These are some of the
services that we have used or been in
contact with
-
Canada Embassy – their phone number here
in Panama is 507-264-9731
PanCanada is the Panama Canada Chamber
of Commerce 507-223-6788
-
Continental &
Copa Airlines – this is who we
use now for travel.
-
Wellmed Clinic is where we had to go for
our health insurance tests. Dr. Jorge
Rodriquez is wonderful, speaks English.
They also are set up for stress tests.
see "people" for contact info
-
Laboratorio Clinio Fernandez is the lab
for blood work and all those other labs.
-
Health Insurance -
when we first arrived we signed up
for Blue Cross as it was
something we were familiar with -
but after a couple of years we
figured out our day to day medical
needs were minimal costs so we
decided to buy catastrophic health
insurance only - meaning insurance
to cover only really dire straights
- either huge very expensive
surgeries or very long term
extensive/expensive care - with
large deductibles - we used Gonzalo
de la Guardia as an agent and we had
Bupa initially - good company, great
service and no concerns over
coverage - used once for my knee
surgery - it got expensive so we
shopped and found Cigna
http://www.cigna.com/ - a
lot less expensive for similar
coverage - Donna also tops up with
travel insurance from Bupa
-
Optica Sosa y Arrango S.A. is where I
got Tom’s replacement lenses for his
sunglasses and where I will go for my
progressive glasses. They are in Punta
Pacifica.
-
Lawyers - see
"people"
-
Dr. Lee as
our dentist - he and his wife run a
clinic downtown Panama City -
excellent service, great prices,
immaculate and up to date equipment
and great English.
507-269-3744
-drlee@clinicadentallee.com
-
Veterinarian -
Originally - Pets & Animals is where I take Cricket
for her haircuts. Those cost 8.00 and if
you want a flea and tick bath, those
cost 8.00 as well. I do have shampoo at
home that I use that is for fleas and
ticks. She also takes a heart pill for
heart worms and we use a liquid on her
coat for fleas and ticks. These are
things you must do living here where the
temperatures are always high. When we
first arrived in Panama the vet at
our Costa del Este store, Dr. Frank,
has a huge heart for pets and have
helped us with treating strays in
our area. Unfortunately he moved and
the store has not been the same
since. Before Cricky passed we had been going
to a new vet above the Super 99 -
the clinic is called Orion but he's
closed. Our friends Rita and Jordan
use Vets4Pets in Paitilla and we've
met the vet and she is really nice.
-
Creative Hair Design is where
Donna get her
hair cut out here in Costa del Este.
Velvet used to own the shop and charged 8.00 for a haircut. She
also goes for pedicures before every
trip. Recently the operators took
over so Donna goes to the same place
but her stylist is Harnan - same
price
-
Studio siete is where we get our
business cards made, very reasonable!
-
Panafoto and Multimax
are where we
bought our small appliances and tv’s.
-
Mailboxes Etc is where you want to set
up your mail delivery – they do not have
mail delivery here in Panama, so we have
a mailbox in Miami and they send out
mail out here where we pick it up. They
also email you to let you know you have
mail. Great service.
-
I used to get two magazines here,
ABC Living and Vivir Bien – both Spanish and English
and keeps you up to date. There is also
another magazine called the Panama
Planner, your guide to travel in Panama
that is well worth getting. Not too much
here in English and no newspapers in
English except for one called The
Visitor which you can pick up at hotels
etc. Full of good information on what is
happening in and around. Unfortunately
Vivir Bien seems to be very limited
in its publications recently.
-
Best Expat and
English news - The Visitor (Visitante)
https://www.thevisitorpanama.com/
- Focus Panama - English
information on Panama
http://focuspanama.com/ and
finally Panama Good Times
www.ThePanamaGoodTimes.com
-
IDAAN is who we get our water bill
through
-
Our internet is from
PaNETma - great wireless service
in Panama City (and maybe soon in
the Caribbean, if we can convince
Roman there is an audience.
We use PaNETma as one of our two
internet providers in our office as
well. Compared to the local
providers, PaNETma is attentive and
responsive - not the cheapest but
reliable and friendly - we
have migrated to his voip services
totally both at home and the
office.
www/.panetma.com
-
We used to
use Direct tv for satellite
then we used SKY as we found out
Sky bought Direct when they cut off
our services and offered us "more"
(useless) channels for 60% more
money - our recommendation -
DO NOT USE SKY
- we moved to CableOnda - the
local cable company - didn't chose
them initially as Direct had more
English content - now i don't care -
ANYTHING BUT SKY - they have to be
the single worst company for
customer service I've ever had the
DISpleasure to deal with. Since then
we have moved to a full online TV
using Roku and we cancelled
CableOnda - the cost of Amazon
Prime, Hulu, and Netflix - 20% of
the cable company.
-
ENSA (used to
be called Electra) is our electricity company
-
Rosetta Stone is the Spanish program
that Tom is using
-
We bought three cell
phones so each one of us has one
(and one for our guests while they
are in Panama) and we just buy
minutes for them as we need them. We
use both Movistar & Cable
& Wireless for our cell phones
on pay as you go plans. We finally
succumbed to smart phones and we
bought them through Claro
under monthly plans - 29 and
39 per month for 18 months. Update -
Claro turned out to be very
disappointing so back to prepaid
cell and monthly data from Movistar
- all are now LTE so pretty good
speeds - check them as some
companies claim LTE but do not
really give it to you unless you
complain
-
Optica Lopez - if
you need eye glasses you have to
check this company out - Donna just
got two new pairs of glasses with
her progressive prescription and one
was even done with a transitional
lens - and one fram was $40 the
other a whopping $120 - and the
total bill for both $400 - the
service was excellent - delivered on
time and as agreed - no issues - how
great
-
Hotel de
Perros - Hotel de Perros y
Gatos en Albrook (Albrook Kennel and
Grooming) located at locale #13 in
the Pan Canal Plaza (El Rey Plaza)
in Albrook.
-
Importing good from
the USA or Canada - we found a
broker that seems to know what they
are doing and handled our major
appliance import when we bought our
stove, washer, dryer and dishwasher
- - contact Jorge Luis P. at MVC
Logistics
-
Passport photos
- American passport photos are
simple, almost any Arrocha can do
them but Canadian or European
require a place that understands the
specific requirements for these
countries - the best we found is
Foto Colors Win - Paitilla, Centro
Comercial Via Pacifica - Telephone
215-3515 there is a lady there who
does speak English
fotocolorswin@gmail.com
-
Translated
Documents - a site that offers
some common documents translated and
available to download. I liked the
traffic accident form and the PH
Laws - if you buy a condo you need
to know your rights and obligations.
PanamaTranslationServices
-
Foto Colors Win
- For Canadian looking to get
passport photos done in Panama here
is a great place not far from the
Embassy.
Paitilla, Centro Comercial Via
Pacifica
Telephone 215-3515 there is a lady
there who does speak English
fotocolorswin@gmail.com
Others can go there as well, but for
Canada we need a special size and
this was recommended to us by the
Canadian Embassy.