Food!

One of my friends has a popular blog. He is doing a poll to see what are the favorite restaurants in the area.

He lists 20 restaurants. This alone is remarkable. This is a small village.

You could only vote for 3. I needed more votes. Or at least categories to divide the restaurants into specific types.

We have tipicos...Panamanian restaurants from order off the menu to cafeteria. There are 5 I would vote for. (Just a note: Nelvis, one of my favorite, now has the menu in English and Spanish and he is learning to speak English...for his customers...I was so touched that he would do this for us gringos.)

We have middle-of-the-road ones...I would vote for 4 of them.

And we have fine dining...I would vote for 3 of them.

That's a lot of great restaurants!

Boquete is a special place. Magical actually.

Not to visit but to live here.

Vacationing has limited opportunities in this community. Sure, you can have a great time vacationing but that's not what makes this place so special.

It's the people. Panamanians and gringoes.

First, there are approximately 15 locals to every foreigner. This means that the local culture is intact and strong.

And there are enough gringoes so you can make plenty of friends who have a similar history and culture.

Plus, you can step out into the Panamanian community and make friends in an entirely new culture.

I can't think of a better place to retire.

I was talking to a friend back in Colorado. She said, "Are you lucky that you got out of the US when you did...things are not good here." She was talking about the economy, not politics.

Some times you just get lucky. This time we did. I can't count how many times I didn't get lucky. So this is a wonder time to be lucky.

May you have some luck in your life too. I sure hope so.

I am grateful for this special lifetime opportunity!