Latest Expat Stories

It was the extra toilet paper holder, a lace and chintz contraption hanging on the wall, that made us laugh.  The room in which we stayed was called Limonera, named for the lime tree in its private terrace, which was a separate studio around the back of the main house of Park Eden in El Valle de Anton, Panama.  If I were a detective, I would say it was originally the residence of someone who loved to read, for there were many books along the wall, and who loved Panama for the...

Mike Pop, the co-owner with his wife Nancy of the Coconut Lodge, in the Panama City area, is like the uncle who is always upbeat and happy, makes big delicious big breakfasts, (including his own smoked meats), realized his dream of moving to the tropics and putting a tennis court in the backyard, tells funny stories, and is such a stickler for details that each stone in the pathways of this beautiful home is set perfectly and aesthetically.
 
Nancy Pop, Mike’s wife, is caring...

It is called the Manglar Lodge because there are three kinds of mangrove trees found on the property, which you see on the long wooded road to there, the road that never quite leads you to a view of the Pacific, but rather into an intimate place tucked into the nearness of fresh water and salt, land within the reach of sea, a four room structure of masculine sophistication, a boutique inn for surfers and beachcombers alike.
 
It is situated down the lane from a surf camp and...

We were walking around Casco Viejo in Panama City, Panama, looking for who knows what, having fun exploring, until, absorbed in our adventure, we became lost.  I dug in my heels, refused to go any further and insisted that my husband consult the map. As we did, we must have been quarreling loudly, for a voice came from the balcony above, a woman busy with something, talking on her phone, working on the net, maybe combing out her hair, maybe all three, I can’t quite remember, but...

We find our way back to Los Cuatro Tulipanes in Casco Viejo by landmarks, sights and sounds: the nonchalant dog who lays on the sidewalk near the president’s security guard (who seems to be the only dog in a city of cats); the smell of beef broth from an open door whose meaty heat is added to the saturated heat of close dwellings and narrow passage ways, causing a linear view of the sea, its pungency carried by erratic winds; and remembering to walk just past the ruins of a convent that...

Robert and Isabelle Shahverdians found the place that eventually became La Rosa de Los Vientos in Pedasi, Panama after they had traveled Costa Rica and found it wanting.  They then moved around Panama, to see if there was something better.
 
In the environs of Pedasi, they found a  place where the road had few inhabitants and came to a bit of land that faced the Pacific, around a small bay lapped by quiet waves.  It was there that they made their spot at the end of...

For the final stretch, we followed the blue signs to Park Eden from the main road.  The way was unpaved and bumpy, with rocks smoothed over by frequent travel, slowing us to peer into the gates and gardens of well-kept El Valle de Anton homes and jostling us so we were forced to look up at the handsome ridges of the caldera that were thick with riotous jungle.  If I were a Victorian British memsahib arriving to the cooler regions of the hill stations, the grounds...