From Medellin Colombia we headed out to Panama!  Our international flight was on Avianca Air and if you have never seen this airlines dress code you should!  It is so cute, the dress code for flight attendants is very Little Red Riding Hood themed.  As we bumble through another foreign customs we start to flex our newly stretched Spanish muscles.  After baggage we are able to schedule an Uber to pick us up and take us to our hotel.  We booked the Trump Ocean Club, and it is amazing.  Although the exchange rate is 1 US dollar to 1 Panamanian Balboa the rate for this hotel is still pretty good.  The hotel is the tallest in the city and has a very unique sail looking architecture.  The first room we checked into was awesome, but we then got upgraded to a suite because of a shower issue, and the suite was absolutely amazing.  The city of Panama is very impressive.  Hundreds of sky scrapers all along the coast line.

While in Panama we visited the Panama canal, what an amazing work of engineering and man made resource! The canal is not much to look at but the function it provides is very impressive.  We learned that if we had a boat less than 50 feet long it would only cost $800 to pass through the canal between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.  For boats 50-80 ft long it would be about $1300 and boats over 80 ft long would be $2000 just for passage.  It really got us thinking about how cool it would be to come from Florida by boat and go through the canal!! Bucket list idea for sure!

The main purpose of our trip to Panama was to check out some real estate we had invested in, a teak farm in the far out Darien Province.  The trip from the city to the Teak plantation was an adventure in itself.  At the plantation we got to see the tree farm, and check out a lot of the local rural sights along the way.  In the trees around the farm there were howler monkeys which were really cool to see and very scary sounding.

On the hunt for some cool nightlife we ended up in Casco Viejo, it is an older part of the city with a lot of older buildings and cool streets.  We went out to dinner with some of our real estate friends and had some amazing ceviche at the local restaurants.  The seafood in Panama has been amazing so far and I think I had ceviche at least 4 times on my trip here.  We checked out some local rooftop bars with amazing views of the city and the coastline.  The music and the crowd on a weekend night in Panama is electric and everyone is welcoming and friendly.

The feeling of safety in this international city is very comforting and I often felt like I could have been in Miami or NYC easily.  The language barrier is not much of a problem here as many of the people speak some English.  After spending another day enjoying our hotel and meeting with local real estate investors we were able to get a pretty good idea of the local condo market.  Panama is a booming city and very attractive to US expats as a destination and second home.  We enjoyed every part of our visit here and look forward to many return trips as our teak trees mature!!

Out at the Teak farm…being Tree huggers!!