Moving From Canada to Panama: 6 Weeks Till Panama

I am finally starting to feel “ready” around the house. Everything we own is organized in a bin and is going to storage, being sold, or given away. My pantry is looking empty and I even put the last of my coffee beans in the machine. The only thing still full is our freezer, which has all our wild meat in it. Marissa is graciously storing it for us for the nominal fee of a few elk steaks.

The last couple weeks have been busy with me trying to finalize some of the big items on the list; like storage, credit cards, bank accounts and a place to live when we get to Panama. I feel glued to my phone. But all the hard work has paid off! We have checked almost everything off the list. We now have our all our storage figured out, the motorhome packed away, all the bank accounts set up and credit cards ordered. Overall things are still falling into place really well.

Selling Our Car

One of last major things we have to do is sell our SUV and it is giving me a lot of anxiety. We decided to keep Zach’s little car and store it for the winter. This would help us in the summer when we visit as rental cars are crazy expensive. Christmas fast approaching and then New Years being so close to move day, we really struggled deciding the best time to sell. Zach was also working over Christmas and has last day wasn’t till the new year. Left too long it might not sell before we move. Sell it too soon and I will not have a vehicle to finish the last-minute stuff.  In the end, we decided not to worry and give it up to God. We were confident He would provide us the right buyers at the right time.

We put it for sale and only got a bunch of scammers and low-ballers. That lead us to reach out to local dealerships to gauge interest. We weren’t hopeful at this point, but after a few calls we got an offer that pleasantly surprised us. It was too good of a deal to refuse, so we made it official and sold our vehicle to a local dealership. Not only did we get what we needed out of the deal, but the whole transactions was stress free. Plus we had the ability to decide when we could drop the vehicle off. After the holidays would be the perfect time, as it would only leave me without a vehicle for 4 days. That was easy to handle! So right after the holidays there goes our SUV and we are a one vehicle family until the move. Wooohoo I can breathe!

Picking Our House

Arguably the biggest item on the to-do list now is locking down a place to live in Panama. Having my parents already there has been a huge blessing! We are so grateful that they are paving the way and will be making our transition with the kiddos so much smoother. It is comforting that the kids have their grandparents and great grandparents basically next door when we arrive. We hope this will help them adjust and provide stability and comfort thorough such a big life change. I don’t think I mentioned that my grandparents, on my mom’s side, will also be with us for the first 4 months. That was such a welcomed decision as we spend a whole lot of time with them here in Alberta. We are so grateful and thankful everyone has decided to go on this adventure with us.

Because it is the high season in Panama for travel, there is less inventory of homes to choose from and prices are a bit higher. That has caused us to re-examine our expectations a bit on what we will be renting when we first arrive. My parents found a great realtor/property manager named Beth with Try Panama, who has been helping us all out with getting settled and learning the lay of the land. She has given us tons of advice and guidance. She is also patient with us as we change our minds a thousand times and asked so many questions.

Our New Place

So it looks like for the first couple months we will be renting a condo in Nueva Gorgona, Panama Oeste, Panama. It is a stunning building with so many wonderful amenities; gym, kids indoor and outdoor play area, pools, pickleball courts, and is right on the beach. It has breathtaking views of not only the ocean but of the nearby town of Coronado, the mountains. Plus it is a short hour and a half west of Panama City.  I never would have imagined we would live in a condo, but we are trying so hard to have an open mind and trying new things. It will be a small space at 700 sq ft and only 2 bedrooms, but hey, you never know!  We may love it more than we anticipate.

The changes in our living situation over the last few years have been huge. We started as newlyweds on an acreage in a massive 6 bedroom house. Then we moved to a smaller 2000sqft. 3 bedroom house in town. We downsized again when we moved to the rental we are in now before the big Panama move. This move to the rental was a big one because we not only sold our house but we had to sell all our belongings.  You would think that we are good and comfortable with downsizing by now. Hopefully all these changes will help us with the transition to the new place.

The Final Countdown

Only having 2 bedrooms means the two kidlets will have to share a room.  Proactively we moved them into the same bedroom here…if you have ever done that, you understand the challenge. The nighttime play fest, laughs and giggles sure are cute, but getting them to actually sleep has been a challenge. In time they will get used to the new arrangement and hopefully the struggles will subside. Truly though, overall they have done great. 

Last but not least, the final piece to the puzzle is to literally pack our bags for the move. When I say pack our bags, I mean we have to fit our whole life into four checked (50 lbs or less) bags, four carry-on sized bags, and a couple backpacks. Hopefully my organizing tendencies will help me here because I have a pretty strong feeling it will be a feat. Not to complicate things either, but did I mention the place we will be living in is 700sqft? If we use four check-in sized bags, we also have to store those four bags in a tiny apartment with very limited storage. Less is definitely more. Lucky for us, living in perpetual summer means clothes that are small and light. I know I can do it and will update you on the final bag counts upon departure.

Talk soon.

Catch up on how we decided to move abroad in our blog Young Family Moving Abroad: Why we decided to quit our jobs and move to Panama, Central America