I will be in either boquete or panama city all of January 2025, also exploring plan b options
Discussion
No kidding?! Interested to hear what you think!
I'll let you know. 4 days in Panama City, and the rest of the month in Boquete.
I’m trying to get down there soon to check out the same areas.
OK, I'm back from Boquete. We had a wonderful time. Boquete is about 3500' elevation, and we had an AirBNB about 2 miles up the mountain from town, putting us at about 4400' . The climate was fantastic.....typical daily high 78-80, overnight lows about 60. Constant breeze helps keep you cool and deter flying bugs. Not much of a bitcoin scene, but there are a couple of bitcoin ATM's around. Maybe there's a local bitcoin group but I didnt really look for it. I wandered into one of many coffee shops and found this book, which is excellent. I contacted the author, who lives in town, and he graciously spent a day showing me around. Here's the link to the book: https://a.co/d/8M4sX91
Very cool. I was able to get up there for one night. I had a much shorter trip unfortunately and it was mostly business in Panama City. I liked Boquete but was surprised by all the litter. It seemed crowded too but I was there right before their festival of flowers. Going back soon with the family and we plan to check out Bocas Del Toro on that trip. My conclusion is that Panama is a great plan B but unfortunately during my time thereTrump announced his interesting it so it is less out of the way than it was even two months ago. May need to have a plan C in place too just in case.
It was much different and better after the festival. Next time, I want to check out the Volcan area also. Not sure what the outcome of Trump's moves will be. I think his bark is much worse than his bite often. I did talk to several different native Panamanians, and happily, none of them had any ill-will towards me as an American b/c of Trump. I'm not going back for at least 6 months, so next visit will be interesting to see what happens and how the people there react.
Yea, everyone I spoke with was very pragmatic towards his posturing. They understand he wants them to choose between China and the US and they realize we’re their natural partner even though they would like good relations with both. The Canal Zone was interesting since it’s clearly a belt of land separate from the rest of the country. It’s possible the US could take a larger management role in the zone and leave the rest of Panama untouched. Interestingly, the canal is only 6-8% of GDP and their financial markets are above 60%. Most of the rest is tourism, fisheries and agriculture and local trade. Their financial center is largely tied to NY and serves US business interests in the region so Panama can’t afford to try to fight back against an expansionist Trump Cabinet. The best thing they can do is demand investment in exchange for keeping the Chinese out and offer a partnership on the canal operations that keeps them involved but guarantees the US security interests.
My thesis when choosing Panama as a plan B destination was that it is geopolitically important but under developed with good air and sea access and sustainable natural resources (good food and water options). It’s outside of the Hurricane belt but benefits from a tropical climate which means if we enter an energy constrained time you can still thrive there. It’s culturally welcoming and accepting of Americans and it also has good property rights and leans business friendly. The banking and investment options are also good and they’re fairly neutral on Bitcoin as far as I can see. Lastly, they have tons of American and International schools. All that still holds after my visit but for our plan C place I’m considering someplace further off the beaten path like Paraguay or rural Argentina. We won’t be ready to explore those options for quite a while though.