Exploring Panama With New Eyes

November 4, 2024

Coming to Panama feels surreal these days. Between the nostalgia for our lives here pre-Paris and the evolution of the city, country, and our long-term home here, Los Islotes, plus bringing our daughters to this place we talk about all the time but they don’t know themselves… It’s a dreamlike state I feel when I’m…

Panama City 2.0

October 28, 2024

My family and I landed in Panama last night, and it felt like coming to a completely new place… The new airport terminal has been completed since I was here last (only partially operational a few years ago), and it was all so sleek and new I didn’t recognize a bit of the airport I…

What I Miss Most About Panama

October 21, 2024

At the time of writing this I’m preparing for my first return to Panama in two years… Here in Paris, it’s already quite chilly and our summer clothes have been packed away for weeks… my husband and I need both business and beach clothes… warm-weather wear that still fits our rapidly growing 4-year-old needs to…

A New, Better Way To Retire

October 14, 2024

Go to school… get a job… work hard for a few decades… retire… then die. For as long as I can remember, that’s the schedule we’ve been expected to adhere to. Some people make it look good. I have friends now retiring in their early 60s with money in the bank, good health, and lots of…

Escaping The Heat In The Mountains Of Panama

October 7, 2024

Situated in the highlands of western Panama, Tierras Altas (literally, “High Lands”) features comparable scenery to neighboring Boquete—misty hillsides dense with greenery, gardens terraced into slopes, and abundant wildflowers. Its cool-weather climate and the outdoor lifestyle it affords are also similar… But Tierras Altas is also very different to Boquete in important ways. First, it’s…

Trading Toronto, Canada, For Torio, Panama

September 30, 2024

Although firmly on the map as a world-class retirement haven, parts of Panama are still relatively undiscovered. The country’s Veraguas Province is one such place. It sits on the Azuero Peninsula, and its western coast is one of the few places in Panama from which you can watch the sun set over the ocean. And…

Finding Your Personal Paradise In Panama

September 23, 2024

My husband and I just bought tickets to return to Panama, where we lived for seven years. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been back, and this time there was a deadline: we need to renew our permanent residency and get new ID cards. Even though we moved away in 2018, we’re still…

Coming Home To That Vacation Feeling

September 9, 2024

“At least it’s Paris we’re going back to…” I sighed to my husband and daughter as we packed up to leave Mallorca, where we’d been blissfully untethered from reality for the last 10 days. “Because Paris is the best city in the world, right mama?” My four-year-old grinned up at me with this aphorism that…

11 Reasons To Choose Europe

August 12, 2024

Why Europe? It’s been a while since I considered the question… Let’s take a step back today and reconsider Europe from a broader perspective. Why should anyone want to live in Europe? Here are the top 11 reasons I can think of… Café culture. Most European cities have some sort of café culture, which lends…

Expats Introduce Me To Their Dream Lives In Spain

August 5, 2024

Last year, I took a whirlwind scouting trip in Spain. Between two trips, I drove nearly the entire way across the country, from the French border to Plasencia, not far from the Portuguese border… While there, I became addicted to the typical Spanish breakfast: tostadas and café con leche. Nearly every day I was there,…