We do get several questions and thought we would take a stab at expression our opinions. This article is part of a two part series with opposing view points from Cele and myself on the expanding focus on the real estate market in Santa Fe. I tend to think that people don’t know what they’re getting in for, while Cele thinks it could be a good move.

Santa Fe is a small village in the mountains of Panama.  It is a rural and beautiful area.  The poverty level in the district is high, it is remote, and there are few foreigners.  Most people in Santa Fe are nice, but wary of foreigners and the influence of land value, jacking it up beyond the reach of many locals.  There has been a sign spray painted “gringos vayanse” or gringos leave!, on the entrance to town.  Others welcome tourists, but say that they want the tourists to go back after they finish their visit – no to gringolandia.  It’s not so simple as that, and development is bound to happen.

My husband and I don’t sell real estate, aren’t looking to sell.  We understand why people might want to move to Santa Fe, but from people with no horse in the race, these would be my top considerations.

So you’re thinking of moving to Santa Fe, Veraguas…

1) There is no healthcare or emergency care near.

In town, there is a Centro de Salud, which is about as helpful as the nurses cabin when you were a boy or girl scout at camp.  Got a cold – no problem.  Need to check your temperature or blood pressure- got that covered.  Anything else, you’ll be making a two hour round trip to Santiago.  Over the past weekend, there was a severe traffic accident in Santa Fe.  It took about 2 hours from when the accident occurred to when people reached medical help in Santiago, one person died in route.

In Santiago itself, medical care isn’t that complete or great.  For example, after my father-in-law’s stroke, he was taken to the Santiago hospital.  An internal medicine doctor could not see him for two days, as he is stationed out of Aguadulce and only travels to Santiago 2 or 3 times a week.  It’s true that the cost of health care is cheaper, but there is a reason for the cheaper health care – less service.

2) Are you thinking of moving here because of the cost of living? If so, it probably isn’t the best reason.

I’ve heard people say that the cost of living in Panama is about 60% of the states, we find it about 75%.  One of the killers for us is gas. During March, Cele and I spent over $450 in gas with the trips to Santiago, which is the nearest place to buy many supplies.   Our electric bill is about double that in the states.  Locally grown food is cheaper as is cable, internet, and trash service. However, food that is not locally produced can be twice the cost in the states (example $5-6 boxes of cereal).  Taxes are higher.

3) Will you be comfortable being an outsider?

I lived in rural Veraguas for two years without being married to a Panamanian.  I speak Spanish.  I have the advantage that my husband is Panamanian – but people will judge me and think of me as different because I’m not Panamanian.  One of my husband’s pet peeves is that Panamanians always tell him how lucky he is to have married me (which, of course is true ) but not because of my character (which is the reason I would chose) but because of the appearance of hey, he’s got it good now.  I find it insulting as well.  (Of course the argument, no, he is NOT lucky to have married me -doesn’t get me very far either).

It annoys him to no end that he built our inn – was there every day, mixed the concrete, hired and oversaw people, while I was working, and people in Santa Fe think it’s mine – not his, because, well I’m white.

People will have perceptions of you, whether they are true or not, whether they see direct evidence to contradict it, because that is their perception of the world.  And that includes you as something different.  Not the same.  An outsider.  Your friendships will likely always be different than that in the states, and it can be lonely.

As for expats in remote areas in a foreign country, Panama does have it’s share of people running from the law or running from themselves.  Of course, that’s not everyone, and not everyone who runs is bad.

4) Do you speak Spanish?

If you don’t speak Spanish, you should before considering moving to a rural area of a Spanish speaking country.

5) What does your family and spouse think?

Will your family be on board with a move to a rural area in a foreign country.  Sometimes we tend to marry the opposites of us, as we see beauty in the difference, an outgoing person marrying a shy one, a loud person, a quiet, an agreeable person, a contrary one, a risk taker to one that likes careful planning.  The last one is Cele and me. You are as happy as the least happy person in a couple, which may be why that we’ve seen many expat couples break up or leave.  If you think it’s a good idea, but have a spouse that doesn’t speak Spanish, make sure that they will be comfortable making such a move.

Finally, remember, as in all of Panama real estate, people do actually lie.  The prices are pretty high, you can buy in Miami for cheaper, and if it’s not titled, don’t do it.

To come, from Cele: Why moving to Santa Fe could be a great idea!

Well, you’ll get excited about this – we got air conditioning installed in three of our rooms -woo hoo!   Of course, the price of electricity is about double that in the states.  I dread the electric bills.

My computer hard drive, recently failed, and a side benefit of transferring files to a new computer (because, hey, you just gotta look at the bright side when your computer starts to make gurgling sounds and awkward beeps), I got to take a look at some of the old photos from construction of our B&B over the past year. Hope you enjoy!

For those who don’t know, my husband oversaw construction. Our wedding anniversary is coming up (almost 10 years!), and looking at the time series of pics made me feel all warm, and appreciative of him.

Now clean is not bad. But, err, shouldn’t your inn’s bathroom always be clean?

So, I’ve been trying to think of some special touches so that  people’s reactions go to “wow, it looks amazing”.  My go to solution for everything has been ‘hmm…maybe a plant…or two’, that can only work so many times, so I’ve been trying to get the ideas of others.

My mom thought I should hang a picture rail and put up shadow boxes with molas a type of applique art from Panama’s Kuna.  It’s a good idea, but the Kuna are in a different province, and I’m not sure how well fabric will hold up.

Side note: Mola evidently is a homonym, and can be confused in conversations with your sister with the word mullah, a title for islamic clergymen.  She may immediately and generously  offer her help with decorating ideas if she hears that your idea is  framing “mullahs” and placing them around your guest’s bathrooms.  You may be tempted to frame a mullah and a mola and put them side by side in your bathrooms to see if anyone gets it, but you edit yourself.

Any other ideas?

If it were a paint color, I would call it happy blue.  I know it’s about 80 degrees.  That if you were to walk barefoot on the grass, that it would be slightly wet from a night rain.  The sun is warm but not harsh on the mountains behind.  It is a happy blue.

In the foreground you can see evidence of what I term as my husband’s new hobby – renting heavy equipment. Now, if you know Cele, you know that he’s very neat.  We’ll go out for a day on a muddy backroad, and I’ll think – cool- we had a great time the mud on the car- wow, it’s over the rear view mirror -it’s a badge of honor.  He’ll think, great, we had a great time, now it’s time to clean the car…and worse, somehow he manages to talk you into helping out.  Sigh.

He discovered that you can rent time from owners of the road construction equipment.  In front of the hotel, there used to be a green area, but it had little indentations and hills, the free spirit in me thinking- how nice a little character.  But man, those hills didn’t stand a chance once Cele learned about the cuchillo that was in the area.  The upside, we have a nice area for parking…. got motorhome? No problem.

His friend Eliecer is an outreach technician for the coffee cooperatives in the area and helped us (er Cele again) plant 50 different coffee bushes around the inn of different classes, they’re planted around the perimeter, currently about 10 inches high.   Eliecer says that one of the kinds only takes 1-3 years to start producing coffee – how great would that be!

Cele’s been getting up the roof trusses.  His godfather welds, and has been up in Santa Fe for the past week.  Now the roof is taking shape – think it’s looking great.  They’ll finish the trusses over the next week, weather permitting.  After, it will be time to put the roof itself on!

We had been debating the use of “telagala”, a type of fibercement roof that looks like traditional clay roof shingles – or the use of colored “zinc” roof that also looks good, but doesn’t have that traditional feel.  The issue was that the telegala shingles  use asbestos – which, as you know, is fine as long as the asbestos particles do not become airborne.  I was having a moral dilemma about putting in asbestos for the construction workers – seems to me that there could be so many conditions for asbestos exposure. Tiles break, fall, and chip.    We ended up costing them both out,  and turns out the the metal roofs  were cheaper!  This made the decision much easier.

We’re going with red.  Update: Or perhaps blue

So, the columns in the front of the hotel were going up last week.  I really want to see, I really want to see them. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait.  My husband wants to surprise me, so he says that he’s too busy to send pictures.

Let’s analyze this.

This means, he’d have to get his phone out of his pocket (he’s there every day), aim the camera towards the building, push a button, and then hit send.    The excuse isn’t flying over that well.  With that, I give you  a picture from last week, looking towards the balconies (maybe this will prompt him to send a pic-love you hon).

Update: he dropped his phone…oops.   I guess I will be surprised.

What is odd, as we learned by employing people to help build our inn, the wage for those working in construction, even unskilled workers with no experience or schooling  is higher than: Veterinarians, Pharmacists, Accountants and Lawyers. Those in the latter careers need a college degree.

If you’re a young person in Panama, construction seems the way to go.