Linda Card Panama

One of the bonuses of living in Panama is that you’re never very far from the coast. Surprisingly, most of the Caribbean and Pacific coastlines are undeveloped or even inaccessible.

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Since the country’s founding, Panamanians have been escaping the city crowds and the sweltering lowlands to relax in the scenic highlands.

"I have a great life in Panama and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else," says Joyce Newton. Joyce always loved to travel, and from her new home town in David she has that freedom. David's airport is small but an hour-long flight will take you Panama City, with regular flights to the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Santa Catalina is one of those out-of-the-way beach towns with its own quiet charm. As you walk through town along one of the two narrow streets you pass young men with their surfboards under their arms, headed for the break. Kids on bicycles roll past, avoiding a dog or two. The bus from Santiago arrives and a few backpackers get off, hoisting their loads as they're passed down from the top of the bus.

As a young man, Bill was in the Navy and afterward went to work for the airline industry. “Eventually I became a supervisor and thought I had it made—good job, great benefits, nice pension, the works.” But that all changed when the economy went bad, the airline downsized, Bill lost his job…and all his benefits and pension. “We had expected to live on Bill’s pension when we retired, and when that was gone, everything changed,” says Mitzi. “We had to find an affordable place to live.”

Santa Catalina is not one of those cute little towns you’re likely to stumble across as you explore Panama. That’s because it’s literally at the end of the road where the pavement meets the sand of the Pacific shoreline. From Santiago, the capital of Veraguas Province, it’s about a two-hour drive to get to the town of Santa Catalina. But why would you want to go? I visited there myself recently to answer that question.

Pedasi is a sleepy kind of town. It consists of a main road, a central park, and several blocks of residences and businesses…I toured the town on foot in a couple of hours. It’s primarily a fishing village but has seen an upsurge in outside interest in recent years, resulting in a small but growing expat community.

“From our porch we can see down to the river, where we have our own little private beach and swimming hole,” says Albuquerque native Bob Caragol of his and his wife Irma’s new home. “We just fell in love with the area. There’s no crime and no pollution, and my asthma symptoms improved immediately.”