Christmas In Casco Viejo, Panama

Children’s Christmas In Casco Viejo

Dec. 25, 2011, Stowe, Vermont: The children of l'Ecole Paul Gauguin in Panama City, Panama, celebrated Christmas with a concert in the 300-year-old Teatro Anita Villalaz in the center of Casco Viejo's Plaza de Francia.

Also This Week: Christmas In Cuenca--Celebrating El Pase del Niño Viajero...Caribbean Christmas...Settling In...Why Costa Rica May Become One Of The Least Attractive Retirement Choices In The World... 

Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

A few nights before we departed Panama for our holiday visit here in the States, we assembled in Casco Viejo for Jackson's Christmas spectacle.

Our son Jack, 12, attends the French school in Panama City. L'Ecole Paul Gauguin is a small school, with about 200 students in total, many, surprising to me at first, Panamanian. Why would a Panamanian family, living in Panama City, choose to send their children to a French-language, French-curriculum school? I still don't know the answer to that question, but the result, for us, is charming.

On stage that evening last week in the 300-year-old Teatro Anita Villalaz in the center of Casco Viejo's Plaza de Francia was as eclectic a collection of small children as you might ever find. They come from Panama, but also from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Britain, Ireland, the United States, China, Japan...

Some have names I can't pronounce even after Jackson repeats them for me three or four times. Finally, embarrassed for me, he gives up and suggests that, if I have something to say to that particular child, he'd be happy to relay the message for me.

Some have lived in three or four other countries already, though they've only barely begun their little lives.

Most speak Spanish and French; others also speak English, Italian, and, in one case, Japanese. They manage to communicate among themselves cheerfully and with far less misunderstanding than you might expect.

Over the hour-and-a-half of the evening's spectacle, this small but worldly bunch performed Christmas songs in Spanish, French, and English, including some we recognized and many we didn't.

"Children in Palestine and children in Israel, children from the Americas and also from China, this day, let us think only of Christmas," began one song in French.

At Jackson's birthday party last month, I had a chance to speak with some of his classmates' moms. Some have husbands working with the UN and other international organizations who have posted in Panama for a year or two. Others are here for work related to various of this country's many infrastructure projects. They and their children have migrated to Panama from Mexico City or Caracas, Buenos Aires or Santiago, Paris or Madrid...

Lief and I worry sometimes about the life Jackson is living. Born in Ireland, he's since lived (and gone to school) in Paris...and now Panama City. He's an American by birth, but Irish, too, with the second passport to prove it, yet he's neither American nor Irish.

Jackson is a little guy without a country but embracing the world. And, at the French school in Panama City, he's found 199 other little guys and girls just like him who, one evening last week in a centuries-old French-colonial theater, filled the tropical night with song.

Kathleen Peddicord

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P.S. What else this week?

• "Every morning in Cuenca, Ecuador" writes Latin America Correspondent Lee Harrison, "the sunrise backlights the jagged Andean peaks and church steeples, casting its glow over the sea of clay-tile roofs.

"But on the morning of Christmas Eve in Cuenca, it also lights up an impressive scene that comes but once a year.

"On this day, thousands of Ecuadorians come to Cuenca from all over the country to celebrate a procession known as El Pase del Niño Viajero, loosely, 'the passage of the child.'

"It's a custom that started in the 1960s, when a statue of the Christ Child, called El Niño Viajero, was blessed by the Pope and then brought to Cuenca from Rome. The event is a core tradition in Cuenca today.

"The extravagant, ad-hoc parade extends for miles and can include more than 35,000 people, local residents and visitors, who walk along with the participants.

"The Pase del Niño is not centrally organized but consists of hundreds of small family delegations who come from cities, towns, and villages across the country..."

• "For those of us who grew up in snow country, it seems odd to be walking around in T-shirts and flip flops on Christmas Day," writes Belize Correspondent Ann Kuffner.

"But, having lived here on Ambergris Caye for five years now, I've come to appreciate that Belize offers a unique collection of blended Christmas traditions. Home to more than 10 different ethnic groups, this country boasts the most multicultural holiday celebrations I can imagine..."

• Day by day, in these dispatches, I introduce you to your best options worldwide for living better and retiring well, hoping to help you make a choice.

But what happens when you do? Decide to retire to Las Tablas, Panama...Mendoza, Argentina...Languedoc, France...County Kerry, Ireland...or Penang, Malaysia...and then what?

The truth? In some ways, having done the hard work of determining where you'd like to launch your new life, the real work has only just begun. Because the getting-settled administration wherever you decide to build your new life overseas won't be insignificant...and it won't come without challenges and frustrations...

• "The Costa Rica legislature," writes Offshore Investing expert Lief Simon, "is trying to fast-track new tax legislation...and the opposition has filed a suit with the Supreme Court to stop the fast-tracking. Not the legislation itself, just the fast-tracking.

"Politics aside, the proposed tax changes show that a government (any government) can shift policies at a moment's notice. Among the more disturbing changes in the proposed law include allowances for taxing residents on worldwide income and for taxing income in the free trade zones (whose names, I guess, would need to be changed).

"The breadth and depth of these proposed new taxes is easily explained. Costa Rica, like so many countries right now, is broke. They have too much government and welfare and too little income. So they are looking for ways to increase their revenues. These proposed new taxes are not the answer, and, likely, the only result if they are passed is that productive residents and businesses will move themselves and their assets out of Costa Rica to somewhere more tax-friendly.

"An expat friend six years resident in Costa Rica says he does not believe the proposed tax on residents' worldwide income or the proposed tax on revenue generated in the "free trade" zones will pass...as they'd be suicide for the current administration. If Costa Rica does start taxing residents on worldwide income, my friend will be among the first on the next plane out of the country..."

Also This Week...from Resident Global Real Estate Investing Expert Lief Simon:

A couple of friends have taken possession of new-construction apartments recently, both in Panama.

Actually, they haven't taken possession quite yet. The developer in each case has informed them that the apartment in each case is ready to be turned over, meaning it's time for the buyer to close.

But both these friends have been around enough to know not to take a developer at his word.

One came to Panama City a few weeks ago to do a walk-through of his apartment in Trump Tower and to make a punch list in advance of taking possession of the unit. The developer told him that they were "so busy with closings" they couldn't allow him to go see his apartment unless he was ready to close. The elevators, they explained, were "reserved" for closings only.

He told them he'd see them later. "I'll be back when I can do a proper inspection...and then we'll talk about scheduling the closing," he explained as he booked his return flight to the States.

Common sense, right? You want to see what you're getting before you pay for it. But you'd be surprised how many people buying property overseas don't bother with a walkthrough or a punch list before closing. If you're making a purchase long-distance, a walkthrough before closing means another trip to the country. Maybe you don't really have time. Maybe you don't feel like it. But, take my word for it. Not making time for a final in-person inspection could turn out to be a big and costly mistake.

Pre-construction purchase contracts in Panama, for example, generally call for a final payment when the developer obtains his occupancy permit. The trouble is that a developer can get an occupancy permit before the units in his building are actually habitable. One new 25-story building I looked at when we were shopping for office space to rent had its occupancy permit, but the elevators weren't completely installed.

When my apartment in Bayfront tower was built, the developer contacted me when he got his occupancy permit and told me it was time to close. I scheduled a visit for a walkthrough...and found that the bathroom floors weren't in place and that other tile work was unfinished. My punch list was long. It took them a few months to complete all the items on it. I didn't close until they did.

The key is the contract. Most contracts for a pre-construction purchase include a penalty clause if the buyer doesn't close on time. "On time" is usually some number of days after you've received notice from the developer that he has his occupancy permit. This is the important point. If your contract is written so that the occupancy permit is the trigger for the final payment, you've potentially got a problem. Rather, you want the contract written so that you can hold back some amount until the property is actually completed--that is, ready to move into.

Earlier this year, another friend found himself in a situation where the developer had obtained his occupancy permit and was pushing for the closing even though, my friend discovered, neither the apartment nor the building was ready to be lived in. My friend is a developer himself so he knew not to allow himself to be bullied by the strong-arming tactics of the builder. He turned the tables on the guy, telling the developer he was going to hold back from the closing some percentage for every month of further delay until his apartment and the building were both in fact ready to be occupied.

You can't always count on being able to pull off something like this, though, so it's important to protect yourself up front by making payments contingent on verifiable thresholds. And the only way to verify the thresholds have been met is to go to see the place yourself...or to send someone you trust to inspect for you.

Because you aren't going to get the developer to do much for you once you've paid...and once his crews have left the site.

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