Welcome to Panama!

Here’s a short video showing the street flooding from our hotel in El Salvador and the celebration after the Costa Ricans won their match against Greece in a penalty shootout.

Our last night on the road en route to our house sitting gig in Panama was spent on Costa Rica’s hot, steamy pacific coast. After setting up camp we spent the afternoon playing in the sand on the beach.

Playing on the beach in Costa Rica

Playing on the beach in Costa Rica

Our campsite amongst the palms

Our campsite amongst the palms

The next morning we set out early, hoping to cross the border into Panama and be in Boquete in time to watch the USA-Belgium soccer match. The Panama border went much like the rest of them and took about two hours. At many of the borders, especially the more chaotic ones, there are “helpers.” These are guys who look for tourists like us and help find all of the various offices, inspectors, and stamps needed to successfully navigate the border formalities.

The helpers range from outright crooks to great guys. Sometimes it’s worth getting one just to keep the others from hassling you. Elias, the helper I got for Panama, was great. He was calm and didn’t try to hurry things along, which can be stressful when you’re trying to make sure you don’t lose track of all of the different bits of paper you’re carrying around.

Bienvenidos a Panama!

Bienvenidos a Panama!

Elias helped us navigate the process and saved us lots of time. He knew we needed a particular stamp on a particular form from an un-marked office up some stairs. When we got there no one was in the office, so Elias reached in the window and grabbed the stamp and stamped the paper himself. He said the woman who works in that office leaves the stamp accessible so he can do that. He said she was probably out watching the soccer match.

Border formalities completed, and after driving through the fumigation station, we were on our way. It took us about 2 hours to reach Boquete. As we turned inland and climbed into the hills we were happy to notice things cooling off outside!

Boquete is an expat haven set in a beautiful valley filled with coffee plantations. The valley looks vaguely Swiss as you enter. We found Will and Cate, who are currently renting the house we will be sitting, in a bar watching the football match in town. We joined them and had a late lunch in the bar while cheering on the USA.

Our temporary abode

Our temporary abode

Will and Cate left for Uruguay, where they are thinking of moving next, two days later. We moved in and made ourselves at home.

Boquete is very much an expat enclave. It was recently rated the #4 place in the world to retire, and is home to many gringos and some super-expensive houses. The difference between Boquete and Panajachel (in Guatemala) is that in Pana you always know you’re in Central America and are sometimes surprised by little reminders of home. Here it feels like you’re living in a small town in the US, and sometimes you get reminded that you’re not. But there’s lots to do in the area and we’re looking forward to a couple of weeks of exploring before it’s time to move on once again!

The town's central plaza

The town’s central plaza

The valley is lush and tropical, but its high elevation keeps the climate cool.

The valley is lush and tropical, but its high elevation keeps the climate cool.

The wet climate means lots of rivers and creeks.

The wet climate means lots of rivers and creeks.

On Saturday we went on a whitewater rafting trip. Quinn really enjoyed the first half, but 3 hours on the river proved a little much for him.

On Saturday we went on a whitewater rafting trip. Quinn really enjoyed the first half, but 3 hours on the river proved a little much for him.

We saw squirrel monkeys, cormorants, and egrets along the river.

We saw squirrel monkeys, cormorants, and egrets along the river.

Our lunch stop featured lots of great rocks to play with.

Our lunch stop featured lots of great rocks to play with.

8 Responses to 'Welcome to Panama!'

  1. Jim Sparks says:

    Is your campsite under the palm trees a designated campground or did you just find a spot and parked? We are really enjoying your blogs. Thank you.

    • Jennifer Sparks says:

      Jim, believe it or not, it was a real campground! We probably should’ve put more info about it on the blog post, but this campground was amazing! The very nice lady created the campground out of nothing other than being close to the beach and among the palm trees. Everything was cobbled together using plastic bags and poles to provide privacy and rain protection where needed, yet the campground had flushing toilets and working showers! It was better than many campgrounds that we have stayed at where there are real, permanent buildings. We loved it!

  2. Sandi Shannon says:

    Jennifer,
    My partner and I want to eventually retire to Panama. In the meantime we would very much like to have the experience of living there ahead of time by doing EXACTLY what you have done. Camp and house sit. Could you please give me a few directions as to how to begin????????
    Thank you so much for your time and expertise.

    Sandi

    • Jennifer Sparks says:

      Sandi,

      We found this housesitting gig by word of mouth (networking on FB), but we have also joined some housesitting web sites, like TrustedHousesitters and MindMyHouse. You might also try joining the Boquete FB group and posting something there. The peak of rainy season is coming, many people are planning vacations elsewhere and need someone to look after their homes and pets.

      • Sandi Shannon says:

        Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I really appreciate it.

        We are considering driving a RV and living in it until we find where we really want to be. Do you know if there are issues we should be concerned about or prepared for? I haven’t been able to locate any RV parks.

        Thanks again.

        Sandi

        • Witt says:

          Hi Sandi,

          South of Mexico there really aren’t many proper RV parks with water and electrical hookups like in the US. There are places to camp, but most of these are shared informally through facebook groups and sites like http://www.expeditionportal.com. Guidebooks like Lonely Planet list places where camping is allowed, but sometimes these are geared toward tent campers, not RVs.

          We’d be happy to help you find the resources you need – just contact us at wittsparks at yahoo dot com or jennifer dot sparks at yahoo dot com.

  3. Mikayla says:

    Does anyone else recieve an error after this web page loads while using most current
    Chromium? The website never used to do this just before.
    Anyway, awesome blog!

    • Witt says:

      We had a glitch recently that may have caused this, but it should be fixed now. I just tried the site in Chrome (on a mac) and it seems to be working.