Best Places In The World To Retire

The history of Portugal is a very broad question, so I will address it just in summary form.
 
500 years ago, Portugal owned half of the world and 500 years later we are just a little small humble country of Europe, which can tell you quite a bit.  We were, 500 years ago, a very important country, responsible for controlling half of the goods produced of half of the world. Spain had the other half. And then came the Dutch, the English; the explorers, and they took over some...

The history of Portugal is a very broad question, so I will address it just in summary form.
 
500 years ago, Portugal owned half of the world and 500 years later we are just a little small humble country of Europe, which can tell you quite a bit.  We were, 500 years ago, a very important country, responsible for controlling half of the goods produced of half of the world. Spain had the other half. And then came the Dutch, the English; the explorers, and they took over some of the rich countries that we controlled.
 
The colonies we had like Brazil, Mozambique, and Angola, survived for the last 300 to 200 years. But as the world developed, it was no longer allowed for countries to have colonies so we released our last colony in 1999, which was Macau in China. We had various dynasties of kings and queens and mixtures of royalty with other European countries.
 
We’re a country of explorers, very brave and courageous because if you could just imagine, 500 years ago, with no conditions, with little wooden boats discovering and crossing oceans and discovering countries, that can tell us a bit of the Portuguese culture. So yes, it’s a very brave culture, and a very brave country. We discovered half of the world and today we’re just a little civilized country of Europe.  

 

(Duke of Vise, Henry the Navigator of Portugal considered the patron of exploration, pictured.)

Retiring in Panama really depends on what you want out of your retirement. For us, it has been an adventure, it’s relaxing, and it’s been an eye-opener to see and experience a different country and a different population. There are indigenous Indians here in Panama who still live in such primitive conditions that it is hard to believe. Yet they are not always that poor. They choose to live that way.
 
There is also the terrain. The topography of the mountains, the...

Retiring in Panama really depends on what you want out of your retirement. For us, it has been an adventure, it’s relaxing, and it’s been an eye-opener to see and experience a different country and a different population. There are indigenous Indians here in Panama who still live in such primitive conditions that it is hard to believe. Yet they are not always that poor. They choose to live that way.
 
There is also the terrain. The topography of the mountains, the valleys, the lowlands, the dry lands and the rainy areas is so beautiful here in Panama that there is just about something for everyone. Then we have the best of both oceans – the Pacific and the Caribbean. To me, retiring in Panama is like retiring into a beautiful, tropical paradise.
 
Most of my friends are a combination of people who have homes and own properties or are involved in the community. They have started some small business that help provide jobs to Panamanians. People here stay busy.
 
If you choose not to be busy, you can also enjoy it. Sit on the patio, have a glass of wine, kick back and relax. But if you need to be doing something, there are unbelievable amounts of things to do here. There are two different kinds of bridges clubs here – the serious and the social bridge clubs. I know they have these clubs in Boquete and in other big cities in Panama.
 
If you are in a small gringo community, you will find that they help each other. They build houses, they build churches, they work on each other’s cars, they offer rides, etc. The lifestyle here in Panama is easy. If someone has a car and he has car trouble, who wouldn’t want to help them? Because they own a car, they have obviously helped other people. They own a car and almost everybody I know who owns a car has offered rides to everybody they know, so it is just the way people think here.
 
There is art. There are camera and photography classes. If you are a photographer, you would just want to take pictures all the time because it is to photogenic here.  There is hiking and rafting. They have every kind of activity that you can think of. They have sports such as soccer, baseball, etc. It’s only the person’s limitation that they choose to make of themselves that keeps them from being extremely busy. There is something for everybody.

 

(Linda Jensen's friends dining in a patio shaded by banana trees in Boquete, pictured.)