How's the standard of living in El Valle de Anton, Panama?
Lourdes Townshend
El Valle, a small town, situated approximately two and a half hours from the main city, Panamç. It is a lovely place to visit and an excellent choice for a home.
El Valle not only has the perfect weather (between 60 to 70 degrees), but it is also the home of the golden frogs, which are almost extinct.
Every week, hundreds of visitors come to El Valle to enjoy a relaxing vacation or family re-unions. Locals have weekend homes, and visitors go to one...
El Valle, a small town, situated approximately two and a half hours from the main city, Panamç. It is a lovely place to visit and an excellent choice for a home.
El Valle not only has the perfect weather (between 60 to 70 degrees), but it is also the home of the golden frogs, which are almost extinct.
Every week, hundreds of visitors come to El Valle to enjoy a relaxing vacation or family re-unions. Locals have weekend homes, and visitors go to one of the many hotels in the area, with special offers, prices, spas, thermal water and modern massage centers.
Even though it remains a peaceful place, El Valle's growth is impressive. El Valle's public fresh fruits and vegetables market, stocked from local farms, has been re-built to accommodate constant visitors and new foreigners who want to live here, seeking a good quality life, not only based on weather, but also with a lower level of expenses.
A person living in El Valle is privileged to have a good life. Here's just a short list of what they can enjoy:
- Modern technologies are available if they can afford them.
- Their dream house.
- Fresh air from the mountains.
- Magnificent sunrises and sunsets.
- Birds singing all day long.
- A fun social life.
- Many restaurants with good prices (especially if the resident is a retiree who enjoys a 25% discount on meals).
- If they choose, a secluded house or a very quiet life in nature.
El Valle has a modest health center, but additional facilities are in Coronado, about 40 minutes away by car.
The surroundings of El Valle are very peculiar in size and charming. There's lots of little towns and villages, and lately, many new residential communities are developing in the area.
The standard of living in El Valle? In one word...outstanding.
Foreigners just have to have open mind and the concept of accommodating to a whole new life, as living in El Valle is probably very different to the way you are used to living. If your standards are to enjoy a peaceful life, with everything included, sharing with locals, El Valle is the place to be.
Posted January 5, 2014
Bill Brunner
The standard of living in El Valle will depend on which of the three socio-economic groups in El Valle to which you belong: - At the bottom of the socio-economic scale you have the native people. These are the folks who live full-time in the Valley (el Valle de Anton), and whose families may have been here for three or four generations. You also have the people who walk from outside the Valley into the Valley who have jobs like gardeners, grass cutters,...
The standard of living in El Valle will depend on which of the three socio-economic groups in El Valle to which you belong: - At the bottom of the socio-economic scale you have the native people. These are the folks who live full-time in the Valley (el Valle de Anton), and whose families may have been here for three or four generations. You also have the people who walk from outside the Valley into the Valley who have jobs like gardeners, grass cutters, clerks in stores if they have the education, and so on. These are the folks who, if they’re doing domestic work are working at between US $15 to $20 a day. The pay for construction work is anywhere from $22 to $30 a day. These are the folks you see in the Valley riding around on bicycles. Most of them don’t have any cars (but they all have cell phones).
- The next level up is what I call the middle class. It includes most of the expats who are probably retirees, as well as some business owners in El Valle, who for the most part (but not all) are Panamanians and who own businesses such as the smaller restaurants, hotels, stores, etc.. It also includes retired Panamanian professionals or maybe professionals who have weekend houses here. These are the folks who live in the houses that are in the $100,000 to $300,000 range, with exceptions.
- Then there is what I call “the country club set”, which are at the top of the socio-economic scale and who are pretty much “weekenders” here in El Valle. These are the people who may be the owners of substantial businesses (perhaps in Panama City or the Free Zone in Colon or other places) and / or may come from old family money and have the large land holdings in El Valle. They may have million dollar homes and a back yard even bigger than the one pictured above.
Posted August 29, 2014
Neil Stein - Panama Paraiso
The standard of living here in El Valle de Anton varies whether you are a local who is making US $350 per month, a rich Panamanian, or an expat. It varies with those three classes completely.
The local people have houses that have been handed down from generation to generation. They were never for sale. One thing that is wonderful about the Latin culture is that as you get older, you will still live with your children. You are not put in a home. There are no...
The standard of living here in El Valle de Anton varies whether you are a local who is making US $350 per month, a rich Panamanian, or an expat. It varies with those three classes completely.
The local people have houses that have been handed down from generation to generation. They were never for sale. One thing that is wonderful about the Latin culture is that as you get older, you will still live with your children. You are not put in a home. There are no nursing homes around here so there will be quite a few people in one house. They make about $350 to $400 per month and yet nobody seems to ever think as if they are poor and unhappy. They are laughing all the time. They smile all the time. They are very nice. I sort of envy their mentality. In fact, I know some wealthy Panamanians who come here to El Valle on weekends and I can see that they are the ones who are stressed out in dealing with problems in their homes amongst other things, while the local people who live here and are making a small amount of money do not look stressed out at all. The local, financially poorer people in El Valle may be a lot happier.
Some very wealthy expats live in beautiful homes here in El Valle. They come here for around 8 months per year and they go back to the States for the remaining 4 months to be with their families. Other expats come here on their social security and on a very tight budget, which is one reason why they chose to move over to Panama, although, the cost of living in El Valle is considerably higher compared to other places that are 40 miles away from here.
You can rent a full house in El Valle for maybe $250 per month in Panamanian community. The expat community varies a lot. There are some Europeans who live here and they usually are into some type of business.
Posted October 1, 2014