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Home Retirement/Living

Retire To Santa Fe, Panama

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Mar 04, 2012
in Retirement/Living
0
when you Retire To Santa Fe Panama, you get a place full of simple and beautiful sceneries like this.
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Safe And Separate—The Sweet And Simple Life In Panama’s Best-Kept Secret

We four adults sat on the big rock dangling our naked feet over the edge so that the cold water of the river flowed over them, mitigating the effects of the bright midday sun overhead. Out in the middle of the river, Jackson and his friend Valerian jumped and paddled, laughed and called to each other.

One secret to appreciating life in Panama City is escaping Panama City as often as possible. Panamanians figured this out long ago. That’s why all those Panamanian residents of this country’s capital who can afford it have houses at the beach or in the mountains where they spend weekends and holidays.

Thus our excursion this weekend. I write this morning from the little mountain town of Santa Fe, one of Panama’s best-kept secrets.

Lief discovered this highlands outpost about six years ago when he was scouting for “the next big thing” in this country. He and a friend spent about a year back then traveling Panama from end to end, coast to coast. Those travels yielded two big discoveries: The western coast of the Azuero Peninsula, where Lief and his partner eventually bought the land that they are today developing into the private Pacific Ocean-front community of Los Islotes.

And Santa Fe. The best of sweet, simple mountain country living. As a friend traveling with us this weekend put it over breakfast this morning, “The doomsday predictions could play out, the world could collapse, and the folks out here in this part of this country would be unaffected. Life here would continue on as it has for centuries…”

Much of life here centers around the river, which is wide and flows quickly at some points. Tourists navigate it in inner tubes. The locals bathe and wash their clothes in it. Children, like Jack and Valerian, delight in it on hot Saturday afternoons.

We’re well into the dry season, and the hillsides aren’t as lush and green as they were last time we visited. Still, bougainvillea, hibiscus, and jasmine are in bloom all around.

When the sun begins to set, temperatures fall, and, thanks to the elevation and the mountain breeze, evenings are pleasant and best spent out-of-doors.

Every time we visit, we’re tempted. We can imagine settling in here easily, removed from the worries and the troubles of the real world, savoring some of the best that Mother Nature has to offer anywhere.

Certainly wouldn’t cost much. You could live a simple but comfortable life in Santa Fe on well less than US$1,000 a month.

When Lief and his partner scouted Santa Fe years ago, they found a couple of pieces of property in and near town, both with long stretches of riverfront, that got their attention in particular and bought them. They had no clear exit strategy in mind at the time but recognized an appeal of the landscape and of the lifestyle in this part of Panama that, given the way world events have evolved since, resonates even more today than it did back then. Today, these little pieces of Santa Fe represent escape, from the heat, the traffic, and the chaos of Panama City, yes, but also, thinking more metaphorically, from whatever might lie ahead.

The simple life. Safe and separate. Lief, Jack, Valerian, a couple of friends, and I drove out from Panama City this weekend to soak it up.

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: Expats In Santa FePanamaRetire To Santa Fe
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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