Family moving to Panama from US...Possible opportunity?

[Stevieboy]

My uncle is a struggling commercial pilot out of Dallas and was offered a job in Grande Panama to fly a 737 for some company. Anyhow, I have not yet pulled the trigger on the Colombia trip yet, but, the news of my aunt and uncle's move to Panama opened up opportunity to have a place to stay. He's been there already to scout the place and says the women are quite beautiful. They know I've had ideas of looking outside the US for female partnership. As some of you know, I'm hispanic and so are they. Well, actually, they're Mexican and speak spanish as first language.
From what I hear from my uncle, the city there is pretty industrialized which leads me to believe there also may be business opportinity whether in services, or exporting. He also says the flight is 3 hours from Houston and cost him $450 round trip on Continental. I was like, "Dude, I'm there"!  Anyone here have experience there, and maybe some insight into the women compared to Colombians?
P.S Anyone here in the real estate business in South America? I have a commercial building inspection biz here and wonder if there's any market for that there.
 
   

[JasonA]

I spent a week in Panama City in early May. I saw some attractive women in some big mall that I went to one day, but as a whole, the percentage of attractive women wasn't that high in my opinion. It only takes one though...
 
On the business side of things, one disadvantage to Panama is that they mainly use the American dollar as their currency, so things aren't as cheap there as some of the other Central/South American countries. Also, I talked a couple of times with an American that lives down there at my hotel. He is in the banking industry. He pointed out 2 things about business in Panama: a) most panamanian workers have little drive or sense of urgency and b) there is a lot of corruption in panama. according to this guy, to get things done in panama, people often expect to get paid (government officials and others).
 
One more thing about Panama City/Panama... their beaches suck.
 
Not an expert on Panama. Just my 2 cents from a week down there.

[Stevieboy]

I spent a week in Panama City in early May. I saw some attractive women in some big mall that I went to one day, but as a whole, the percentage of attractive women wasn't that high in my opinion. It only takes one though...
 
On the business side of things, one disadvantage to Panama is that they mainly use the American dollar as their currency, so things aren't as cheap there as some of the other Central/South American countries. Also, I talked a couple of times with an American that lives down there at my hotel. He is in the banking industry. He pointed out 2 things about business in Panama: a) most panamanian workers have little drive or sense of urgency and b) there is a lot of corruption in panama. according to this guy, to get things done in panama, people often expect to get paid (government officials and others).
 
One more thing about Panama City/Panama... their beaches suck.
 
Not an expert on Panama. Just my 2 cents from a week down there.

Thanks for an honest answer. I'v eactually searched for other discussions on Panama and found several that matched your take on it. Some, however, went as far as to come down hard on the women there. That they're not as pretty for the trouble they're worth. That they're also insanely jealous, always like to argue and only interested in money. This consensus was sum up from several different posts on other latin message boards. The only retorts to their posts were usually natives from there defending they're culture. The locals didn't like having their women talked bad about while other places like Costa Rica and Colombia received rave reviews.
Oh, yeah, I read the beaches suck too. Or that they're mostly mud flats and you have to drive long distances to get to a decent one.  Damn! Oh, well. I'm still saving for Colombia. It's like that Seinfeld episode when Kramer has his mind set on leaving to California, he points at his head and says, "up here, I'm already gone".   
 

[JasonA]

Isn't it funny how timeless Seinfeld is? I still quote stuff like that several times per week.
 
Thinking about your business idea...  Since there are so many Americans down there in the banking industry, you may have an advantage in dealing with bankers who are making the loans for the commercial buildings. There was some new constuction going on in the heart of the downtown business district and also near the hotel that I stayed at (La Playa Bonita). Just a thought...
 
Good luck!

[mudd]

depends on what part of panama your talking about. i stayed at two resorts there and the beaches were pretty nice. of course it was no hawaiil or Fiji  but good enough for me. i ran into many cute girls, more than i could meet, but i ran into man cute girls in peru also. colombia does have the numbers in cute girls but also has probably some of the worst girls too in my opinion. you only need one, well unless your like some guys and just wanna play for pay jaja

[Jeff S]

Lots of gringos considering moving to S/A to retire, especially now that the baby boomers are getting to that age and inflation here is rampant (Yeah, yeah, I know, the gumment says there's no inflation, but did you realize that energy and food are NOT counted in the inflation calculation? Two of the most important necessities of living anywhere.)


If you know real estate, a gringo friendly service to inspect and broker rental and purchase properties would be a slam dunk, one man, internet based, business model IMO.  My father used to be friends with a Canadian woman living in Mazatlan who was doing quite well at it.

[Stevieboy]

I'm not retiring (41 yrs old), but, business in America has been stagnant for so long, and I'm just getting older. I want to enjoy life and make money while I'm at it. Of course have a nice lady to share it. I inspect commercial buildings for investors in Texas. From JasonA and yourself, sounds like networking with some brokers and bankers might be a good idea.Know how to get in touch with any of them?