We made it!

That is our view from our south facing deck. Since Panama lays east and west in our world we look directly south to the Pacific Ocean. Sunrises to the left and sunsets to the right. Depending on the time of year we can see the Big Dipper and North Star early in the evening and by ten o'clock we can see the Southern Cross.

This is our fourth trip to Panama. Each of the previous trips brought us closer and closer to the country, the people and the lifestyle of Panama. We decided to sell our house in Colorado, put possessions in storage, sell our cars and try living in Panama for an extended period of time. Our previous trips had introduced us to the wet season (May-October) and the dry season (November-April) now we will experience the transition from one season to the other and decide if the weather is a factor in our decision to stay or go. The average temperature is usually about 85 degrees but will fluctuate a little bit during the peak of both seasons.

We have leased a three bedroom condo in the Playa Coronado community. Most of the residents of the building are Panamanian who work in Panama City and only come here for the weekends. Last weekend was the celebration of the Jewish New Year and the place was very busy. Now, there are only about 24 occupied condos out of 175. It's very quite and very relaxing. We've been told the next busy weekend will be November 1-4 which is a celebration of Panama's independence from Columbia.

We have incredible views from our condo, the constantly changing clouds, the color of Pacific, the rolling tides and the varying sand colors of the beach make every moment a new memory. The sunrises and sunsets seem to be new artist palettes daily.

In the next couple of days we will be going into Panama City to visit the Immigration Department to get our Retiree (Pensionado) Visa. This is an on going process that we started before we left the states and will continue for a few more months. Once this is completed we will have permanent residency in Panama. However, we will not have Panama citizenship.