

The main places of interest either for living or for visiting are:

Bocas del Toro

Bocas Del Toro is both the fabulous region closest to Puerto Rico containing 9 main islands as well as the name of the town, otherwise called simply Bocas which is on the Island of Colon about half an hour by boat off the mainland at Almirante. For more go to

Bocas del Toro

For more about the islands like Carenero, Bastimentos, San Cristobal, Solarte etc. go to
Bocas Islands

Chiriqui

Chiriqui is the province where you will find David and Boquete as well as the Baru Volcano. There are both mountains and beaches here. For more go to
Chiriqui

and
Boquete

Boquete is where they grow the best coffee including the world famous Geisha coffee. For more on this go to
coffee

Pedasi

Pedasi can be found on the Azuero Peninsula at the tip of the Los Santos region. It is unspoiled, beautiful, wild and the mecca of fishermen as well as the hideaway home of Mick Jagger and Bruce Willis. For more go to
Pedasi

Darien

Darien is where you go for adventure and is home to some of the most virgin rainforest in the world. For more go to
Darien

To learn more about the rain forest go to
rainforest

Panama City

Panama City or just Panama is it know locally is a wonderful busy capital city with great restaurants, an exciting night life and new skyrises going up on every corner. For more go to

Panama City

The Pearl Islands

The Pearl Islands are where the wealthy Panamanians from the City go to unwind. They are just a hop away by plane and are very beautiful. For more go to
Pearl Islands

The Region of Colon

Colon is a very historical area of Panama with the remains to be found in Portobelo and San Lorenzo. It is also the end of the Panama canal and where you will find the Gaton Lake and the Gaton Lock. For more go to
Colon

Islands and Beaches in Panama

Panama has thousands of islands and wonderful white sand palm fronted beaches. To find out where the best ones are go to
Panama Beaches & Islands