Propane Fuel in the DR 4 Your Car!

Living on the north coast in the Dominican Republic is a dream come true.  Soon I will post a valid argument for why the DR is the best and only place any gringo/expat should consider living in the Caribbean. However, the DR is not perfect.  Paradise, yes. Perfect, not.  One of the things I am getting used to is the sticker shock I get on items that are priced well above what I would pay in the US.  Gasoline, alcohol, cars and electronics - just to name most of the important products.
Fortunately, many of these price premiums can be mitigated or even eliminated if you are like me and value your money.  One way to reduce the cost of gasoline/fuel for your car is to install a propane gas conversion system.  The installation cost in total is about US $1,500.

Another solution is to buy an economy car like a Kia Picanto.  I rented one of these for two weeks and although the price of gasoline is a whopping 232 pesos regular (US about $5.50) and 245 premium ($5.79), the Picanto gets more than 35 miles per gallon. So to get good gas mileage, you have to either have a small 4-cylinder vehicle like a Picanto, or, convert your 6/8 cylinder to propane, which costs 107 pesos (apx $2.50/gallon).
I purchased a Nissan Murano 6-cylinder SUV that normally gets up to 20 mpg on regular gasoline.  But the advantage was it already had the propane conversion.  If you are a good negotiator, you can get a good deal on almost anything in the DR, real estate, cars, electronics, etc.  Propane yields a little less range, but not much, as I proved to myself this morning with a test drive.
First, I emptied the propane tank completely.  I drove it on gasoline (when you convert you still have both gasoline and propane) to the propane gas station.  I put exactly one gallon of propane.  The tank went empty at 29.1 kilometers (about 18 miles).  About 23 of that was highway, the rest city.
Follow the math.
29 kilometers = 18 miles = 1 galon propane = 107 pesos = apx $2.50
Propane costs about 45% of gasoline or less (see prices above).
So getting 18 miles per gallon on propane is the equivalent of getting 40 miles per gallon on gasoline.
Hence, you can drive a more powerful, perhaps luxury vehicle with the fuel cost of a Picanto.

This is one way to eliminate some of the price premiums in the Dominican Republic.  As for alcohol, the only solution I have to reduce this cost premium is to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption.  I will post soon on the solutions to some of the other cost premiums.  In general, the things that you NEED in the DR, such as housing and food, are much cheaper than most countries.  The things that you WANT (imports, luxuries, etc) are more expensive, if you don't do any research or care about the price of the things you buy.  I do, so I will report on ways to solve that problem.

Until then, Happy Holidays from drgringo!

Open A Bank Account in the DR in Less Than 1 Hour

Opening a bank account as a US citizen in a foreign country has become progressively more difficult over the years.  Today it is more difficult than 2 years ago, 5 years ago it was easier, 10 years ago, not a problem at all.  Most of this has to do with the fact that the United States of Hypocrisy, the self-procaimed "land of the free" has bullied all foreign banks to comply with its demand to provide the IRS with information on every single US citizen's account information, with the threat that if they don't comply, the US will essentially cripple that bank's ability to do international wire transfers.
I opened an account in Panama with HSBC in 2006.  The process took about 5 weeks from the time of application to the time of approval.  Panama is a fantastic country to bank in, for all the reasons that you have already read about if you are reading this article.  Even today, some banks in Panama will open your account with little fuss, even if you do not have a residency visa.  Most banks require more than just a tourist visa.  Some may still require a mountain of documents and a month or more waiting period.
I just moved to the Dominican Republic.
Before I arrived, I made sure my Panama banks gave me a "carta de referencia" (reference letter).  I was nowhere close to getting my residency visa yet, so I asked a few Dominican lawyers what I could do to open a bank account without one.

Long story short, I visited the Law Offices of Guido Perdomo on the 2nd floor of this picture in Sosua.  He gave me a reference letter to Banco Popular, the largest bank in the DR, that says he is helping me obtain a residency visa. As I was leaving, Guido advised me, "Listen, Banco Popular will open your account, but it will take a week or two for the application process.  If you want a bank account today, just go downstairs to Banco Leon, show them my letter, and they will open your account right now."
As you can see from the picture, Banco Leon is just below Guido's office.
I went in to the bank, sat with a banker.  He took my passport, HSBC reference letter, Guido's letter and a "source of funds" document to prove how I earn the money I wish to deposit (standard anti-money laundering that all banks do).  He did not require a residency visa.  My tourist visa was good enough.  But you do have to live in the DR.  No proof necessary.  He asked me what my address and phone number was.  I pulled out the business card to the hotel I was staying at and gave him that phone number and address.  No verification necessary.
"US Dollar account or Dominican Peso?"
"Dollar only for now."
"How much would you like to start with?  Minimum is $100."
"Here's $300."  I handed him three $100 bills.
A few minutes later he came back to me with one of those old fashioned savings account booklets that our grandmothers have us when we were kids.  It had my account number on it and the $300 deposit was already logged in.
In less than an hour, I had opened up a bank account in the Dominican Republic.
Now, understand, I am not saying that the DR is the mecca of international banking. It will never be the next Switzerland or Panama.  But, who cares?  I value simplicity and safety when it comes to banking.  This is a strong bank, solid financials. The expats that hold account here all swear by Leon.  I can sleep at night.  But just to make sure, I am also opening an account with Banco Popular.

I will give them one week to approve me.  If they don't, then I will just walk across the street to Banco Santa Cruz, who offered me 7.2% interest for a one-year CD in DOP. They said they willl also open my account in one day, with the same criteria that Leon asked me for.  Leon will give me 8.5% if I am willing to do two years.

There are places that you can open bank accounts remotely, such as Hong Kong and Australia, but you will always need a bank account in the country that you live.  This is the way it is in the Dominican Republic, and one of the main reasons why I love it here.  Need a bank account?  Don't worry, we'll get it done.  Need a residency, citizenship?  Don't worry, if there appears to be a problem, we will work around it and get it done. Lots of things that are tangled in rules and procedures in other countries are no problem in the DR.
Everything here is tranquilo... no problema.

International Living's Flawed Ranking System

International Living is one of the best news/media/information resources for living, traveling and investing overseas.  I get a lot of good information from them.  My other favorite is Live & Invest Overseas.  I had the opportunity to meet Kathleen Peddicord and Lief Simon in Panama City not long ago. L&I Overseas has an impressive staff of really good people researching the world, literally, to provide us with the information we need to help us make decisions about where to visit, invest or retire abroad.  I am sure LI's staff is just as good.
I debated whether or not to write this post because in all fairness to International Living, it is very difficult to create a ranking system on where to retire overseas.  The reason why I decided to write this is because many thousands of people this year will use IL's information to base their decisions on where to live, invest or retire overseas.  If you are one of them, then this article is very relevant to your situation.

I am not going to go over every single detail about what I consider a flaw, just the material, important factors.

MOST IMPORTANT FLAW:  EVERY CATEGORY GETS EQUAL WEIGHTING
This ranking list is broken down to decimal points, as you can see #1 Ecuador gets a final score of 91.9.  That gives the impression that this system is quite scientific.  But here is problem #1.  The cost of real estate and the cost of living, two very important factors, get just as much weighting as subjective, arbitrary categories like "integration", "special benefits" and "retirement infrastructure". I had to google what these things meant.  Long story short, something like "integration" is so subjective and arbitrary that it comes down to your own ability to fit in to your new country, if you know the language, understand the culture, etc.  There is no way that "integration"should be as important as "cost of living". Yet if you calculate the way IL comes up with the final score, they simply add all 8 numbers, divide by 8 and.... voila!!!.... 91.9 or 73.2.  I don't know one person who is going to live abroad who would consider integration as important as cost of living.
This is important because this flaw alone twists the real value of the entire ranking system.  Right now I live in the Dominican Republic, at the bottom of the list. I have lived in or been to 16 of the other countries (some many many times) and I can tell you from my experience that my ranking would be very different based on what I know about these places.

FLAW #2:  VARIANCES WITHIN EACH CATEGORY ARE GIGANTIC!
I just moved from Panama.  The real estate market there is all over the place.  In the city, there are no bargains.  The high-end market is scary (lots of inventory, but still at prices higher than many good cities in the US), but the middle and low-end markets are on fire, with very little inventory.  However, if you are like me and want the tropical beach life, you can find deals so cheap outside of PTY- in the Azuero Peninsula that you wouldn't believe me if I told you I saw a house for sale, beachfront, for $500/sq. meter (apx.$50/sq.ft).  Long story short, I would say Panama City should get a poor ranking in real estate, but plenty of spots outside the city should get very good ratings.
Same holds true for climate.  IL crushed Chile (would be in my top 5 or 10 in the world) on climate with a score of only 57.  Are you kidding me?  First of all, the climate in Chile is all over the place, from desert in the north to freezing snow/rain in the Patagonia. But many of the places you would want to live in Chile are central, which has a Mediterranean-like climate... almost perfect.
Panama is #2 mostly because it gets high marks in almost every category, but the climate in the city sucks, yet IL gives it an 88 score.  It rains almost every day in PTY 8 months a year.  You can't plan outside activities like golf or pool in the city because there is a good chance you will get rained out.  88?  Maybe in Coronado or Punta Chame.

FLAW #3:  SOME CATEGORIES ONLY LOOK GOOD ON PAPER
Panama has, by far, the best special benefits program I have seen.  I totally agree with IL's score of 100 here.  Panama has really rolled out the red carpet for retirees and investors looking to do business  there.  As a "pensionado" you get all sorts of benefits, including discounts 10% or more on everything from groceries to healthcare to movie tickets.  I now live in the Dominican Republic.  Long story short, there are few, if any, of the "special benefits" being marketed here like in Panama.  But I don't need them.  My cost to get a citizenship is CHEAPER and FASTER in the DR than Panama, despite Panama's marketing machine to attract foreigners.  I don't need discounts in the DR because, even with the discounts that pensionados get in Panama, my costs to live in the DR are still much cheaper, everything from the price of a house or rent to groceries.  For example, filet mignon is roughly $6.50/lb in Panama (was only $5.30 a year ago at Rey Supermarket... lots of inflation there). So with a pensionado discount, minus 10%, its $5.85.  With no "special benefits" in the DR, I buy filet mignon for 180 pesos/lb, which is about $4.25.  Yes, some things in the DR are dysfunctionally higher in price, like electricity and gasoline, but when it is all added up, my cost of living dropped nicely from Panama to DR, yet IL says that Panama gets an 86 score on cost of living while DR gets only 70.  My real life factual experience is that the opposite is true.

Having identified these flaws, how is it possible to organize a ranking of the world's best places to live or retire?  If I was on the IL staff, I would make next year's list weight-adjusted and sub-categorized.  Everybody I know cares a lot more about cost of living than "integration".
If you are looking to live or invest in a foreign country, the best advice I can give you is this:  Use IL and L&I Overseas as an information resource.  But when it comes to making a decision on where to visit first to see if you like it, ask yourself what is important to you most.  You can't find this on their ranking lists.  For me, I chose the DR because I wanted to live in the tropics in a beach community.  Panama does not yet have this product, where people actually socialize at the beach, on the beach, with shops and restaurants.  I live in Cabarete, a true beach community.  The price of beach-front real estate is as good as anywhere.  I also chose it for some of the unique business opportunities available.  What are your motivations?  Pursue them first, and leave these rankings for the herds who need someone else to think for them.

But then again, what do I know?  I am only drgringo!

Pollution in Panama, PTY

I have been living in Panama for the past two years and have been visiting since 2006.  I chose Panama for all the reasons that we all read about in the "where to live or do business offshore" reports.  Most of these reasons are valid.  Some of them are not.  This post is about the pollution in Panama City - a topic that few, if any, of the pro-Panama pundits discuss in their "dream retirement haven" reports.
There are two areas that do not have this pollution (or the traffic) and are, in my opinion, the only places in PTY worth living:  Costa del Este (a modern, master-planned community) and Clayton/Ancon (near the US Embassy compound).  Pretty much all other "high end" neighborhoods (some pockets of moderate cleanliness, like San Francisco area) have the pollution problem I am reporting, and it gets worse as you drop down to the lower-income communities.

I am not a pollution expert, but I know filth when I see it.  It is not difficult to identify in PTY.  Some of the most important contributors are:  vehicle emmissions, construction projects, trash not being disposed/collected properly.  The photo above shows black death smoke coming from a pickup.  This is not the exception in PTY.  Besides the new buses, almost every commercial truck, especially the diablo rojos, blow out clouds of black smoke.  Cars are not much better, with taxis often very guilty of the filth.  The excuse I hear is that the grade of gasoline in Panama is inferior, mixed with ethanol or some nonsense, which causes the unhealthy emmissions.
W. Carrera Loza wrote in his "Environmental Crisis Looms Over Panama" report that,

"In the city, air pollution levels exceed international norms of acceptability, with about 90 percent of the problem coming from vehicular emissions, according to Vaco Duke Hernández, the deputy director of the University of Panama's Specialized Analysis Unit. "Study results show that a great number of Panamanians are exposed to dangerous concentrations of airborne toxins every day," he said, "especially those who commute on our main streets and avenues, or who live along them."

Duke Hernández added that the pollution is most concentrated during the rainy months of May through mid-December, which also roughly coincides with the Panamanian school year, and that children are one of the population sectors that's most sensitive to such pollutants.

"We have to intensify our efforts to inspect and remove vehicles that contaminate the air and become serious public health threats,"he recommended. Other necessary steps, in Duke Hernández's opinion, are the extension of the urban air monitoring system to measure a greater number of pollutants, measure in ways that render "real time" data, and measure around schools, hospitals and other critical institutions."

The above photo is in Punta Paitilla, one of the "high end" neighborhoods.  In fact, this green disgusting sewer that is on permanent overflow is right in front of "The Landmark"- one of the most luxurious buildings in PTY.

Photo above is right across the street from the previous pic, The Landmark.  By the way, these backed-up sewers are common all over the city, and they smell like, well - backed-up rotten sewer slime.

This photo above is at Plaza Pacifica, the shopping mall at the entrance of Punta Pacifica, the "lower Manhattan" of Panama City, where the Trump Ocean Club is located.  As you can see from the splash from the tire of this car, this permanent puddle of filthy water is so dark black filthy that it amazes me how so much dirt can be concentrated in this same puddle day after day.

The above is a fountain of sewer overflow on the prized Avenida Balboa, right next to one of the most luxurious buildings in town.

Cincuentenario in San Francisco, above and below.

I drive through this disgusting pothole puddle of dirty water almost every day.  This is NOT in a poor neighborhood. It is also a crater of a pothole.  There are so many car-wrecking potholes in PTY, but that is another story.  This is in San Francisco, an upscale area.

Numbeo.com reports in their pollution index dated August 2013 that Panama City receives a score of 49.85 out of 100.  That´s pretty bad. You can read the details of the report here

http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/country_result.jsp?country=Panama

In conclusion, despite all of the great things about Panama, from the natural beauty outside the city to the money-making opportunities for entrepreneurs inside the capital, I do not recommend PTY as a top place to live.  It is no longer cheap, so why live in Panama City with its filth, traffic and other obstacles when you can live in a city like Las Vegas or Denver or Charlotte or any city in Texas, with superior infrastructure, entertainment, climate, etc -for less money?
In all fairness to PTY, developing countries don't do city life very well, and Panama does it better than most.  But if I were retiring I would not select a big city in a developing country.  Stay away from the Manilas, the San Joses, the Panama Citys, go beach or mountain. If you had to chose PTY, Costa del Este and Clayton are exempt from most of the problems the rest of the city has, but they are super expensive.

I don´t understand how Panama City keeps getting mentioned by the international living experts as a top destination to retire.  They can have all of the other benefits that the city offers in their pro-PTY arguments.  The traffic and pollution alone make it a terrible place to live.  I don't even have PTY in my top 100 cities in the world to live. I have said it before and I will say it now; if Panama City was in the United States, it would be ranked the worst city in America to live.  Yes, it is worse than Detroit, Baltimore, Chicago and the rest of the "worst cities in the US".  I can easily name 100 other cities that are better around the world.  Easily.

Panama City: Highest Vacancy Rate in Latin America

The World Property Channel reports that Panama City has by far the highest commercial vacancy rate in Latin America - at 30%.  No other city is even close.  My guess is that the "high end" commercial market is probably over 50%.

I took this picture this morning.  This is one of the nicest office buildings in PTY, located in Punta Pacifica - the "lower Manhattan" of Panama City.  As you can see, it appears as though the building is almost completely vacant.  I have been living here for two years and I noticed this building was already finished when I got here.  I am not sure when it was finished, but it has been at least two years now.  Still empty.

Yet, developers keep building.  This is another photo I took this morning.  In it there are at least 5 buildings under construction in and around the "Calle 50/Obarrio" area.  I take my Spanish lessons on the 32nd floor of the Global Bank Tower (right next to the F&F spiral but not shown in this pic).  I am not sure how this language school can afford the rent in such a high end luxury building, but then I noticed that half of the offices on the 32nd floor are vacant.
I am no expert, but I am sure the experts can explain the logic and reasoning behind the commercial and residential real estate development in Panama.

My bank in Panama since 2006 has been HSBC.  They are one of the largest and well known banks in the world, doing business in more countries than almost any other (Citibank has more).  They decided that Panama does not fit their business profile, and this year they sold their Panama business to Banistmo, a Colombian bank.
Maybe this means nothing.  But why would "the world's local bank" (HSBC's slogan) not want a part of Panama's opportunities - the country with the strongest economy and growth in Latin America?

Panama Real Estate: The Risk of Illiquidity

The real estate market in Panama City is all over the charts.  The "low end" is the most healthy part, with buyers, sellers, and inventory in a progressive balance.  By "low end" I mean the local neighborhoods where the prices are $150,000 and less.  The middle market is also hanging in there.  It is not uncommon for an apartment worth $200,000 to command an 8% return on rental income. The "high end" market is where the problems are right now.  There is a lot of inventory.  For some reason builders keep building commerical and residential skyrises that take years to sell.

I am going to focus on one  part of the problem that nobody else wants to talk about in the Panama real estate market:  illiquidity.  What I am about to report is not a one-time unique situation that I got unlucky with.  This is common business and beaurocratic practice in Panama.
It is not uncommon for a seller to take over a year to sell.  Don´t expect your real estate agent to be truthful about this, especially in Panama, where it is part of the culture to never say no and lie rather than give bad news.  Agents get paid to sell the dream, remember?
I got lucky.  I sold my apartment in Paitilla in about 3 months.  I accepted $35,000 less than an offer that was made a year earlier but I could not sell it because my stubborn tenant refused to move out early on the lease, despite the law that says both tenant and landlord can give a 30-day notice regardless of the lease terms.
In addition to the time it could take to sell your property, be aware that the process in Panama is not like the US.  It is, for lack of a better word, dysfunctional.  The buyer and I signed the contract on June 10, 2013.  He is a cash buyer.  Because the property was in a Panama corp name, the lawyers we hired had to do that are called "updates" to the registry.  We were told that this takes about two months.  On August 11th I asked my lawyer and the buyer´s lawyer if the "update" is done.  Long story short it took another few weeks for this particular "first" update.  So now, we are ready to close, right?  Wrong.  There had to be another "update" at the tax department - DGI.  After the "update" to DGI was done, DGI told my lawyer that the taxes owed were much more than we had estimated.  About $7,000 more!  My lawyer assured he would get this fixed.  He even had to bribe one of the beaurocrats there to speed up the process because he threatened that it could take "weeks" longer.  In Latin America, "weeks" means months.  Long story short, it took another two months anyway to get the final "updated" tax amounts for both the transfer tax and the capital gains taxes, both of which must be paid before closing of the sale and transfer of deed.  It is now the end of October, and my attorney said he finally has the tax situation settled.  Now all we need are two "paz y salvos" from the condominium administrator saying I, the seller have paid all bills current and another that says the administrator has paid the IDAAN water bill, which is included in my association fees.  Long story short, my attorney tells me that another dysfunctional Panamanian beaurocrat refuses to allow the sale because the association is one month late on the water bill.  So even though they have the first paz y salvo that says I, the seller have paid my part of the bill, the sale can´t go through until the building pays its bill.

At best, this sale closes next week or sometime in November.  I think.  At best, that is about 5 months.  I got lucky because the buyer paid me in full about two months ago.  A normal buyer would have had plenty of good reasons during this delay to cancel the contract.  Now, he is a cash buyer.  Could you imagine if he needed financing and had to jump through the numerous loopholes that banks require?  My honest real estate agents tell me it is not uncommon for a closing to take more than six months!  So in addition to the fact that your house may sit on a market flooded with inventory and not enough buyers for more than a year, once it sells you can realistically wait 5 or 6 months to close.
Conclusion:  Panama City real estate is dangerously illiquid right now.

UPDATE:  As of today, November 18, this deal still has not closed.  My lawyer doesn't even bother to call me to explain why.  I guess this must be "business as usual" in Panama.

Is Panama a Good Place to Live?

For the last 10-15 years, Panama has been promoted by most international living gurus as one of the top places to live in the world.  In fact, it is even ranked #1 by some offshore pundits.  I bought into this promise and in 2006 I invested in real estate and set up a business in Panama City.  I finally moved to Panama permanently about two years ago.  I traveled to over 50 countries before I decided to move to Panama and another dozen or more since moving here.  That may not make me an expert, but after reading what the "experts" have to say, maybe I don't want to be one anyway.

I have come to the conclusion that - regardless of your age, income, health, skills, etc - Panama City is a terrible place to live.  Before I give the details about how I came to that conclusion, I want to report on the same reasons why all the experts believe this is a fantastic place to live.  For one, the economy in Panama has been on fire for a good number of years now.  What I admire most is that the economic growth has had a huge impact on the poor and middle class here.  The middle class is bursting at the seams, and even the poor people here all have jobs (under 5% unemployment) that allow them to afford a place to live and food for the family.  The poor in Panama are doing better than the middle class in most third (is there a second?) world countries.  If you want to start a business here that caters to the locals, you will probably succeed.
Some other key points that make Panama a better place than most places to live:  low crime - Panama is super-duper safe, non-violent culture, the police do not extort gringos (like Mexico), the rest of the country outside of the city are incredibly beautiful, cheap, quality healthcare, many residency and citizenship options including discounts on everything from groceries to movie tickets just for showing your pensionado card.
     So how did I come to the conclusion that, given all these wonderful things, Panama City is a terrible place to live?  I also asked myself another question: Are there cities in the United States that, given the cost of living, amenities, culture, cleanliness, safety, etc - would they be better or worse than Panama City?  There are many reasons, and the top two are the pollution and the traffic.  The traffic is what gets all the press, but in my opinion the pollution is the #1 problem.  As far as the traffic goes, if Panama City was in the United States, it would be ranked the worst traffic city in America.  The traffic here is beyond insane.  It is not uncommon to be able to walk faster than a car can drive for stretches up to 2 miles!  I used to drive from central city to east, about 11 miles, in an average time of about an hour and fifteen minutes during rush hour, which could last well past 7:30pm.  Saturday and Sunday used to be better, but not anymore.  I read a lot of wishful thinking articles about how this problem will go away soon because of the conclusion of construction projects. Lie.  When those projects finish, others will start, and even if all the projects vanished, the infrastructure of the streets is insufficient to handle the amount of vehicles - in other words, not enough lanes, no turn lanes, etc.
Now to the #1 problem that, in and of itself makes Panama City a terrible place to live:  POLLUTION
I now only ride a motorcycle, so I am up close and personal with much of the filth coming from trucks, cars, construction sites, etc.  I am going to create a separate post with pictures dedicated just to the topic of pollution in Panama.  Every morning there is a layer of black death dust on the floor of your apartment, especially if you live in a low level unit in the heart of the city (ex: El Cangrejo).  There are multiple sources for this, but one I can't stop cringing about that makes me sick when I think about it is that in Panama there are no regulations or enforcement for vehicle exhaust.  So every commercial truck blasts out a cloud of black death smoke every time the driver hits the gas.  Cars are no better.  Someone told me an excuse that the gasoline here is inferior so it affects the cars, and so as I ride my bike down the street all the vehicles are killing me with the black cloud.  Besides Costa del Este, a master-planned community, there is no such thing as a clean street.  I will post pictures in my pollution report coming soon.  Even in the "high end" neighborhoods such as Punta Paitilla, as you walk down the street you are reminded - and disgusted - by the filth that is everywhere.  No, it is not as bad as Cairo or Alexandria (I was in Egypt in May), but Panama is supposed to be this great place to live.  How can it be if at every turn, in every street, you are exposed to the dirty, filthy air and ground?

To be fair to Panama City, not many third world tropical cities do city life very well.  They don't seem to know how to manage these problems and the excuse is usually, "well, we don't have the money to fix this problem like the US". The problem is, Panama does not have that excuse.  Panama is NOT a poor country.  With the revenue from the Canal, the taxes generated from PTY being an international hub, foreign investment, etc - there is no excuse for the filth.
Other reasons why it is a terrible place to live are not as important, but when you add it all up they count.  I ask myself, "What things make me say WOW... I have to live in PTY because its got____ that other cities don't have for the same price or convenience or other benefits to living in a place.  I can't find any reasons why PTY is a top city.  In fact, I don't even put PTY in the top 100, or even 200 cities in the world to live.
Cost of Living.  Put simply, you can live in a first-world city like Las Vegas (where I lived from 1994 to 2006) or Miami, clean, superior amenities, for LESS than it costs to live in PTY.  Why would you pay more money to live in a filthy third world city?
I just sold my apartment.  I am leaving Panama.  The 70-year old American guy that bought my place loves it here.  He keeps buying more real estate, close to the hospitals.  He tells me he picked Panama over all the other places he traveled to because of the reasons above and because he wants city life but also to be close to good hospitals.  I have heard this excuse before and if your health is so bad that you have to factor in being a rock's throw to the doctor, then it probably doesn't matter where you live.  I think some retired people put an illogical overweight on the need for instant access to cheap medical care.
As far as the rest of the country goes, Panama is a dream come true tropical fantasy.  From Bocas del Toro to the rainforests and mountain towns like Boquete to the San Blas Islands.  But not one of these places are any good to LIVE.  Great places to VISIT, but not for permanent stay. There are no real beach communities.  To me, Coronado doesn't count.  There's not enough to do there and there really aren't any young, fun people living there, just old retired people.  And almost nobody uses the beach because its ugly.  You would die of boredom and beg to come to the city every weekend.
In conclusion:  Panama is a great place to visit and do business, but a terrible place to live.

Panama Police

My girlfriend, Coral is Dominican.  She owns a hair salon in Pedregal, a low/middle class area of Panama City.  Her brother, Alfonso, works at the barber shop right next door which is owned by a Panamanian police officer.  I have known Coral and her family for almost two years. They are simple, hard-working people who came to Panama to pursue a better life than they had in the Dominican Republic.  They have their proper documents to be in Panama, don´t commit crimes, do drugs, etc.

I found out last night that Alfonso was arrested and taken to jail, again.  Long story short what is happening is the police in this neighborhood have decided that the Dominicans, Colombians, other poor foreigners that live in this area, have to pay their extortion fees otherwise they spend the night in jail.  I asked Coral how many times this has happened to Alfonso, since she tries hard not to bother me with her family problems.  She tells me this is happening a lot more recently.  Last night the police literally came right up to the barber shop, confronted Alfonso, who has been working there for over a year, and, without cause, frisked him.  Even though he had his documents in order and was not under suspicion for any crime, they arrested him anyway.

Why would the Panama police do this?, you ask.  Simple:  because they can.  Who is going to report it?  A poor 20-year old Dominican with no contacts in Panama but his older sister who runs a small hair salon?  In contrast, I am a US citizen living in Panama for two years.  I am financially rich by any Panamanian standard.  I have been stopped, mostly while riding my motorcycle, about 40 times in two years.  This is only because the Panamanian police profile motorcyclists.  I can almost understand why.  Lots of motorcycles are not registered, stolen, used to commit crimes, etc.  In those 40-odd times I was stopped, I was only once very subtly, very indirectly asked to pay a bribe to settle a minor traffic infraction.  I paid 20 bucks.  No problem.  The other times I can objectively say that as long as I had my proper documents in order, the Panama police always just let me go, even if there was a traffic violation involved.

In my opinion, what is happening is that if you are a rich gringo, like me, the Police have been told to lay off.  We are the country´s bread and butter (beyond the Canal).  They don´t want to get a reputation like Mexico where the police are robbing the tourists more than the criminals.  The political powers that be have probably told the police that if they get any negative news about gringo shake-downs they will fire the cops perpetrating the extortion and their bosses.  As far as the poor Dominican and Colombian immigrants are concerned, there is no political or financial incentive to protect them from police-officer extortion.  The victims, like Alfonso, have no outlet to file a report or protect themselves from evil cops who target the weak.

What is the solution to this problem?  I have many, but only some are legal.  After all, if the police do not have to play by the rules, then why should their victims?  One legal solution I offered Alfonso and his friends that are now under constant attack by these cop-thieves is to always have a smart phone camera ready to roll with video/audio.  Record who the officers are, ask them what the stop and frisk is for, and get them to talk.  If these corrupt cops begin to understand that their dirty maneuvers are being recorded and possibly sent to their superiors, the media, etc, I believe that this would be a deterrant; they will select another target rather than pursue the clever guys who have the resources to expose their evil ways.

What do you think is the best solution for this problem?