About Oldcameraman

Status:

Expatriate  

Gender:

Male

Currently Lives:

Citizen Of:

Canada

Past Expat Posts:

Mexico

Canada

Pakistan

United States

Dominican Republic

About Oldcameraman

I am a passionate photographer of life and beauty in the world around us. I value the earth and so, in addition to my professional photography, I am an energy efficiency consultant. I focus principally on renewable energy especially Solar PV and LED retrofits.

My Website:

http://http://panamahomephotos.weebly.com/

Advice for New Expats

DO NOT expect/hope that your dream retirement destination will be just like home. If you do, you will be disappointed and will trouble others around you. Rejoice in the difference, accept with calmness and humour the odd things, learn the language. You will be richer for it and will enrich others around you.

I would love to live in...

Panama

Favorite Assignment:

Travel Photography

Favorite Cuisine:

Japanese

Favorite Book:

The Bible

Some Forum Posts:

Panama: Bus crash in Anton:

Does anyone know if any expats were on the bus that crashed at Anton? Horrible news. 18 killed over 30 injured. How sad.

Panama: Road between El Valle & Penomene:

That back route is possible. I travel often up to El Valle and to Penenome but never went that particular road. Friends who did drive it say it's "exciting" = challenging. Very curvey, steep and bumpy. So if you're used to driving back road Panama you'd be okay. Since you apparently are NOT used to Panama roads, the road between the Pan-American and El Valle will likely be exciting enough for your first trip. It's very scenic and well maintained and usually busy. Be very careful on the curves if you're not used to mountain driving. It only normally takes about 20-30 min back down from El Valle to the Pan-American so you likely won't be saving any time on your whole trip anyway by going the backroad. The drive between Las Uvas at the junction with the Pan-American to Penenome is smooth, level and interesting. It passes through nice farming country around Anton.

Panama: Wino needs info please!:

As rana said, lots of very good imported wines at reasonable prices. Warning : some of the Argentinian blend wines in a box @$7.00 /2 litre box are really execrable but might be okay in a shandy or similar. Other than those you do have a wide variety. Local spirits and beers are very inexpensive and are quite good. National drinks are #1 beer and #2 Seco. Haven't found any Secos I like though. There is a local "gin " which relates to Bombay Sapphire the same way bat urine relates to a nice single malt Scotch. (Translated : don't think of using it for ANYTHING except removing varnish)

Panama: Bank Info:

I too use Banistmo. Very easy to open the account. Virtually no fees. Currently using a savings account and debit card based on that account for grocery shopping etc. Works very well and the staff are quite friendly and helpful. MUCH different than the people at Banco General who are very stuffy and unhelpful.

Panama: Package to US:

I recently had the motherboard on my laptop replaced by a retired computer specialist in Coronado. He repairs computers as a small retirement business. He ordered the part from the US and installed very quickly. Very inexpensively too. If you'd like his contact info send a PM to me. That way I didn't have to worry about losing anything important.

Panama: Solar Energy:

I am an Energy Efficiency consultant based in Panama. I recently consulted on a project which is now completed in the Pacific Beaches area. It was a hybrid system. That means that the homeowner got both a solar power system with backup batteries and a grid connection so Femosa takes excess power generated. The home also has backup batteries charged by the solar panels. So during the day, the home can generate (and sell) excess power to the grid and at night draws power from the grid. It is of the net metering type which means that the homeowner pays $0.00 electricity to Femosa. (cost of electricity generated by the solar panels = cost of power drawn from the grid) The hybrid part are the backup batteries which were sized for 4 hours capacity. So when the power goes out, the home can run an average of 4 hours without grid electricity. Total cost for that sized project was around $32,000. Since I started in the renewable energy field 4 years ago, prices of solar energy installations have dropped nearly in half and will continue to drop and newer technologies become available. That should give you a basic idea of what it would cost in Panama.

Panama: Religious and Political hatred:

You asked a rhetorical question so I hope you're not really expecting an answer!

Panama: Any success with Tunnel Bear VPN:

Tunnelbear works fine here and every other country I've used it. Keep in mind that Netflix blocks all VPN access. So if you planned on using Netflix with your home country profile, it won't work.

Panama: spanish meetups:

Travelocity gave it. It's called "The Visitor"

Panama: Coronado taxis:

A drawback to the golf cart idea is that driving up the main Coronado road in a golf cart you'll shake your kidneys loose. Another drawback is that you risk your life with people driving all over the road, not especially following the few bits of line markers that are still showing on the road. Another drawback is that you'll annoy the hell out of drivers like me who hate following a golf cart creeping along the road at 10 kmph as some do! There is perennial talk of repaving that road, but it wasn't repaved the last time I drove it a few months ago.

Date Joined:

6/22/2014

Total Posts:

329

Posts/Day:

0.32