good shit. I'll be honest, until watching that video I would have never imagined that's what Panama is like. there's almost no publicity on it, at least tourism wise. I would absolutely check it out sometime.We have a sightseeing trip planned for April and we're going to fly into Panama City first, for a 2-day visit. It takes about four hours to fly from Houston to Panama City. I'm not really all that interested in Panama City as a permanent place to live because it's just too big for me (2 million people). However, it literally has everything.... major hospitals, big box stores, high-rise living, yacht clubs, mass transportation,...etc.
After we visit Panama City, we'll take the 1-hour flight north to David for a 2-day stay. David is a mid-sized city with a population of about 110,000. Almost anything you could need is there and the suburban areas have raised our interest. It takes less than 30 minutes to drive from David to the Pacific coast.
Our final stop will be Boquete, which is a 45-minute bus ride from David. The population of Boquete is ~25,000 people, which more to my liking. Estimates are that 1/4 - 1/3 of Boquete's population are ex-patriots. Boquete is centrally located and sits at an elevation of 3,700 feet. The weather is consistently 60-80 degrees all year. Air conditioners are not required. We plan to stay at least two days in Boquete and we will solicit a real estate agent to show us some fully furnished rentals while we are there. We'll be interested in exploring the costs of a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment, flat, or condo.
The YouTube video below convinced us to at least check it out. David ranks #4 and Boquete ranks #3 in the video. We've spent several days watching all the various videos on Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. If Boquete is anything like what we've seen on video, this could be where my wife and I spend the bulk of our retirement years in the future.