A Beautiful Mountain Community in Panama

All Blog Posts (14)

Our Guest House is almost done.

Ceramic tiles have been laid down, the walls are painted, and most of the windows have been installed.

Here's the bathroom:

… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on February 15, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

Moved to Panama permanently

As of January 26th, we have now moved to Altos del Maria permanently! We are currently renting a casita on Calle Montezuma, but our own Guest House should be ready within a month or so. As for the rest of the house, well, I expect it will take another 4 to 6 months! My Panama phone number is 6779-6145, feel free to call if you are in ADM! Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on February 14, 2009 at 8:52am — No Comments

Going back to Panama

Next weekend (August 30th) we’re heading back to Panama for a week. It will be my 8th visit in two years. We will spend the first weekend in Altos del Maria checking out our construction site, and then we’ll spend the whole week in Panama City shopping for electrical fixtures, furniture and appliances. We’ll also be meeting with our architect to discuss some small changes to our house. For our week in Panama City we will be trying something different: I rented an apartment in the historic neigh… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on August 26, 2008 at 7:00pm — No Comments

COPA Airlines Expanding

Panama's young National Airline, COPA Airlines, is expanding again. My wife and I flew with them a couple of times and were quite happy. New planes, decent service, decent prices. COPA is partly owned by Continental and they have code-share flights with them as well as KLM/Air F… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on August 7, 2008 at 4:00pm — 1 Comment

New, greener SUVs coming

I think that when I move to Panama I will definitely want to drive an SUV, for several reasons: -It is convenient and safe to drive a taller vehicle in Panama, with all the obstacles that are often found in the middle of the road. -It is important to drive a robust vehicle with larger wheels because of the often poor road conditions. -AWD is important in ADM because of the extremely steep hills, especially on wet days. -I want to be able to do some light off-roading when I go explore the country… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on August 1, 2008 at 8:25pm — No Comments

A growing trend of leaving America

Here's a cool article from U.S.News on American expatriates and a fair bit of talk about why many of them go to Panama. Here's an excerpt: "In his recent book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips warns that an unpre… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on July 31, 2008 at 12:14pm — 1 Comment

Our house is really taking shape.

We got more pictures from our house in ADM.

They have poured the floor of the deep-end of the pool, which will allow them to finally pour the rear wall of the guest house, which happens to be part of the pool.

… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on July 22, 2008 at 7:41pm — No Comments

Heading back to Panama

We're heading back to Panama next week to visit some friends and check on our house construction and business investments. This will be my 7th trip in 20 months. We also planned a two-day camping trip to Coiba Island, and I'm really looking forward to that. Should provide some interesting photo oppo… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on May 4, 2008 at 8:35am — No Comments

Some construction excitement...

I got a few more pictures and a bit of excitement this week. I have someone watching over my project and last week he noticed that the kitchen window opening was completely wrong. It was both too small and in the wrong place! But I'm more and more impressed with my builder, Eleuterio Gutiérrez. Jim noticed the problem Thursday morning, and he arranged for a meeting with Gutiérrez the next day to discuss the problem but didn't tell him… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on May 4, 2008 at 8:30am — No Comments

Construction Update

Most of the foundation work is completed and all main floors have been poured except for the bedroom unit. Here is the living/kitchen unit:

Here is the competed foundation for the bohio (gazebo/outdoor kitchen) :

… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on March 25, 2008 at 3:37pm — No Comments

Construction moving along

The construction of our house in Fontanella is moving along well. Mr. Gutierrez is doing good work! The house should be completed by the end of the year. Here's a couple of pictures from the site:

… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on March 9, 2008 at 1:27pm — No Comments

Low-cost Living in Panama

Here's a nice article on Panama featuring Altos del Maria: Low-Cost Living Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on February 18, 2008 at 8:01am — No Comments

Paradise Found

Last Friday’s Ottawa Citizen has a great article on Panama. A young woman visited Panama alone and found great people, an island paradise, and beautiful mountains covered with lush rain forest. She chose her dest… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on February 11, 2008 at 10:02am — No Comments

Welcome to Altos del Maria!

I just created this new Ning community for the folks who are residents, owners, or simply interested in the beautiful mountain community of Altos del Maria in Panama.

Ning is a "social network" type of technology, so it is designed for people to collaborate, post their own articles, pictures, blog entires, etc. It is a place where we can all share information, tips, and personal experiences related to living in Altos del Maria and Panama.… Continue

Added by Sylvain Duford on February 5, 2008 at 10:08am — No Comments