Thinking About Moving to Panama? I’ll Give You One Coffee.
There’s a particular kind of message that arrives in my inbox, my DMs, or through a friend of a cousin of a friend.
It usually goes something like this:
“Hi! I heard you live in Panama, We left the USA for Panama🇺🇸🇵🇦. We’re thinking about moving there and would love to pick your brain sometime!”
And look — I get it. Truly do.
When we were considering our move, there were people who generously gave us an hour of their time. They answered our questions, shared their experiences, and pointed us toward useful resources.
That hour meant a lot to us.
So I try to pay it forward.
If someone is considering the leap, I’ll meet for coffee.
☕ One hour.
I’ll tell you what I know.
We talk about high-rise living in PH buildings. Extracurricular activities. Grocery stores. Pediatricians. Immigration processes. WhatsApp playdate groups. I send links. I share the names of lawyers, swim instructors, orthodontists, and the furniture stores where I happened to see bunk beds or wallpaper or whatever it is you’re looking for.
You leave with a list.
I leave feeling like maybe I helped someone take the next step.
But here’s the thing.
I have a rule.
Everyone gets one coffee.
One coffee, one hour.
After that, you have to do the work.
Not because I don’t want to help.
And not because I’ve forgotten how overwhelming it can feel when you’re first researching a move abroad.
But because my life here is not a permanent relocation volunteer help desk.
I’m not retired.
I’m not on a sabbatical.
I’m not even on vacation.
We have a family.
There’s (gasp!) work.
Orthodontist appointments.
After school activities.
The hardware store because we are on our third — yes, third — dang garbage disposal.
Errands. Birthday party invitations. Laundry. Life.
The same life you’ll have if you move here.
And here’s another truth that’s important to understand when you’re asking someone about life abroad:
Everything I can tell you is a data point of one.
My experience is real — but it’s also:
anecdotal
time-bound
highly specific
and shaped by my particular family’s needs and desires, budget, neighborhood, and moment in time
The school that works for my kid might not work for yours.
The neighborhood we love might feel completely wrong to you.
The lawyer we used might not be the lawyer you need.
In statistical terms, my sample size is n = 1.
Now more than ever, there is a tremendous amount of information out there. Facebook groups, relocation services, podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, Reddit threads. If you want information, you can find it.
What I can responsibly offer is something simpler.
Vibes.
What it feels like to live here.
What it’s like when the rainy season rolls in and you don’t mind because it cools down and “outside” smells amazing afterward.
What it’s like when the fruit vendor starts recognizing you and slipping an extra mango into the bag.
What it feels like when the place that once felt foreign slowly starts to feel like home.
Those things are harder to Google.
But vibes only go so far.
Because ultimately the only way to know whether a place works for your life is to experience it.
You have to visit.
You have to stay longer than a week.
You have to spend time with the place and the people.
You have to get into the nitty gritty and figure out how to transfer the electric bill to your name, get school records translated, schedule a mammogram.
You have to figure out what the $%#& an apostille is and wonder why, in all your decades on this earth, no one ever mentioned this magical piece of paperwork before.
Information gets you started.
Commitment is what gets you through.
That’s also why we write this Substack — to share what we’ve learned in a way that reaches more people than one coffee at a time.
Because while I’m always happy to meet someone who’s considering the leap, there are only so many hours in a day.
And for the folks who want deeper help planning their move, I’m starting to think about ways to offer that in a more structured way.
So yes — I’ll happily give you the hour.
I’m incredibly grateful to the folks who did the same for us.
That’s how this whole informal expat ecosystem works. People help the next person along. That’s how this whole thing works.
But if we’ve already had the coffee, and now you’re sending me seven-minute WhatsApp voice notes with twenty-two follow-up questions…
Jeez Louise.
At some point you have to close the laptop, buy the plane ticket, and go figure it out for yourself.
Because that’s the only way any of us ever did it.
This post is free, but if you enjoyed it and would like to support our writing, please do:
💛 Like our post
📝 Reply with a comment
🔁 Restack this post (+ add a note!)
🎟️ Become a paid subscriber
And your support helps more people considering this journey discover our experience.
xo Ven Sí Puedes | Come If You Can and Real Talk Panama | Expat Life
Listen ..... Lol