Dear Miss Move Abroad,

I plan to move to Panama next year and wanted your advice on how best to bring my possessions with me. I want to bring my cars, my appliances, and most of my furniture. I plan to ship a container from Miami to Panama, but hear that getting a container through customs can be a headache. Any advice?

Canal-bound

_______________________

Dear Canal-bound,

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that read:

DESIRE

ACQUIRE

DISCARD

REPEAT

We all live within that cycle, but we can resist it if we put in some effort.

My advice to you is to pare down. (If you know now that paring down for you is as likely as rock-hard abs for Santa Clause, then skip to some concrete advice on shipping to Panama).

But why lug your old life with you to a new country, especially when you have to pay so dearly for the privilege? And you will pay–thousands of dollars for shipping, high tariffs (duties on imported goods), and time and energy navigating the bureaucracy.

The easiest way to bring your possessions into Panama is as checked luggage on a flight. But most people–even adventurous souls who decide to pick up and move to another country–have a lot of stuff that they’ve accumulated over the years.

If you’ve lived in one place for a while, I’ll bet that you’ve been meaning to purge your belongings–to have a garage sale or take a few trips to the Salvation Army drop-off station.

It feels good to pare down, and a lot of people who move abroad do so in part because they want to simplify their lives.

You can start simplifying long before you make the move, by thinking carefully about what possessions you can’t live without, then selling or giving away the rest.

“I thought about selling all my favorite things, all the great stuff I’ve collected over the years, and I just couldn’t do it,” says Mary Ann Jackson, who moved to Costa Rica in 2004. “But I wasn’t going to lug it all with me, either. So I gave it all away to friends. Now I can visit my stuff in their houses.”

But ok, if you want to ignore my advice and still bring all your stuff to Panama in a container, then here’s some practical tips on shipping to Panama, courtesy of Our Man in Boquete, a German-born jazz-loving former airline pilot who relocated to Panama in late 2009.

Photo of skateboarders in Panama City by David W. Smith.

An aspiring expat asks Miriam Butterman, author of Living Abroad in Panama, about fast food, small dogs, and relocating as a single woman.

Q: I have been talking my mother into retiring in Panama . I just bought your book and received it yesterday. I am through half of it and already and skimmed the rest so far… but still have questions.  Are there any fast food chains there such as McDonald’s or KFC?  And for shopping I didn’t see any names of stores I have heard of for basic shopping. I see they have a mall, but what about maybe a WalMart?

I read about pets but have heard many horrific stories contrary to what you wrote about… so for the record, would our dogs be in quarantine or taken from us at any time? We have small dogs would they be in danger in the yard with snakes and large birds?

Also I really love your book so far and am very excited about finishing it. I am ecstatic about moving to Panama and plan a scouting trip next Spring.  I will be traveling alone (female)– how safe is it there to travel alone and do you have any connections for me?

Miriam Butterman answers:

First of all, congratulations for asking some pretty significant questions with relation to your daily life, as this could be your everyday life soon and you will want to be comfortable at every minor level.

I think the first thing you have to understand about moving to Panama is that you are not so much moving to the “sticks” as you think you are. There are plenty of good restaurants that serve American fare, without even having to go to the fast food option (I’m a health nut). If you feel safer with familiar food, there are American chains such as TGIF’s and Benniganns in Panama City. There are  also a lot of McDonald’s and KFC;  Wendy’s is a local favorite and Taco Bell arrived  in 2009. Still, Panama has some great original burger joints, and many other options for all kinds of ethnic fare, including delicious Panamanian food, which is usually grilled fish or meat, (they love chorizos — sausages). The El Rey, Super 99 and Riba Smith grocery stores have plenty of U.S products available. You can stock your kitchen with all the foods you love from home, and you won’t blink an eyelash to being abroad. (Still, be adventurous and shop for some local stuff, Panamanian food is delicious!)

As for shopping, you won’t be at a loss for anything. The malls have a lot of WalMartesque stores. It’s almost overwhelming.  Price Costcos (Price Smart in Panama) has a big presence around Panama City and other major cities in the country. Do-It Center has a big chain of hardware stores in Panama too. Novey and Rodelag are two more big hardware/home stores.

I haven’t shipped my dog to Panama, only from Panama, but I have heard that all animals coming from the US  do have to be quarantined, and often times this can be a home quarantine. I don’t want to give you misinformation, so I highly suggest calling Panama Pet Relocation when you are there, or emailing them. Your dog will not be with any wild snakes or birds.

Traveling alone is okay, as long as you are smart and prepared with your transportation arrangements and your arrival info on hand. In the interior, you might want to be a little more careful (women especially), but if you have your destination known and a trusted person to contact when you get there you should be fine.

You really need to know what you want and where you are going before you get there. In Panama, you can be adventurous, but I don’t know how experienced a traveler you are. If you rent a car and drive towards the Pacific beaches, you’ll be fine. Start with locations such as the Santa Clara beach just off the Pan American Highway, the road is one long highway and you can’t get lost. The entrance to the beach is clearly marked about one hour and 25 minutes west of Panama City.   You can’t miss it and it is always populated. From there you’ll begin talking to others and you’ll start to get your bearings and probably some great recommendations while on the road. .

Scout out carefully where you want to be and what kind of a community you are looking to be around. Do you want a gated community, with a lot of expat presence, or do you want to get to know other Panamanians and /or live more freely in nature, along the beach or in the mountains? These are questions you have to ask yourself before, during, and after your scouting trip.

I think my book does a pretty good job of detailing each of the prime areas to live in for expats and how you might go about doing that. As for contacts, I think the best thing you can do is to contact a realtor and from there you will start to unravel some connections. In Panama City, it is a good idea to start off at the NY Bagel Cafe  just off Via Argentina, as a lot of expats hang out there.

If you are looking to settle in the mountains or the interior within two hours of Panama City, you might want to stop at a bed and breakfast called Los Nances in El Valle. It’s a cute hotel on the side of the valley and the owners (Bill and Adam Brunner, father and son) also have a lot of real estate knowledge. The hotel has been under renovation for a while, and their website is not up, but the telephone is (507) 983-6126. Also see  Living Abroad in Panama.

Best of luck on your scouting trip.

Photo of hammock by Miriam Butterman

If you’re moving to Panama (or anywhere), it makes sense to pare down. But if after the garage sale and the dump run and donating your clunker to your nephew, you’ve still got stuff to ship, here’s some firsthand advice from Our Man in Boquete, who relocated to Panama in late 2009. Scroll to the bottom for advice on shipping cars, though Our Man’s basic advice is: Don’t Do It!

“First, if you already have a pensionado visa granting you residency in Panama, you may import US$10,000 worth of used household goods duty-free. If you don’t have residency, you’ll have to pay customs duty on everything. Basically it’s 5% as far as I know. It depends, however, on the discretion of the customs guys to appraise the value of the goods, so it’s an open field (and subject to how much you’re willing to bribe). It doesn’t help to show receipts from where you bought the stuff; they are free to appraise whatever they want.”

Heading for Chiriqui? Arrange for customs clearance in David

“Try to avoid having customs clearance done in Balboa harbor (that’s the harbor at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal) or in Colon (at the Caribbean end of the canal). If you’re intending to live anywhere in the province of Chiriqui [like the expat haven of Boquete], ask the shipping agent to have the container dispatched to David [after it goes through the canal] for customs clearance. To achieve this it is very important to have the destination in the Bill of Loading read: “To____(the place where you’re going to live) via David” Insist on this with your U.S. shipping agent and/or the local agent contracted by the U.S. shipper.

“There’s a very small customs office near the David airport, and it’s much easier to get the stuff through customs here. There’s a lady named Juana who’s in charge of imports (Spanish speaking only), and a small “regalo” (gift) passed discretely via handshake helps smooth the procedure considerably.”

Don’t sit on your hands

“It is also very important and helpful to be present in person a couple of days before the shipment is due to arrive in port [Balboa or Colon], and to contact the local agent directly. Get involved — don’t leave it to the discretion of your agent! There may be many kinds of problems showing up anytime…and for every day the container stays in the harbor they’ll charge you an additional $125. Again, having the container shipped to David for customs clearance avoids this possible storage problem since the container will only stay in port for the minimum required time before going on to David. Also, David customs most likely won’t charge you exotic fees like “Quarantine exemption fee for wooden furniture” or “Fee for unusually extensive customs inspection” that might (and did, for people I know) occur at those other customs offices. It goes without saying that one should be also present at the customs office where clearance will take place.”

(Not) importing cars into Panama

Our Man in Boquete strongly advises not importing cars to Panama. “From everything I’ve heard,” he writes, “it’s a nerve-wracking and costly procedure. There’s the appraisal problem, where they don’t give a damn about what you paid for your car in the U.S. They will also keep your car(s) in custody for as long as all the necessary paperwork needs to be finished, and that can take months!

“And they’ll charge you storage costs for each and every day.

“If you’re willing to cough up a couple of grand it may speed up the procedure but why do this? Cars in Panama are reasonably priced and readily available, so unless you’ve hung your heart on a very special car it really doesn’t make sense to import a car here.

“One more note: Although by law you’re entitled to import a car duty-free every two years if you’ve got a pensionado visa, hardly anybody is doing it. Why not? Well, although you won’t have to pay customs duty, they’ll charge you a 5% “sales tax” based (again) on their free-ranging appraisal of the car’s value, plus storage fees and the whole shebang.”

Parting advice

“Basically, I’d advise to scale down the amount of stuff to be shipped. Moving to another country also is some kind of a new beginning, so why carry all that old baggage with you?”

Miss Move Abroad agrees.