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Torio, Panamá

Torio is a small town on Panamas Azuero peninsula. It is an undeveloped region with people who live a simple but interesting way. There is a fishing village that is very friendly and the people cooperate and respect tourists. Little do they know how privileged they are to live in a place where the Humboldt current passes and an abundance of pelagic fish pass through the region.

Torio's coastline has views of Isla Cebaco and has a surfing beach...

La Playita, Panama

In this world, there are still places where the road stops, even in a country like Panama that has severed itself in two, to connect two oceans, the road concludes, and motoring ceases, seemly arbitrarily. It is a bit frustrating that the edges of the coast cannot be traced completely, unless you are very foolhardy, and would want to bushwhack through the thicket of forbidden land. Slowly we travel, to prolong the tour, to the southeastern end of the Azuero Peninsula, until we must...

How To Become an International Pet Smuggler

I moved to Panama from Toronto in July, 2007, but the airline I flew on would not take my dog Roscoe -- something about the summer heat being too much for animals in the cargo hold. So I ended up having to ship Roscoe by a different airline to San Jose, Costa Rica (at three times the cost of my own flight), and of course I then had to drive from my new home in Panama to San Jose to pick him up.

Thus began, innocently enough, my career as an international...

My First Trip to Panama

My first trip to Panama was an accident. I had originally planned a holiday in the Brazilian Amazon. I like tropical jungles – big, green, humid things with massive, towering trees, snakes, and animals whose names I do not know and cannot pronounce. The strangeness of jungles appeals to me – strange at least for someone like myself from the wintry reaches of Canada.

It was my habit to take a winter vacation around March, just when I could no longer stand the grey,...

Meet the Neighborhood Alligator

I’ve been around Panama for about 6 years now, living here and working as a real estate broker. I’ve seen all manner of creatures in all sorts of places — capibaras in the jungle near Colon, coyotes prancing through fields, hummingbirds on my front porch, dolphins in the ocean, howler monkeys everywhere, an anteater crossing a coutnry road, even an ocelot dashing across the street in front of our house.

I’ve also seen things you really don’t want to see, like poisonous...

My visit to the Flowers and Coffee Fair in Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama

On Saturday, my mother and I visited the 35^thCoffee and Flowers fair in Boquete, a traditional event taking place each year from the 10^th- 21 of January. Boquete Flower Fair Windmill – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

Boquete Flower Fair Windmill – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

This year displaying a beautifully clear, sunny, and windy weather as a backdrop, with occasional Bajareque mist, reminding us we were indeed in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Boquete has experienced a complete transformation with so many changes and improvements since I returned to Panama as an expat...

Picturesque Town In Panamá

This is a small town that you do not find in the regular tourism books or maps. It´s the town of CERMEÑO, located left, and about 15 minutes of Capira. If you´re looking for a quiet place to visit, surrounded by trees and birds, and friendly people, do not miss this place. The little town, with it´s church and little houses is worth being seen. There are no hotels or restaurants, but you´ll see some very nice "fincas" (or weekend houses). There are facilities outside the...

This is Beautiful Playa Venao, Panamá...

Beautiful Playa Venao has been my passion for many years,

Private home in Venao, near Pedasi, Panama – Best Places In The World To Retire – International Living

and this is the area I moved to a long time ago, in 1985. I was lucky to get to know Panama from the "inside out", being exposed to the folklore of the Los Santos Province and its music and festivities.

Getting to know some deep traditions was the highlight of my move abroad, my kids growing up in a sane and safe environment with Spanish being...

The End of the Road At Playa Venao, Panama

The Divisa to the south of the Panamanian Highway is not a scenic ocean drive, except when you get near the terminus, in the Azuero Peninsula, where there is a ledge only big enough for two lanes, between the mountains and the coast with its tiny little coves. The road turns, and with each bend the ocean is glimpsed where the density of trees have become sparse. The water, unlike others parts of Panama, can finally be seen at the speed of a cruising car, in that uncommon...

Altos del Maria— Shangri-La Enchantment in Panama

One can look at a map of Panama and see it as would an early engineer, as an earth moving project. There, where the raised land is as narrow as a sandbar on the globe, and the two giant fraternal land masses balance on either side of the equator, Panama is like the stretched middle of a twisted water balloon, and anyone with an imagination tuned to navigation, would place an inland waterway there to connect the oceans, dug to accommodate the cargo of deep-hulled ships. But when one...