Adventurous or loco, take your pick!

The 'why'

 OK then.  We are launching this blog just 4 weeks from D-Day, our departure day from the U.S. to Panama.    Why?  Because our family and friends are the inquiring minds that want to know... what the h--- are we doing? 

 Well, what we are doing is orchestrating a major shift in where and how we live our lives.  One with more purpose, more meaning, more.....  Ha!  Sucked you in, didn't I?  I suspect we all think about this one way or another.

Why does anyone need a 'why' to do anything?  Do what feels right! (within moral, legal and ethical grounds)  Right?  Loco?  Maybe.  But we do have reasons... at least that are meaningful to us.

The research and planning for this departure began about 5 years ago when we asked ourselves that if we just kept doing what we were doing, what would be different in 5 years? Nothing! Except that we would be older and maybe not as physically mobile.  

 Honestly, we weren't that happy doing what we were doing... the grind, the status quo was getting very old, getting very boring, getting very exhausting.  That has never been us and we didn't want to become that! We wanted to continue our adventures and a big change was needed to make that so.  And, time was not so much on our side any longer.  

 Reasons enough?   Still with me? Good!  Onward... 

What? Me? Panama?

What this blog is not!

 Not strictly a travelogue or travel guide.  Plenty of those to be found and most are good.  It will not be, necessarily, a 'how to' guide, although links will be inserted pointing to information that helped us to formulate our escape plan.  Just in case you might be interested... or not.

What this blog is!

A commentary and musings on our current physical move to Panama starting at the point sometime before our first inkling that Panama could be our next home and straight through the shredding of our current lifestyle.  It is about the people we meet, the food we eat, and the observations and interactions we experience that serve to shape our new lifestyle.  I'm aiming for a mash up of Anthony Bourdain as in his current CNN program Parts Unknown and James Michener, an author that excelled at human saga.    Don't know who they are?  Really? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Michener 

 And maybe a pinch of Oprah style thrown in, too.

 To add a bit more interest, those of you that know me also know of my dietary challenges.  I'm free of a lot of food stuffs and not by choice... gluten, soy, potato, corn, rice, lactose, whey to name a few.  Bryant has the stomach and constitution of an alley cat.  Nothing bothers him.   With a bit of flexibility and a lot of knowledge we make our adventures, culinary or other, work.  

 Oh, and three senior dogs are moving with us.  Ya think moving kids around are difficult?  Then don't try this with your lifestyle.

 Getting to the decision

 Arriving at the decision to uproot our U.S. life and move to Panama we have come to understand is truly a distinct journey.  Our approach and path to the Panama decision will not work for everyone. Or anyone.  We learned this to be the case through talking with many other seekers and seasoned expats we met during our travels from Canada, to Mexico, to South America, through the mediterranean and even areas of the middle east.  There is a myriad of ways to come to this decision, then talk yourself out of it, create the plan, then trash the plan and then, maybe, execute the plan!   It just all depends....

The 'where'

 We asked the why, where, how questions.  The 'why' had common threads...escape of stressful lifestyle, high cost of living and political climate. Or just escape.  The 'where' did not have common threads. The 'where' took much more data gathering and analysis.  The 'where' was not about finding the perfectly white sand and azure water.    The 'where' was distinctly unique based on many variables including the desired lifestyle and quality of life.  But how best to put 'desired lifestyle' and 'quality of life' into bullet points that could be cross matched with geographical locations?  Not at all easy.  Try writing that down one evening...without a bottle of wine to stimulate the neurons.  That took us several months to accomplish.

 Our expectation was not about the 'perfect' geographical or societal place.  Xanadu doesn't exist.   We know that.  For us it is about a place that enables a more calm, relaxed day to day lifestyle without having to give up what we need.   Need is the operative here.  We were OK with not getting all we want, necessarily.  But we drew the line at what we need to live a healthy and social lifestyle within our means.  And that line is different for everyone. 

 A few helpful sources include

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Healing_of_America  compares healthcare resources globally

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/index.html offers data on the stability of governments and society in most countries.

A great expat board is The Expat Exchange http://www.expatexchange.com/panama/liveinpanama.html.  

Pick your country(s) and start reading and dreaming!  We did.