REACH OVER 380,000 SUBSCRIBERS EVERY MONTH!

  LIST YOUR PROPERTY WITH US: on one of the  top Caribbean Property Sites. Get your property SEEN!

  ADVERTISE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF YOUR COUNTRY! Reach your target market - people looking for property, information and opportunities in YOUR country.

  PLACE YOUR BANNER ADD ON OUR SITE FOR HUGE TRAFFIC VOLUME! Click here to find out how we can help you sell your property, business, opportunity, ebook or idea.

NEED EXPOSURE FOR YOUR DEVELOPMENT? Advertise your project, your resort, your spa, your condos, your timeshare... whatever you are promoting - in Caribpro.

  SUBSCRIBE FREE! Click here and subscribe to Caribbean Property ezine monthly - FREE! We value your privacy (Unsubscribe anytime)

   DOWNLOAD LATEST EDITION AS A PDF : Click here to download the latest Edition of Caribbean Property Magazine in PDF format, June May 2010. Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Reader. Download the reader here.

  CONTACT US/FEEDBACK Want to contact us? Make a comment? Want more info? Different info? We want you to be satisfied, so tell us what you think...

A comprehensive list of downloadable ebooks available from Caribpro. Titles include:

Retire In Mexico: Live Better For Less. Live in Mexico and join the many other retires who have done their homework, which resulted in mexico where you can live better for less.

Escape The Corporation:  How to live the life you have always dreamed of - free from the corporate slog.

Living & Investing: In Panama Find your dream in panama by enjoying an affordable and comfortable setting.

   The Portable Professional:
Using technology, log in from anywhere and earn a living. please yourself and make money doing it.

HOW TO DISCOVER YOUR PARADISE: COMPARISON SHOP! PART 1
By Jack Burns
 
Beginning in 1990-91, the husband and wife team of Ruth E. Magee and Jack Burns spent 12 years aboard their boat “Davina” searching for that perfect place to live and retire. The following is a brief insight to their journey as reported by Jack….

As self employed people, Ruthie and I had finally had enough! There were just too many hassles in business, our “Canada” was becoming too expensive to live in, our savings were disappearing as if by magic and ---it was too cold for too many months of the year!

Being smarter than the average bear, we decided to change what was bothering us and the best way to do that would be to go on a journey to physically “search” for paradise. You know what paradise is right? It is that perfect sun drenched place with cheap beer, white sand beaches and swaying palm trees. There was only one slight snag to this plan…money – or lack of it!

Being self employed is not all that it is cracked up to be. So in addition to the cheap beer and palm trees, we knew that our “paradise” must include an environment (aka government) that would allow us to earn a living as well.

As we really studied what we wanted and what was absolutely necessary, our “requirements” list grew. Okay, cheap beer, jobs and warm climate – those are a given,  but then one has to consider health care, infrastructure, affordable cost of living and ease of access to the grandkids---hum—paradise seemed to be developing a lot of “requirements” we hadn’t first thought of!

To fulfill a lifelong dream of mine (sailing) and to eliminate one big necessity from our search criteria (a place to live) we decided to buy a small boat, as we figured we could be like a turtle and carry our house around with us as we tried to locate “paradise.”

OUR SOJOURNS HAD US LIVING AND WORKING AMONG THE DIFFERENT CULTURES OF THE PLACES WE VISITED

This “life as a turtle” plan had more benefits than we originally realized. The “turtle” method of living allowed us to truly “live and work” in an area for extended periods of time. It wasn’t the seven countries in seven days sort of exploring. Our sojourns had us living and working among the different cultures of the places we visited. And, mostly this was island life at first as we felt this would be the only way to discover our paradise and the place we’d want to retire to.

We spent three months in the Bahamas and discovered it didn’t meet our initial ‘must have’ list as far as weather – it is too cold in the wintertime, too windy in the summertime, plus, it is far too expensive all the time! But, the beaches are fabulous!  And, it was virtually impossible to obtain a legal work status at least with our professions.

So we were off to the Dominican Republic! Did that meet any of our comparison list must have criteria? In a quick answer - forget it! Poor choices for foods, too expensive, and the government ---well, let’s leave it at that.  Next stop, Puerto Rico. Now remember this was in 1990/91, and at that time Puerto Rico was a great spot to live. We could work and live nicely and---we did! For almost two years. But during this time we came to realize that this was not the place we wanted to retire. Prices were increasing quickly and the attitude towards “gringos” was deteriorating. So it was adios to Puerto Rico.

Next stop - the U.S and British Virgin Islands---one word---forgeddaboudit! I won’t go in to much detail other than to say the sea is fabulous, the food horrid and the prices are out of sight.

Next stop St. Maarten. This appeared to be very close to what we were looking for—so, we settled in. “Settled in” to the tune of four years. I started a business and Ruthie worked in a major marine supply store. The beaches—fantastic, cost of living—well, it was pricey, but our jobs allowed us to enjoy it. But some of the locals and the government made life there difficult to say the least. Shall we say that St. Maarten was scratched off the list, but it took the full four years there to truly discover what the island was all about.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO LIVE AND WORK AMONG THE LOCAL POPULATION

This is why it is so important to live and work amongst the local population. If you isolate yourself you will never truly know who you live next to or what is really happening in the community. Is your neighbor a true friend or a foe? Do I truly feel safe? Is there discrimination? Only a protracted period of life there will give you the real answers.

For the next few years we spent time up and down the island chain. Continually looking for what was becoming more painfully obvious — “the best place to retire is difficult to find, or worse, maybe doesn’t exist at all!” After returning to St Maarten to re-provision, we set sail directly for Panama. Based on information I had gathered from reading books, surfing the internet and in talks with dozens of other sailors about their stay in Panama, from all accounts—it sounded-- great. But we needed to experience this for ourselves.

After ten plus days of sailing/motoring we arrived in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Initially, it looked great. But it only took a couple of months to realize that this was definitely not a place to retire to. I lovingly refer to it as “Bogus del Toro.”

So off we went to Cartagena, Colombia. What we found were great prices so we opened a business and stayed for about six months and then discovered it too was not for us. It is great in the “city” itself but we wanted to live in the country side and after speaking with the locals the consensus was to forget it! It is too dangerous out in the country way back when.

So—back to Panama! The one area of great appeal was the San Blas islands but unfortunately, an outsider cannot own land there. So, we finally gave up on Panama and sailed back to the States.

But something kept drawing us back - what had we missed in Panama? We definitely had not done our usual stay i.e. working etc., but we couldn’t leave there fast enough as we weren’t comfortable with the areas we had visited. So what was still so intriguing about Panama we wondered? Giving in to our curiosity, we flew back to Panama with the intention of driving all along the south coast (Pacific side) only. All we can say is “ARE WE GLAD WE DID!”

NEVER, IN OUR 12 YEAR OF SEARCHING, HAD WE BEEN SO SWEPT AWAY BY A COUNTRY, ITS PEOPLE, ITS GOVERNMENT AND THE CLIMATE

The difference, at least to us, between the north and south coast (Caribbean versus Pacific) is like the difference between night and day. After only one week we knew we had found our Place in Paradise at last! Never, in our 12 years of searching, had we been so swept away, simultaneously, by a country, its people, its government and the climate.

Our thought was “we can’t move here fast enough!” So, wasting no time, we bought property, set up a Corporation, applied for our immigrant status and then flew back to the States to sell our Florida home. We figured that once that was completed we’d be free to move “full time” to Panama.

Well, that was in 2006 and it took us another year before all of the loose ends were tied up and we finally made the physical move.  We ended up renting out the Florida house as we couldn’t sell it, we sold the car and then contacted Crowley Shipping. We then packed up all of our worldly possessions into a twenty foot container which was scheduled for delivery during the second week of January 2008.

Our priorities then, upon arrival, were to find an inexpensive place to live, preferably close to our property, to buy a used 40 foot container for storage on our property, and to buy a vehicle. Sounds like a short and easy to do list, doesn’t it?

On January 7th 2008 we finally arrived in our new country. So far, we have loved almost every minute of life here in Panama. I say almost because---well, you see, life in “paradise” does have its challenges.

I decided that a good way to keep our friends and family in touch with us and our adventures in paradise was to start a newsletter and here is the first entry:

Villa Davina Newsletter, January 2008

Well, here it is Monday January 14th 2008, the end of our first week in our new "country of choice." Although we are having difficulties finding a short term rental accommodation we are thoroughly enjoying our relocation. Our flight down from Florida was relatively uneventful except for losing my luggage (with all of my clothes) and one very upset cat (aka SH). With the thousands of miles that SH has traveled, she still does not travel well!

Upon arrival in the Panama City airport, we discovered that our cat carrier (plus the cat) had been placed on the luggage carousel first. So, unfortunately, we were not there to greet SH to her new homeland. When I did arrive at the carousel I saw a woman taking SH cat off of the conveyor belt---I said WHOA--she replied that SH, the cat, was just completing lap three of her carousel ride, and was very scared, so she was going to hold her until the owners arrived. I said thanks and attempted to calm down the "Mario Andretti" of the cat world. When Ruth joined me she took over as pit crew and I went on a search and rescue mission for my luggage.

We had hired a company to handle the customs and veterinary clearing of SH, our cat, and we were glad we did as this man was also providing ground transportation to the other airport for our flight to David. But due to the delay of registering our lost luggage and clearing the cat, we were going to miss the connecting flight to David. That glitch would require us to spend an overnight in Panama City which would necessitate the re-drugging of SH for the next day's flight. I explained this dilemma to our cab driver and he asked, “which airline are you using?” I told him we had not made reservations to which he replied, “good!”

I asked why and he said he had a friend at Air Panama. He made a phone call as we raced through Panama City toward the small airport, and he seemed to be speaking as fast as he was driving. He told us that when we arrived at the airport to go directly to the ticket counter and buy the ticket, so we did exactly as told. Upon completion of a very speedy purchase, we were rushed out to the plane.  It seems his friend was the pilot and was waiting for us. We have never been treated to such service in an airport! We actually made it to David on time.  In the end--all went well. The loss of my luggage also proved to be a blessing as it was the heaviest of all of the bags and on the small aircraft you must pay .75 cents per pound over-weight. As it was, we paid $49 dollars with just the luggage we had. It would have been at least another $50 for the lost bag. The lost bag showed up two days later free of charge!

We sent Jorge, our architect, to Panama yesterday (Sunday) to buy two 20 foot containers which he had found for us. Another setback--as the 20 footers are now somehow--"in demand" and so they only have 40 footers available at a reasonable price. We are sitting here in the hotel room waiting for him to call back so we can give him the go-ahead to get one 40 footer, as opposed to our original plan. Lesson number one for anyone moving to their paradise - please ensure that your plans are flexible!

Sunday (13th) was a quiet day for us and we walked around through the town square of David and enjoyed the scenery and serenity. Then we walked around looking for different restaurants. We have seen (and heard) one place located on the second floor above a furniture store. To the untrained eye, the establishment appeared to be --shall we say--seedy! Naturally, we said "let's give it a go!" Turns out that it is not really just a restaurant but was primarily a pool hall - a very loud pool hall. It had lots of tables, a bar and, a restaurant of sorts. 

Missing our weekly get-together with our pool playing friends in Ft Myers we opted to have a beer and play some pool (that rhymes with fool). Here, you actually rent the table for $1.60 per hour. We had four beers and one hour of pool (4 games, I lost 3 to Ruthie) all for the whopping price of $4 dollars. Well, seems we have found the "cheap spot" for beer.

For those of you who love Chinese food, we found another fabulous spot. It's a 24-hour restaurant just down the street from Puerta del Sol and even though it is a "local" restaurant named La Tipica, it has fantastic Chinese food. We had fried rice with shrimp (lots of shrimp) and a dish of chicken chow mien and a pitcher of beer for the ridiculous price of $9.00. There was way too much to eat so we brought it back to the hotel room and had two additional meals from it.

The down side was that we don't have any cooking facilities, so we improvised and heated it up using an aluminum baking dish set on top of our toaster. Just activate the toaster (3 times) and stir ---worked great --until we melted the sides of the toaster. The up side is the toaster still works, sort of, and I’ve discovered that cold Chinese food is not that bad!

I just received a call from Jorge and he is buying one 40 foot container to be delivered tomorrow---yea right!  

PS--Here it is Wednesday, January 16th, and our container (the one we bought) hasn’t arrived, and we just got a call from the shipping company (Crowley) saying they didn't ship our container of personal belongings because they were missing paper work---how does it take over a week to figure that out. Welcome to the world of manana!

Stay tuned, same time, same channel for part two of our move. You’ll read more about tropical magic, also known as “how to remove a container from a truck—without a crane!”

Author : Jack Burns.  Jack is and always will be a dreamer, albeit one that turns the dreams into reality. True to his dreams and frustrated with a “normal” lifestyle, he and his partner Ruthie set out to chase their mutual dream of sailing the seas throughout the Caribbean in search of a better lifestyle and their own paradise on earth to retire to. After searching for 12 years, Ruthie and Jack discovered Panama and now live outside of David near the border of Costa Rica where they are building Villa Davina.  For more about this great duo, click on their website www.easyretirementliving.com

  Email : Jack Burns