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An Interview With Blogger Sylvain Duford On Building A House In Panama

I recently had the opportunity to interview Sylvain Duford, who is currently building a house in Altos del Maria, Panama, and is chronicling his adventure in his blog,Sylvain’s Panama Adventure. According to his blog, Mr. Duford is a former Canadian Airforce pilot, and is currently a software engineer. He began writing about his experiences building a house in Panama on his blog in February of 2007.

PREI: Why did you choose Panama as a location to build a second home, and how did you decide on the specific region or location?

SD: We heard about from a friend who bought a lot in Bocas del Toro and after researching it, we found out that the combination of infrastructure, health care, safety, low cost of living, climate and favourable tax treatment was pretty much unbeatable. We like to live in the country and we don’t like heat, so building in the mountains made sense for us. Additionally, Altos del Maria is safe, 30 minutes from Gorgona beach, and 1.5 hour from the city, so it was a great combination for us.

PREI: What made you decide on building the home yourself, rather than investing in an existing piece of real estate in Panama?

SD: We didn’t find anything we really liked, plus we had some ideas about our very own piece of tropical paradise.

PREI: As your home is still under construction, what have been the most difficult obstacles in planning and building your home as of yet? What have been the most rewarding aspects?

SD: Finding and selecting a trustworthy architect and a builder were the most stressful and difficult aspects. You pretty much have to go with someone that has a proven track record and is recommended by one or more persons you trust. Building in any country is a lot of work and trouble and you pretty much have to be there all the time. Doing so in a far-away third-world country makes it even more challenging since we can’t be there all the time. Luckily we found a trusted third party to watch over the construction for us. Seeing our embryonic ideas become a sophisticated design and then slowly become reality has been very rewarding.

PREI: Reading your blog I can see that you are interested in the outdoors, and are a self described environmentalist. Have these interests impacted your decisions in undertaking this project as far as location, design, or building materials, etc?

SD: Yes our lot selection and house design have kept in mind the need to minimize our energy consumption and allow us to easily implement green energy and rain-water conservation once we are established there.

PREI: What additional advice would you give to anyone interested in buying or building either a primary residence or second home in Panama?

SD: I would say that you need to arm yourself with a lot of patience and give yourself at least two years for the whole project from lot selection to end of construction. You also need to select the people you work with very carefully and be ready for things to go a lot slower than you expected. But in the end, it’s all worth it.

PREI: Thank you very much for your time, and I wish you luck with your building project!

To read more about Sylvain Duford’s experiences building a home in Panama, please visit his blog.

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Irving Saladino Wins First Olympic Gold For Panama; New Sports Complex To Be Named In His Honor

Congratulations to Irving Saladino, who took first place in the men’s long jump on August 18th at this year’s Beijing Olympics, bringing home Panama’s first gold medal in Olympic history. The gold is the first medal awarded to a Panamanian athlete since Lloyd LaBeach took home two bronze medals in the 100 and 200 meter races during the 1948 London Olympics.

Panama President Martin Torrijos commended the athlete calling Saladino “an example of success and perseverance for all Panamanians.” The president also said that a new sports complex constructed in Panama will be named in the athletes honor. The complex will include a new football stadium, a gymnasium, a hall of fame, and will be completed in 2009.

Source:
Panama honours its gold (Edmontonsun.com)

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Panama Hopes To Attract Movie Industry

Panama, following record 11.2% economic growth last year, is now looking for new ways to capitalize on their success by attracting movie producers to the country, reports the Houston Chronicle.  The upcoming James Bond film, “Quantum of Solace” was filmed in part in Panama, and “injected a huge amount of money into Panama,” according to Carmen Gisela Vergara, Panama’s minister of commerce.  The country is currently encouraging the creation of a movie studio in Panama, and is allowing movie companies to register for filming permits online, both in hopes that major movie companies begin will look to Panama as a filming destination.

The upcoming James Bond movie was filmed in Panama

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“Boquete Panama Guide” An Interesting Blog Discussing Expatriate Life In Panama

Located in the highlands of western Panama, Boquete, Chiriqui is one of the most popular destinations in the country for North American expatriates and retirees. The Boquete Panama Guide is a blog written by an American couple that relocated to Boquete in 2006 from Arizona, and describes their experiences living in the region. The blog provides an interesting look at life living as expatriates in Panama, and discusses a variety of different topics, including casual reviews of local restaurants and businesses, as well as discussion of local events and politics in Panama.

An interesting post this week discussed medical care in Panama in comparison to the United States, which is an important topic for many people interested in investing in real estate in Panama. The post described an email conversation between the author and a reader regarding benefits of seeking medical care overseas in the form of medical tourism. The following describes an experience at the Punta Pacifica hospital in Panama City:

Punta Pacifica in Panama City is not a health clinic it is a world class hospital affiliated with John Hopkins.

1. Punta Pacifica was the finest hospital I have ever been in
2. The doctors who were graduates of University of Panama also did their post grad work in either the US or canada and most were US certified. I know from the clearly forged certificates hanging in their offices, the excellent English spoken and the conversations ahd back and forth with John Hopkins who is affiliated with Punta Pacifica.
3. The nursing staff was not over stresses, overloaded nor distracted, my wife had a nurse with her at all times that I was not there.
4. Doctors were in to see her everyday, I had cell phone and home phone numbers for the doctors and amazing when I called they answered.

Other posts include descriptions of popular eateries in and around Boquete, as well as current events such as the recent wave of Boquete police officers demanding immigration papers from tourists visiting the area. The Boquete Panama Guide provides an interesting look at life in Boquete, and is a particularly useful resource for people interesting in moving to Boquete, as well as investors interested in buying property in the area.

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Panama Government Taking Measures To Lower Food Prices

Panama President Martin Torrijos has announced several measures that aim to lower food prices in the country, particularly for rice. The government has announced that they will purchase 100% of the rice harvest in Panam21a this year, and sell it back to consumers at a fair price below market value. In addition to subsidizing rice, the government is also increasing the amount of land allotted to grow rice, corn, and beans, as well as reduce tariffs on exports for several of these crops.

These agricultural reforms came as a response to the rising cost of living and after food prices in Panama increased by 15% over the past 12 months. Despite unrest, Torrijos claims that there is no food crisis in Panama, and remained confident that the increase in production, subsidies, and decreased tariffs will help to curb the inflating food prices in Panama.

Sources:

Panama govt to buy all local rice, keep prices low (Reuters.com)

Panama announces farming protection measures to tackle food crisis (Hindu.com)

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Panama Sells Licenses To Two New Cellular Providers

Digicel Panama and Claro Panama were both awarded licenses by the government of Panama to create new cell phone networks in the country. Digicel’s $83 million bid beat out rival cellular provider Claro’s $73 million bid, which was raised at the request of Panama’s government to match Digicel’s bid for the license. The two new cell phone companies will double the options for consumers in Panama, joining the current Cable and Wireless and Movistar Panama. The new cell phone companies will increase the competitiveness of the market in Panama, and aim to fill the gap of the nearly 800,000 Panama residents without cellular phones. Digicel, which is owned by wealthy Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, is expected to have their operations running by the end of the year.

Source:

Panama sells Claro, Digicel mobile licenses (Reuters.com)

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Interesting Time Lapse Perspective Of The Panama Canal

Check out this time lapse clip of the Panama Canal, it’s definitely an interesting (and somewhat mesmerizing) perspective of the canal. It will be interesting to see how busy the canal becomes once the expansions have been completed.

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More On Medical Tourism

As a follow up to my previous post on medical tourism in Panama, here is a list of medical facilities recommended by Panama’s official tourism board. With the potential for an increase in medical tourism in the future, these are some areas to keep an eye on.

• Hospital Punta Pacifica
• Centro Médico Paitilla
• Hospital Nacional
• Hospital San Fernando

For more information, including contacts for North Americans, visit the Panama Tourist Bureau’s website for medical tourism.

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Proposed Panama City Skyscraper “Los Faros de Panama” To Be One of Tallest Buildings in Latin America… So Long As The Project Doesn’t Stall

Construction has begun on the tallest proposed building in Panama City, a complex called “Los Faros de Panama” designed by the Spanish architecture firm Chapman Taylor. The project, as currently planned, is a massive structure composed of three skyscrapers, with the center tower reaching 1,180 feet. According to Chapman Taylor’s website, the central tower of “Los Faros de Panama” will be a multi-use building, home to a five-star hotel, a casino, gymnasium, spa, as well as restaurants, several swimming pools and many residential units. The two towers flanking the central tower will have commercial shops on the lowest levels, but will be primarily comprised of residential units above the ground levels. The project is currently slated to be completed in 2010.

Once completed the project will be the tallest building in Panama City, and one of the tallest in Latin America. Yet this realization depends on the ability of the developers to continue being able to fund the ambitious project through the course of its construction. Three “super-skyscraper” proposals have already been tabled in Panama City, some of which had already broken ground. Yet investors in Panama City remain optimistic, an article in the International Herald Tribune stated that foreign investment in Panama grew 20 percent in the first six months of 2007, and reaffirmed that “Panama is one of the safest countries in the world,” as stated by Julio Fernando Noval Garcia, the president of the Spanish firm responsible for developing the Faros project.

Check out some renderings of the proposed project from the architect’s site:

sources:

Developers press ahead in Panama City (Iht.com)

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