Panama

Just back from Panama vacation. Good time, met a lot of folk looking to buy property and build a retirement or vacation house. Cost of living very low there, average wage is around $1-2/ hr. Infrastructure is decent, and improving rapidly. High rise condos going up like wildfire. Couldn't count all the skyscrapers being built. New airport going up in the next 3 years, and Panama city is getting a subway. Economy seems really robust, lots of truck on the roads, tool stores had all the tools you would see here. Everyone has a new car. Fuel is priced similar to here. Typical cruise ship pays $250,000 to transit the Panama Canal one way. Country is all sand, with heavy rock mixed in. Never seen any rock in the highway cuts, sand seems to go down forever. Mostly CAT, lots of 8's. But lots of volvo too. Backhoes are pretty common too. The country was built for a dozer. Flat spots are hard to find, lots and lots of leveling to do. Rain is pretty rare in the dry season, so you can start an excavation, quit and come back 6 months later, and nothing has moved. And with all sand, it drys up really quick if it does rain. Massive tourist areas being constructed on the west coast, about 2 hours south west of Panama city. Overall, pretty interesting up and coming place.