Comments for Panama Travel and Retirement

Comment on Panama Dating: Where do you meet good girls in Panama? by Lucas

Lucas — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:15:10 +0000

I’ll be in Panama City during june !! Canadian, 25 years old and fluent in 4 language. Nice person in general

Looking to meet anybody from panama city :)

Comment on Panama Dating: Where do you meet good girls in Panama? by EJ Mc Yari

EJ Mc Yari — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:57:57 +0000

To Oscar, you are so full of shit, coming from N Y. You belt the first woman who don’t want to kneel down to you. To all
woumen in Panama, stay away from him.
To the girls of Panama, just by reading comments posted.
Any man who is respectful toward girls in they own environment, will be appreciated to the extend of they
unintellectual forthcoming.

Comment on Retirement Blog: Brewin’ Boquete Coffee by Heather

Heather — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:14:47 +0000

Hi there,

Sandra, I find your blogs interesting. My husband and I are seriously planning on retiring to Panama next year and will be going for an exploratory visit late this fall to look around and find a place. There is so much information on the net, much of it apparently sugar-coated. Your articles make life in Panama credible.

Elizabeth, one of the reasons we chose Panama, besides the reasonable cost of living, is because I believe the climate, relaxed pace, and easy access to healthy food may help me with my chronic sinusitis, chronic idiopathic urticaria and angioedema. According to your site, you have a table on Tuesday mornings in Boquete. Maybe one day I will see you there.

Heather
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Comment on Cafe Havana – Getting Classy in Casco Viejo by Charles Tiedemann

Charles Tiedemann — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:52:00 +0000

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Comment on Cool People In Panama Without Blackberry’s by @adrianarraquel

@adrianarraquel — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 04:49:32 +0000

My mom… it was only recently when she learnt how to send text messages and was so proud of it. I offered a Blackberry or an Android for her birthday. She refused. Said her old Nokia is juuust fine. :D

Comment on Defending Panamanian Street Food by To Be Fair

To Be Fair — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:08:22 +0000

The response to Brian’s article (the 374 comments) is typical of the response any kind of criticism in Panama received by locals: “you’re wrong, you’re misinformed, you’re an idiot, leave.” I have seen some of the most educated Panamanians I know writing these kinds of comments.

In Brian’s case, the response shouldn’t be “we DO have great street food, you idiot” but rather “we DO have great street food but we need to make it more accessible so that foreigners like you (who only have 2.5 days in town) can see and enjoy it.”

Cartagena is a great example: you can’t go anywhere without access to wonderful fruits, snacks, pastries…etc. Had Brian hit up the specific (almost secretive) spots locals like to enjoy, he may have left with a different opinion. But he didn’t. And the majority of most tourists don’t.

To the 374 negative commenters on the USA Today article: Help foreigners understand the country better instead of putting your immature feathers up in defense.

Comment on My Failed Attempts To Friend Panama’s Yeyés by Liz

Liz — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 22:25:07 +0000

I am Panamanian and I moved to the United States 16 years ago. I was raised in a middle class society but I went to school with lots of yeyes and some of my family might be yeyes. Even now at 40, I still have some yeyes friends and when I talk to some of them I feel like they froze in time. Most of these friends are women who can’t talk about politics, still think they can be models and would die if they did not have a maid. I feel very bad everytime I visit Panama and I see that most people I know are so short minded.

I think it is funny what you say about the music because when I lived in Panama I never learned to dance Salsa. None of my friends liked that music and we went to clubs that played american music (Rock Cafe and Patatus). I married a Puerto Rican and I took salsa classes and now that is my favorite music. The belly dancing trend is strong in Panama right now but overhere it was a trend back in 2000. Those yeyes are a way behind. LOL.

Comment on My Failed Attempts To Friend Panama’s Yeyés by Caro

Caro — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:33:06 +0000

I think you are an asshole and have no idea of what yeyes are….

Beirut is the best btw!!!!

Att. The yeye!!!

Comment on My Failed Attempts To Friend Panama’s Yeyés by Bobby P.

Bobby P. — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:48:21 +0000

Seems like you were hanging out too much with the ahole that only saw people eating ketchup everywhere he went.

Nice job generalizing. By the way, I am a Yeye and I hate electronic music, I love olda salsa, and I constantly befriend gringos.

Comment on Dissecting Panama’s Poor Customer Service by Heidi

Heidi — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:05:43 +0000

I agree with most of your assessment and I myself, both a Panamanian and US citizen, find myself cursing the lack of good cust service in my native country. I’m not sure how realistic your staffing suggestion is, given that the pool of mature and motivated 30-year olds that would take a job at PriceSmart for what those folks get paid is not likely to be very large. There are MANY factors that contribute to the cust service problem…but I find myself being a little more patient when I remember that many of these folks that I expect a cheerful hello from don’t get into air conditioned cars to begin their 15 minute drive home at the end of their shift. They have to stand around in the hot sun at non existent bus stops and taxi stands fighting to get on overcrowded buses only to then take yet another bus and then walk who knows how many miles to get home at 10 pm to then clean and cook and see the kids for 5 mins before they go to bed. I am not saying that it’s an excuse, but I think as consumers we need to be a little more patient and understanding with service employees and pressure our government to address some of the issues that make any efforts a company tries to make to improve customer service completely worthless.