Foreigners have been retiring to Boquete, Panama, for nearly two decades. This pretty mountain town appears regularly on lists of the world’s top retirement havens, including from the AARP. Boquete has a great deal to offer expat retirees, including one of the world’s most established expat communities.
However, Boquete is not nearly as affordable a choice as it once was. In addition, while the big foreign retiree population is a plus for many people, some find it off-putting. It’s hard to live a Panamanian lifestyle in Boquete, where you hear more English spoken on the streets than Spanish and all the restaurants and shops in town are managed with foreign customers in mind.
Not far away, on the other side of Baru, the tallest mountain in Panama, sits a kind of sister village to Boquete known as Volcán. While Boquete has made a name for itself in the global press, Volcán remains off the world’s radar. This traditional Panamanian mountain town is quiet, tranquil and unaffected. Volcán is as beautiful as Boquete, but, because it’s managed to avoid the spotlight, is much more affordable.
Baru is one of Panama’s most impressive natural sights, and the summit of this volcano is one of the few places in the world where you can see both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans at the same time. The town of Volcán sits in the highlands of Chiriqui near the Panama-Costa Rica border and is home to about 14,000 people. This isn’t the beach lifestyle that many people associate with Panama. Volcán offers the chance to trade in white sand for leafy green wilderness, escape the sometimes sweltering heat of sea level for a cooler cloud forest climate and exchange tourist frills for small town simplicity.
The town also offers everything required for day-to-day living. Stores along the two main streets sell hardware supplies, agricultural and veterinary products, clothing (brand names are generally counterfeit) and sporting goods. In addition, in town you find Internet cafes, health clinics, dentists, travel agencies, gyms, auto shops, gas stations, music lessons, primary schools, a cell phone service location and a post office. A branch of Banistmo bank is located next to the Berard supermarket, and Banco Nacional has a location in town, as well.
The only thing missing in Volcán that is available in neighboring Boquete is a decent bar. When you’re looking for company over a glass of wine or a bottle of beer, you could make the short drive from one town to the other.
The cost of living in Volcán is lower than in most of the rest of Panama. As Panama City and its nearby beach communities have grown in popularity, the cost of living in these places has risen. Thanks to its under-the-radar status, Volcán is one of Panama’s best bargains. The cost of living can be 50 percent lower than elsewhere, but you don’t have to give up the services and amenities of a comfortable lifestyle.
Despite Volcán’s distance from Panama City, you have good options for getting from one to the other. The nearest transport hub to Volcán is the city of David. A bus ticket for the seven-hour trip from Panama City to David costs just $18. The onward bus ride from Volcán to David costs $4, and that final leg of the trip takes about an hour. The one-hour flight from Panama City to David costs $85 one-way and $165 round trip.
Volcán has facilities for basic health care needs. However, for more specialized or higher-quality care, you would probably want to travel to the hospital in David. That’s not to say that Volcán doesn’t have a hospital. As part of an infrastructure push, Volcán received a multimillion-dollar hospital. However, the facility has yet to open because it lacks equipment and staff. From the street, the building looks like a new, modern hospital, and perhaps someday it will be.
Volcán’s main indoor market is located just off the intersection of the two main streets. Inside are confectionaries, souvenir and jewelry shops, hair stylists, tailors, shoe repair shops, an Internet café and even a masseur. Above the market is a small cafeteria where breakfast costs less than $4.
One of the nicest things about living in Volcán is the access to a good selection of fresh food, especially fresh produce, which is sold from roadside shacks at prices that are a global bargain. Much of the produce comes from Cerro Punta, a small agricultural village just a short drive from Volcán. At 6,600 feet above sea level, Cerro Punta’s fertile land provides Panama with some of its best quality fruits and vegetables. A visit to the farmers market in Cerro Punta can net you a huge bag of organic vegetables for less than $4, and strawberries with fresh cream are available on every corner.
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group.
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Retire in the Affordable Mountain Village of Volcán originally appeared on usnews.com