I personally do not eat meat, so I don't know the price of meat in El Valle de Anton.  Instead, I eat chicken. A roasted chicken in El Valle is around US $6.50. A bag of food usually costs me $1. I used to spend $1 for an orange in Hawaii so I am still in shock over how cheap the fruit and vegetables are here in El Valle. Bowtie pasta is about $2 per pack. I buy fruit and vegetables from the woman who I practice my Spanish with. When I come back from El Rey (a supermarket in El...

I personally do not eat meat, so I don't know the price of meat in El Valle de Anton.  Instead, I eat chicken. A roasted chicken in El Valle is around US $6.50. A bag of food usually costs me $1. I used to spend $1 for an orange in Hawaii so I am still in shock over how cheap the fruit and vegetables are here in El Valle. Bowtie pasta is about $2 per pack. I buy fruit and vegetables from the woman who I practice my Spanish with. When I come back from El Rey (a supermarket in El Valle), she always goes through my bags to make sure I did not buy any fruits or vegetables. I am very loyal to her that way. But of course, El Rey has very nice fruits and vegetables, too.

If I compare the food cost here in El Valle to the food cost in Kauai, Hawaii (where I lived for many years), I would say the food in El Valle is cheaper. However, because there are a lot of expats here, all the way down to Coronado, there are now a lot of American products being sold here and they are not cheap. You can even buy a Ben and Jerry's ice cream here already. There are many American products in these markets now, especially, in El Rey, and these American products are not cheap. They are comparable to the prices in Kauai, because of the shipping cost.

If you eat like a Panamanian, you will buy food and vegetables in the open-air market and the food there is so much cheaper compared to the food cost in Kauai.