Chapter 12PanamaThe World’s Best Retirement Program (and Much More)
COMING INTO THE CITY AT MID-AFTERNOON, the plane flies low across the bright sky over the sparkling Pacific Ocean. Below, the Pearl Islands lie strung across the azure landscape like the jewels they are. Lush with green jungle and surrounded by golden beaches, one has just a rickety wooden boat dock, another is large enough to support a small village, and all 100-plus are stunningly beautiful.
Once on the ground, the shuttle van speeds from the airport toward the gleaming city, and eyes again are drawn to the ocean view whizzing by to the left where daredevil pelicans circle and then, in an instant, fold their wings and plunge like arrows into the surf.
It’s always good to be back in Panama, where we lived for most of 2006. The tiny nation on the southern edge of the Northern Hemisphere is one of the only countries to bridge two continents . . . and the only country in the world where you can see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean and set on the Atlantic in the same day.
If you didn’t know that, don’t worry—there are so many things unique to Panama ...
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