I'm curious how you first came to discover the place and decide it might be somewhere you would want to live.
The short answer is a friend of mine was using a realtor in the US whose husband is Panamanian. This fellow talked the country up quite a bit. I was aware of the country's advantages (relative safety, good economy, use of the US dollar [remains to be seen how advantageous that is], 20-year property tax exoneration, no hurricanes, few earthquakes, good infrastructure, easy to get to, very possible to gain residency etc.) but hearing about the place straight from the source as it were made me pay more attention. I came down a couple of times and had a good look around and realized I could fairly easily do what I do from here as well as anywhere else.
There are certainly negatives but on the whole it's a good place to live, for me at least. You know, the reasonable cost of and high quality of healthcare would be enough for many people to seriously investigate the country. I'm thinking seriously about getting my mother a retiree's residency in case Medicare goes away or is significantly altered. She's in good health now but will not always be and the more options the better.
Hap, the next time I'm in northern California I'll let you know and we'll work something out. I used to spend a ton of time there but haven't been is quite some time. I'll rectify that soon enough.
