Mi Casa Es Su Casa

Aug. 18, 2008
Panama City, Panama

PLUS:

n Stay Free Anywhere—The Secret Of International Home Exchange…
n What If The Taxi Driver Says He Doesn’t Want To Go Where You Want To Go?...
n Traffic Jam At The Panama Canal…
n Sand, Sun, Snorkeling, And More…Day Trip To Taboga…
n The Real Story On Getting A Visa In Nicaragua…
n El Gordo Staging A Comeback?...

AND:

n What’s A Single Woman To Do? (Hint: Don’t Stay Home)…

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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

The weekend before we took our leave from Paris last month, over a farewell picnic on the banks of the Seine, friends detailed their summer travel plans:

“John has business meetings in Baltimore and Vancouver,” they explained, “so we’ve arranged for houses in both those places. Plus we’re planning to visit Philadelphia, where we have family, and New York.”

That’s an impressive amount of moving around to accomplish in six weeks. And even more so when you consider that our friends have two small children.

“Hotel rooms are no fun with kids. There’s just not enough room, not enough privacy… One option is to rent a house…but we’ve found a better alternative. We don’t rent somebody else’s home…we swap their home for our home here in Paris…and we stay free. We’ve managed to organize swaps in all four of the places where we want to travel this summer.

“One of the places where we’ve arranged an exchange has a big pool and patio area. And the house we’re swapping for in Philly is very near where our family lives.”

Sometimes it’s possible to swap not only houses, but whole lifestyles. That is, in addition to the house, you can exchange cars, local pool or club memberships, household help…

Our friends from Paris have been home-exchanging for years. It helps that they live in Paris. Who wouldn’t want to swap his home in, say, Des Moines, for an apartment in the heart of Paris, France, for a week or two?

But it’s not imperative that the home you offer for exchange be located in one of the world’s brand-name cities. Our friends sought out a place in Baltimore this summer, after all.

They go direct. That is, they ask around, post ads online… Over the years, they’ve managed to organize a series of exchanges this way…which is to say, at virtually zero cost. Flying solo like this, you prefer a referral from the friend of a friend, say, or the son of an old roommate’s cousin. And you want to try to get to know your exchange partner as much as possible by e-mail and maybe a phone call…swap photos of your respective exchange products…

Then you hope for the best. I’m sure things don’t always turn out as you expect…though our friends have never had a disappointing experience.

Nevertheless, going direct can be time-consuming, hassle-filled, and perhaps risky.

Easier, maybe, to organize your exchange through an agency. The biggest is Home Exchange, with currently 20,000 listings in 100 countries. There are no per-exchange or per-day charges…only an annual membership fee of $99.95. If you don’t exchange in your first year, says Home Exchange, your second year’s membership is free.

Kathleen Peddicord

P.S. I notice 11 Panama postings among Home Exchange’s current listings. Lief and I are thinking of adding our Bayfront apartment to the mix…with the hope of arranging an exchange with someone in Thailand for a week or two…

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TODAY:

No easy thing to hail a taxi in Panama City these days…and, when you finally find one, you can’t be sure the driver will want to take you where you want to go. Maybe he doesn’t feel like driving that far…or maybe he doesn’t think he’ll find a return fare once he gets there…

Drivers are increasingly choosy about where they’ll travel when…and increasingly bold about the rates they quote. In fact, new official rates have been published, but I haven’t seen them yet. Anecdotally, a driver tried to charge Lief and me $5 for a ride from MultiCentro mall to our Bayfront apartment building. I have trouble believing that this is the new official rate, for this trip, though.

If you know Panama City, you know that this is a journey of, say, 2 minutes, straight down Avenida Balboa. The only reason we were trying to hail a cab to travel the few blocks was because we’d just bought dishes and glasses and were weighed down with six heavy shopping bags. The driver thought he’d take advantage of our vulnerable situation, I guess. I walked away shaking my head. So did Lief…after he told the driver something in Spanish that I won’t repeat in polite company.

Our strategy typically is to determine how much we think a ride should cost. In other words, we don’t ask…we just climb in. Then, during the drive, we prepare the amount we intend to pay, in exact change, so we can hand it over to the driver as we exit the cab. We are fair, even generous, in our figuring, accounting for the number of passengers and the number of parcels, etc., but we don’t stick around to argue with any driver who thinks the gringos should pay more.

Still, sometimes, the taxi gods continue to smile.

Yesterday afternoon, on the pier at Amador, just back from a day on Taboga (see below), we walked off the ferry just as the skies opened. The rain came down in buckets. We and everyone ran for shelter. I looked over my shoulder and asked Lief where he thought we should go to try to hail a taxi.

“You need taxi?” asked a gentleman wearing a galebeya and a headdress.

“Uh, yes, we do,” I replied.

“Where you go?”

“Bayfront Tower. Avenida Balboa.”

“How much you pay?”

“It’s a $5 taxi ride, so we’ll pay $5,” said Lief, behind me.

In fact, we’d paid $8 for the ride over earlier in the day.

Our new friend wrinkled his brow…

“$8,” I said. “We’ll pay $8.”

“OK. I get car.”

*** 

I’ve resisted visiting the island of Taboga because, in the dozen years I’ve been traveling to Panama, dozens of people have suggested that I should.

That is, everyone goes to Taboga. It’s the easy day-trip to the beach from Panama City. Not only tourists and expats, but locals, too, make frequent jaunts to this island, an hour from the city by ferry.

It must be crowded and noisy, probably dirty, I thought. Something like Ocean City, Maryland, the nearest beach escape for those of us who grew up in Baltimore.

In fact, Taboga, which we visited yesterday with the kids, is a pleasant surprise. This past was a holiday weekend after payday, so I was prepared for the worst. But the three sand beaches near where the ferry drops you weren’t unpleasantly over-crowded. We rented an umbrella for $5. The kids snorkeled in the warm, clear water just offshore and saw dozens of fish, including a blowfish. We had lunch at a hillside restaurant with a view of the other nearby islands and of the ocean all around…

“We should make a day trip to Taboga one of our standard things to do every time I visit,” Kaitlin suggested on the ferry ride back to the city. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in Panama yet.”

The ferry ride was $11 round-trip ($7 for Jack). Note that the ferry departs from the pier at Amador…even though the guidebooks say it travels from the Port of Balboa. Used to be Balboa. Now it’s Amador…

The ferry from the mainland to Taboga passes by the entrance to the Panama Canal. World trade is thriving, if the number of boats sitting out in the Bay of Panama yesterday awaiting their turns for passage is any indication. I counted 50, then stopped counting.

***

Former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman is using his time under house arrest (for having looted government coffers of $100 million) to plan the overthrow of current President Daniel Ortega. No, he’s not plotting a coup. El Gordo is working to unite all “democratic forces” in the country under his Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC), which is the only way, he maintains, to stop Ortega’s “totalitarian program.” Specifically, he’s trying to get his PLC guys elected in as many of the upcoming municipal elections as possible. These local votes play out in November. Stay tuned.

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FROM THE MAILBAG:

A friend in Nicaragua writes in response to last week’s note on how to arrange a residency visa in that country:

“The details you published are very simplistic and don’t really reflect reality. It is true that a tourist visa is good for 90 days, and I know plenty of people who have lived in Nicaragua on tourist visas for years. You leave the country every 90 days, ask for an extension, or pay a fine when you finally move on. I believe the fine is about $1 for every day you’ve over-stayed your visa.

“Obtaining residency, temporary or permanent, has become more difficult with the new government. You must qualify as a pensionado or as an investor…or marry a Nicaraguan.

“There is a published list of documents required for each residency option, but, in practice, the requirements can be arbitrary…determined on the spot by the immigration officer you deal with. I’m married to a Nicaraguan. When I went to file my documents, the immigration officer told me I also needed a letter from my husband that detailed his salary and confirmed that he would support me. This isn’t a standard requirement; it’s not on any published list of required documents. But the officer I dealt with made it a requirement on that day.

“So I prepared and filed that document. Then I received a response saying that my card would be ready for pick-up on a specific date. On that day, I was told that I needed my civil marriage certificate (they already had my religious marriage certificate on file).

“I provided the new document. A month later, finally, I was able to collect my card.

“To qualify for residency as a pensionado, officially, you’re required to present: a birth certificate, marriage license, health certificate, police certificate, evidence of income (must be at least $400 per month), and a copy of every page of your passport. As a pensionado, you can import up to $10,000 worth of household goods duty free, plus you can import or purchase locally, again duty-free, a car worth up to $10,000 every five years.

“I didn’t receive these benefits, by the way, as a resident by marriage.

“You can read the official regs and requirements here: www.consuladonicamiami.com.

“I have heard that the new government is looking to do away with the benefits and incentives granted to pensionado and investor residents, which would be a shame for Nicaragua.”

-- Tura L. Murdock, First American Title Company, Nicaragua

***

“I am looking for places that make sense for a single

woman. I read all your wonderful letters and think to myself, ‘Yes, but you have the support of your husband.’ I need something that works for an active single woman. I am not a ‘feel sorry’ type. I am adventurous.

“And I’m caught in the current real estate situation in the States, wanting to semi-retire, needing house proceeds to do so, longing to sell and move on…”

-- Joy K., United States

I don’t know your budget, but, speaking as a woman who has traveled much of the world on her own, I’d recommend Paris first. It’s a comfortable, safe place where a woman with an adventurous spirit would have no trouble making friends and finding interesting and fun ways to spend her time. Plus, living in Paris can be much more affordable than you might imagine.

On this side of the Atlantic, I’d recommend Mexico, specifically, for example, Puerto Vallarta. You want a place that’s not only safe, but that also offers developed services and support infrastructure…plus lots of things to do. Ajijic qualifies, too, and could make sense for you…though it’s a very gringo-fied community, like a U.S. suburb South of the Border.

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