Mi Ranchito
I
spend most of my time drunk writing in el cangrejo, and sometimes i forget how beautiful panama can be. all it takes is a 5 or 10 minute cab ride and you’re ready to rejoin the wild.
this weekend my girl friend, her sis and i got a chance to do balboa and isla naos. that’s not exactly dodging rebels and poisonous snakes in the darien gap. but we did run into a couple of colombian hookers, and the fierce breeze ripping across isla naos almost knocked my hat off.
it felt like it was 10 degrees cooler out there. after hiking a bit we stopped in at mi ranchito for some refreshment. i confess this was my first visit to the popular eatery. but i can see why the guide books gush.
there’s an excellent view of panama city from inside the bohio. the battleship-gray smog that normally chokes the city was gone. i could make out several rusty tankers anchored outside the canal, and something that looked like poo floating past the jetty.
(to be fair, they’ve already begun work on the new cinta costera. and word is they plan to stop all that crap rolling into the bay. we had the same problem back in boston. as soon as they stopped pumping sewage into the harbor the problem cleared right up.)
i especially enjoyed mi ranchito’s funky thatched roof. our food wasn’t too bad either. i had the pollo deshuesado con salsa pomodoro. for you english speakers, that’s boneless monkey with a garlic/onion/tomato sauce.
i settled on the coconut rice for my side dish. the girls ordered a tasty treat plucked from panama’s pristine waters. it looked like leather back turtle or dolphin. i can’t be sure. by then i’d had 2 or 6 frosty panama lagers.
we ate, we drank. i told the girls about panama’s killer trees. they seemed shocked. you’d think natives would know the dangers. they do seem to know rabiblacos. every so often they’d point out someone from panama tv or politics.
our bill including tip came to $38 for 3 people. oddly, i was expected to pay. afterwards we hiked a bit more, until the wind shifted, and we got a hit of raw sewage floating in off the beautiful pacific.
then it was time to go home.
Written by: Cojito Copyright © 2012 · All Rights Reserved · Panama After Dark
I'm glad that you had a good time and liked the NAOS island area. I have a condo reserved ain one of the towers being built there. Can't wait to get in. Perhaps we can attack a bottle of Flora de Cana on my balcony as the ships go by!!!
john
Cojito: Just thought of something,you mentioned in the past that you often stopped in at la terraza on via venito. I was in there in feb and asked for Mike and could'nt get a straight answer.How about trying to answering that question for me
thanks
john
"oddly, i was expected to pay".
yeah, right. if i ever meet a beautiful pana chica or colombiana that offers to pay even her half, i'll probably propose to her right then and there. i know i'll cry. that's for sure.
on a serious note, let's all hope the "boom" doesn't end before they finish the cinta costera and the waste treatment project. something tells me that those big budget surpluses may be coming to an end. or, maybe they never existed in the first place.
I know you're constantly being pumped for info on Panama and I know there are more authoritative sources for some info; but you don't bullshit which makes you very credible.
I am curious about what is happening economically there. Property here in Florida seems to have bottomed and bargain hunters are starting to buy houses again. The bad news about the economy from the press never stops but it really doesn't seem that bad here.
What is your feeling about Panama? Has it slowed down and inflation been stifled. It really seemed that Panama was going to be as expensive as here.
My reply to Tom:
I've traveled and explored Panama 9 times in the last 3 years .I'm presently having a condo built there. I'm at present a Florida resident..I can perhaps give you some info. E mail me at jbt2433@earthlink.net
Saludos
John
tom – things do not seem to have slowed down any. there's huge money and work coming in for various projects, older buildings are being repaired and re-painted, new roads and buildings are being built, the air port was upgraded.
will that trend continue?
in my experience all real estate goes up and down. if you want to get in at the bottom this is not the place to be right now. 5 years ago this was the place to be. so if you're an investor looking for a big score i'd be wary. if you're someone who wants to live here then you'll probably be fine.
before i came to panama i had a flat on cape cod. i tripled my money on that. but i had to wait 14 years to do it. didn't matter to me. i was living and working there at the time.
if you're patient an investment here could really pay off in a few years. keep in mind this country is still experiencing growing pains. if i were buying in panama right now i'd be looking for affordable older units in great areas that i could fix up and live in (or rent) cheap. i really think the high end in overpriced.
people are fond of saying panama is getting expensive like the u.s. but it just depends how you live. it's not that expensive to live here. so long as you don't buy into some million dollar development, and have hookers and coke dealers on call 24/7.
gregorio – picking up the check in central america is still cheaper than dating girls back in the u.s.
todbals – nice. sweet location for an apartment.
i thought la terraza changed hands. don't know what became of mike.
AS much as it scares me how fast real estate inflation has hit here in panama…it still holds some value for the careful investor/buyer. compared to other worse places i could think of (costa rica and most caribbean islands i know of), panama is still a better value and quality of life for the money. as cojito says…stay away from the high priced preconstruction stuff and you should be able to make significant income and modest equity increases on existing structures the next few years. naos and amador area will always hold its value in my opinion for its location, views and being on one of the 7 wonders of the world…the panama canal. gooooooo panama! now if we can just keep chavez and chavez politico wannabees out of this system, we should be all right…