Reflection

Typically at the end of our vacations Dave and I look back at the area(s) we visited and discuss things we liked or disliked about each area and especially if any area hit us as a place that we can one day retire. Although many of our recent vacations are about finding a place to retire, we also consider if a place is future vacation worthy again because let's face it, I don't care where I live, I will always want to explore and visit places that we've had fun in before.

So, what did we think about Panama? Honestly, not much. I can't put my finger on it but from the start there was this feeling that this would be one of the less easy going places that we've looked into.
First off the flight wasn't exactly reasonable and while we opted for a non-stop flight even the ones with stops seemed to be far more expensive than other places in Central America.
Second seemed to be the lack of good, non-biased information about Panama. I am used to researching places enough to know what to expect, unfortunately I am not looking to pioneer the way for others and I like to at least have others' experiences to give me an idea about a place. With Panama, I felt that people (yes, mostly other expats) just wanted to tell me why I would like or dislike a place - how can they tell me what I would like or not, they don't even know me. I prefer to read others opinions of what they think and why and then I can decide if that information applies to me or not. I'm not sure if this is just lacking for Panama or if it is a recent turn in how people provide information but it started to turn me off quickly but I tried to sift through some info and I just planned our stay accordingly.
Third was basically our trip and how, even though some places seem to welcome expats, there was just an overall feeling of people just wanting the American's dollar. Now don't get me wrong, I know this happens everywhere but we have to been places before where let's say someone is trying to sell something and of course they inflate the price a little because you are a gringo and you can often times negotiate something closer to what the cost should actually be. In Panama I felt like they started with like a 300% mark up and only negotiate slightly less. Taxis are the worst and when you have locals telling you that yes, there are set taxis rates and even Panamanians get ripped off from the taxi drivers, that's just a little depressing.

Obviously that translate into "we will probably not be back here" but that doesn't mean that our vacation was a loss. We go into every vacation with the mindset that we'd like to find our retirement place but if we don't we will enjoy our time where we are and get the most of it. So, despite the rain, the chicken bus, and Dave's cold, we did enjoy our time and have had a relaxing time overall.

What's next? Our discussions seem to be taking us back to Costa Rica so we'll be looking to check out a few new areas there that we haven't yet explored. Who knows, maybe we'll stumble upon that just right place while we are there!!