It’s hard to believe we’re less than a week from Christmas and less than two weeks from 2024.
We want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year!
Love Dory and Pete
Year: 2023
Celebrations in Panama! The protests are over!
On Wednesday, 11/29/23, the Supreme Court of Panama declared the mining contract unconstitutional!!
The mining contract was at the center of the protests we’d been experiencing since our arrival in Panama. As the decision was broadcast, protesters danced in the street in from of the courthouse, waving the red, white and blue Panamanian flag and singing the national anthem. The ruling was published in the Official Gazette on December 2nd and roads all over Panama, including those that had been blocked for the last 41 days, were finally reopened.
On Monday, Boquete (and I’m sure many other areas) celebrated with parades. The video was taken by one of my neighbors. This was just one of many bands in the parade that lasted hours.
Oma Jean Fincher 9/30/1932 – 11/28/2023
On November 28th, Pete’s Mom, Jean Fincher passed. At 91, she was one of the feistiest women I’ve ever known. The picture above is Jean with her 4 remaining children. During a recent visit in May, all the kids were home and we took this picture. Jean was preceded in death by her husband Bobby Gus in 2010 and a son Johnny Lee in 1992. She will be missed!
It was the best of times, and the worst of times: Day 32 of the protests
Thanksgiving is not a holiday celebrated by most Panamanians…. however, because we live in Boquete among many US expats, there were many restaurants in town offering a Thanksgiving Day dinner. Also, many turkeys in the store. We went to Big Daddy’s Grill, for dinner with all the sides. While it wasn’t exactly the same as what we’d have with family, it was familiar and oh so good. We had thought about making our own turkey dinner, but propane was nonexistent at this point due to the protests. (Propane is used for our stove, hot water and dryer).
On Friday, (after Thanksgiving), we took a bus to David. This cost us $1.75 per person. The trip down (which took about 1.5 hours) was in a converted school bus. They filled up every seat and then packed as many as possible into the aisle. Luckily, it was a nice day outside, and with the windows open, it wasn’t bad. We went to the Rey Grocery store, which is significantly larger than our stores in Boquete, and realized they had less selection than we did in our small town. Shelves were bare. But we were excited to have the opportunity to leave Boquete for a few short hours. While in David, we went to numerous stores (grocery, electronics and one similar to Target). Late in the day, tired and ready to head home, we went to the bus stop. After about 30 minutes, our ride came and (yeah!!), it was a big “luxury” bus…. the kind you’d ride if you had a big group renting a bus in the USA to a special location. Yes, we had to stand in the aisle for most of the trip home…. but it felt luxurious.
Back in Boquete, it was getting dark, and we decided to stop at the grocery store to see if they had anything new. We typically go to the store every time we’re in town even if we don’t need anything. Well, this Friday night, I was tired, and I told Pete I’d wait at the entrance while he did a quick loop around the store. He was back in less than a minute and told me he thought they had chicken in the meat section. We haven’t had chicken since arriving in Panama. It was one of the first meats to be gone from the stores when the protests started. Anyhow, not only did they have a full case of chicken, but they had boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a grown woman get excited about chicken breasts…. but OMG…. this was fabulous! I purchased the maximum amount, which was $20 of breasts (approximately 5 lbs).
I had so many plans for the chicken…. stir fry, and pasta with chicken/ sun dried tomatoes to name a few. And then very early on Sunday morning, we received the call that no one wants to get. Pete’s Mom has a massive stroke at home in Texas. And just like that, our life took an unexpected turn. I had our travel to TX booked by 9AM, and a ride found from Boquete to David airport by 9:30AM. We left our home about 1PM Sunday and after many layovers, we arrived at the TX hospital by 5PM on Monday afternoon. His Mom was moved to Hospice Monday night, and she passed on Tuesday evening. I was so thankful we had managed to get there while she was still alive.
Are we in the upside down? Day 26 of the protests.
We woke up this morning and it was raining. We usually get rain every day, but typically in the afternoon. This morning was so cloudy and overcast we couldn’t see Volcan Baru, our neighboring volcano.
The morning brought some great news…. apparently, there are 10,000 containers of Propane enroute to our province. We haven’t been able to get supplies from Panama City since the protests started. Yes, that would be 26 days of road closures brought on by the protesters. We’re not sure how long it will take for them to arrive (by sea), but the fact that we know they are coming is super exciting. We use propane to heat both our hot water and the oven/stove top. We’ve been trying to be conservative, not knowing when more supplies will be arriving.
We took a taxi into Boquete. We seem to do this every other day or so. Not having a vehicle has been really limiting. Our jaunts into Boquete provide both exercise, and social outings for us. During our walk, we passed the Delta gas station in town and there was a tanker filling up the tanks! This was just as exciting as the propane news. We’ve been out of gas for the better part of the last 3 weeks. There were already about 60 cars in line waiting for the tanker to finish. Again, because of the protests, gas can’t be delivered from Panama City. Our current gas is now coming in from Costa Rica under some type of temporary agreement between our 2 countries.
As we were eating lunch, Pete checked his email and our 5 boxes we had mailed before leaving Tennessee had FINALLY arrived in Boquete. We’d been tracking them with the air tag that I had accidently placed in one of the boxes. We knew they were in country…. but had been sitting in Panama City for almost a month, unable to get delivered to us. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about getting our boxes (which will be at our house in about 2 hours). I traveled without any type of walking shoes. All sneakers had been put into the boxes. At the time we shipped them, there weren’t any protests and we had thought they’d arrive shortly after our arrival. Little did we know. There is most likely a lot of useless stuff in the boxes…. but aside from my coveted shoes…. I know there are also some kitchen spices, kitchen utensils (such as a peeler, my much-needed garlic press, can openers etc.), and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t remember. It’s going to be like Christmas at our house!
And as we walked out of the shipping location, the sun came out. This day has been full of surprises and the weather is opposite of what we normally encounter. And it’s been amazing!
Panama Citizens Fight Canadian Super-Mine (YouTube)
Panama’s President, Laurentino Cortizo, approved on Friday, October 20, 2023, amid protests, a new contract with the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals for the operation in the country of the largest mine in Central America.
The approval came amid protests against a contract that allows the mining company to operate in Panama for 20 years, extendable by another 20 years. Access routes to Panama City were intermittently blocked on Friday, with burning tires and marches.
Anger and frustration at the government have escalated the protests, which are happening across the entire nation. The PanAmerican highway, the major (and often only) route across the country has been blocked in numerous areas, often 24/7. The citizens are fighting for control of their land and want the mining contract declared unconstitutional by the highest courts in Panama.
The attached YouTube video provides a good overview of the crisis gripping the nation.
Arriving in Panama: Day 1 of the protests
On October 23, 2023, we packed our 4 huge duffels, 2 small carry-ons and our individual back packs into my son’s car and headed to the airport to start the journey to our new country. This was the culmination of almost 1.5 years of discussions, research and planning. We already had our temporary visas for Panama as well as an apartment to move into. Excited? You bet! Nervous? Of course! We’d traveled and vacationed in the country twice prior to our move. It still felt unreal.
Our journey took us from Nashville, TN to Miami, Florida on Southwest Airlines. I was still enjoying a year of having a companion pass, where Pete basically flew for free. We took advantage of this to get to an airport where we could pick up Copa Airlines. From Miami, we flew on Copa Airlines into Panama City, Panama, arriving after 8PM. By the time we had passed through immigration (which btw, was the easiest ever, as we were able to use our Panamanian Visa), picked up our luggage and called for Uber, it was well past 9PM.
We were seeing reports throughout our day of travel about protests starting in Panama over a mining contract the President had signed on the previous Friday (October 20th). The protests were causing streets to be blocked in areas all over the country. Although we already had a hotel booked in downtown Panama City, we had actually discussed whether or not it would be better to just stay by the airport, as we weren’t sure if we’d have difficulty getting into the city. Ultimately, we decided we’d keep to the original plan unless we were forced to make a change.
Our Uber driver had no problems getting to our hotel. Thankfully, we saw no protests and arrived tired, after a very long day of 12+ hours of travel. And while Panama City wasn’t our final destination, we planned to spend a few days in the city, start the process to get our driver’s license with the US Embassy, visit immigration to pick up our 2-year temporary visa and do a bit of sight-seeing. Little did we know how much the protests would impact all of our plans.
Where exactly is Panama?
So, where in the world is the country of Panama?
Well, if you look at a world map showing North and South America, you’ll see a small section connecting these 2 land masses called Central America. It’s in this location, close to the equator and nestled between Costa Rica and Colombia, where you’ll find the country of Panama.
Panama is bordered to the north by the Caribbean Ocean and to the south by the Pacific Ocean. The country has nearly 4 million inhabitants, with almost half living in the capital and largest city, Panama City. Panama is in the Eastern time zone but doesn’t recognize day light savings time. There is roughly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness all year long.
Some interesting facts about Panama: Spanish is the official and dominant language. The official currency is the Balboa…. which has a 1:1 fixed exchange rate with the US dollar since 1903, when Panama declared their independence. U.S. dollars are legal tender and used for all paper currency, and while Panama has its own coinage, U.S. coins are widely used.
Welcome to Panama by Design
In the early summer of 2022, in a post Covid world where seemingly everything was the new normal, my (then) boyfriend (now husband) and I literally had a revelation that there may be more to life than doing the 8-5 grind, day in and out, until we got old and died.
Hi, I’m Dory and my husband is Pete. I was having a bad day…. waiting for the week to end and the weekend to arrive… when Pete walked in after having a similar day. I looked at him and said, “There’s got to be more to life than this.” And his response? Asking if I’d be interested in moving to Belize. WHATTTTT??????
So, I have to back track just a little here. You see, I’ve wanted to live outside the USA for a long time. I mean decades of longing for an opportunity to live abroad. My first husband was in the military and as such, we always thought there’d be a chance for us to live overseas. The closest we came was living in Anchorage Alaska for 1.5 years. I’ve dreamt of the lush landscape of rural France and the rolling hills and paint covered sheep in Ireland and even a few countries in Central America. But Belize? This wasn’t a country on my bucket list but is sure sounded intriguing.
And now back to our story…. Belize… Hmmmmmm. I really knew very little about Belize. I knew the general location and that it was a spot some of my friends had vacationed in… but literally, nothing else. So, I pulled up Google Maps and typed BELIZE. And there it was…. in Central America. Seemingly not that far from the USA. This was the start of a lot of research. Google, YouTube, Facebook groups, etc. We spent about a week reading and researching everything we could find on Belize. And at the end of the week, we realized this wasn’t exactly the lifestyle we were looking for. You see, Belize is a poor country. It does get huge kudos on language, as it’s the only Central American country where English is the official language. But it just wasn’t right for us in many areas including the visa process and lifestyle we wanted.
This led to a few days of trying to compare Belize to Costa Rica and Panama (Costa Rica and Panama had been my top choices in the move abroad dream going back at least to 2021. And ultimately, we chose Panama… for so many reasons.
This blog is about Panama. But it’s also about our journey to this wonderful country, retiring early from corporate America and the adventures we’ve had along the way. We hope that you enjoy reading about our experience and if we can make you stop for a minute to contemplate what you might do with your own life…. well, I’d consider that a win!