Bairnhess Panama Adventures: Enjoying Panama

June 2014, Pedasi

Our friend and lead salesman for Los Islotes Louis let us know that he was bringing a couple interested in the property out for the weekend along with his family. Daphne, Louis'wife speaks fluent Spanish so we thought we could use her help in the search for a rental house. We drove down the west side of peninsula without much luck. We arranged to have a house-sitter so we could spend the night at the Torio Cabañas hoping that the owner might have some insight into a rental house in the area. Come to find out there really aren't any available houses in the area. After putting out as many feelers as possible, we decided to spend the day with Louis and his family and visit Los Islotes. He was showing the property to Tony and Claudia a fabulous couple from Ohio. We had a really fun day driving around the property and looking at the available lots and talking about the vision.

Louis, Daphne and their beautiful daughters

Sold! Lot 131

As it turned out Tony and Claudia wanted to visit Pedasi, so after a full day at the property they followed us home where they stayed at Casita Margarita another great B & B in town. We made plans to go with them to Isla Iguana an island off the coast here in Pedasi which is designated as an iguana and frigate sanctuary. The hotel packed us a lunch and rented us chairs and snorkel gear for the day. It is about a 30 minute boat ride out to the island which has a beautiful white sand beach and great snorkeling. It was high tide when we returned to the main land from Isla Iguana and the waves are too large to beach the boat where we parked to leave for the trip. Irvin, our captain took us into a cool little river filled with mangroves. Turns out it is called Rio Pedasi. Irvin parked the boat at a little dock where his friend is there to pick us up and take us back to our truck. We all jumped in the back, along with Irvin and got to ride like Panamanians back to our truck. Most pick-ups you pass on the road are loaded with Panamanians in the back, standing up. The ratio of cars to people is small so everyone gives their amigos rides. It was fun to feel like part of the community. It was so nice to spend a day enjoying Panama! We just kept looking at each other and saying "we live here". It was great fun getting to know Tony and Claudia and we look forward to seeing them next time.

Peg enjoying a cerveza panamanian style

The boat to Isla Iguana

Just beautiful - Isla Iguana

New friends Claudia and Tony

We decided to expand our search for a rental house to the area of Santa Fe a city on the north side of Santiago which is opposite of Los Islotes, but still a lot closer than Pedasi. There was an ad on Craig's List for a rental there that sounded great, but there was some weird postings on the internet saying that the property was in the middle of a legal dispute. We emailed back and forth and it turns out the owner has a crazy ex-wife who is making his life hell. He is leery of renting to us with two cats and sends us on to a real estate agent in town who might be able to help us. We reach out to them and decide to drive out there for a look. It is a solid hour drive from Santiago to Santa Fe on a beautiful road through the mountains. The town of Santa Fe is about the size of Pedasi, but with a much smaller ex-pat community. It is absolutely beautiful. Peg was singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music..." . We are able to meet with the agent and he shows us a duplex that is just being finished and they are willing to rent it to us and our menagerie for $450 a month It is a two story house with two bedrooms, satellite TV, a washing machine, oven, microwave and the rent includes all of the utilities, even the Satellite. Plus, if we understood correctly we think the owner is going to come and clean once a week as part of the rent. We took a couple of hours to drive around the town and check out the rivers in the area and then decided to go ahead and take it. It will be different living in the mountains, but we figure that once our house is built we will be back at the beach permanently.

A view of the Santa Fe hills from the real estate office. That's our truck in the parking lot who we have affectionately named "Junior"

So far so good in the budget area. We are able to live very comfortably on our fixed income and add to our savings as well. This is a relief after living in the red during our RV adventure. No blog would be complete without a Zoe update! She has become quite the little fisherdog. She loves to hang out in the pools and chase the little fish. Adorable!