Planless in Panamá

For our first winter of retirement/snowbirding in warmer climates, I had a strong pull to flow versus plan. We had three months of space to enjoy and had booked just our first place to stay upon landing in Panamá City, and then a few days on a beach as we headed down to the Azuero Peninsula, a part of Panamá we’d never explored. After that, the idea was to follow inspiration, and perhaps stay in a community for a longer period of time if the energy felt aligned.

Now, my mind had a few fears about this. We were traveling in the high season! What if we had to stay somewhere guácala, because there was nothing left? What if we missed out on something due to lack of research?

But I could see those fears as imaginary predictions of the future, and the pull to create in flow outweighed any imaginary fears. I wanted to release control and practice allowing, creating from beyond my mind’s ideas of what was possible.

After we finished our initial week of planned reservations, we flowed into Pedasí, a town of about 2,000 people. We found a cool little earth house to stay in for a few days while we explored the area, which immediately felt perfect. Endless empty beaches, fishing opportunities galore, delicious restaurants, and a weekly Farmer’s Market. Absolutely EBTIECHI!

We decided that a month in this village would be exciting. However, when I started to explore the options via house rental apps, the prices for a month did not feel exciting or aligned AND we couldn’t find what we desired. My mind wanted to say, “Told you so!”, but I knew I could EBTIECHI this. I journaled with my Inner Being and received the song, “Wait for It”, from Hamilton. :)

Near the end of our earth house stay, I was walking on the beach and I saw a gringo approaching from the other direction. I had the nudge to talk to him, and he must have had the nudge to reciprocate, as we chatted for about twenty minutes. He was an avid fisherman, and shared that he and his wife had relocated from Texas and were having a home built in Pedasí.

He invited us to join them for a Thankgiving dinner at a local restaurant the next evening.

This felt like an absolute yes, and Tom and I had such an enjoyable meal with our new couple friends. During dinner I asked how people went about long term rentals in the area, and they shared the What’s App group for the community of Pedasí and one just for rentals! Amazing! A whole world of possibilities opened up!

That night I sent a message to the rental What’s App group, stating exactly what we were looking for in a home and our price range. I immediately had an abundance of incredible responses, but I could feel the energy of one in particular, a housing manager named Serge. The pictures of the house he sent looked absolutely perfect: actually even beyond what we were looking for, at our exact price range!

Serge said he would take us to see the house the next day. We met him in the town square and as we hopped into his car it just felt so right, before even seeing the home.

Serge asked us where we were from and I said, “Alaska”.

He responded with amazement, saying the owners of the home were also from Alaska...” a town named Takutnta, or Takeeta, something like that.”

I believe I screamed, grabbed his arm and said, “TALKEETNA? That is where we are from!”

Here we were, in a tiny remote village in Panamá, going to see a home owned by folks from my even tinier and more remote village in Alaska. As my dear friend Sarah says, you can’t make this up!

Well, the house was beyond EBTIECHI, and the crazy thing it was only available for that particular month due to a glitch in the owners’ travel schedule.

We loved every minute in that perfect home. Our time in Pedasí was beyond magical (probably deserving of its own post) and this experience is what truly solidified my belief in releasing the need to plan and control, and instead following the energy and light in travel.

This is just one fun example, but the rest of our Panamá adventure unfolded in miraculous ways, (in my belief) by being open, receptive, and full of love, joy, appreciation and trust. A few EBTIECHI highlights:

*pennies waiting in a bowl at our Pedasí rental (and everywhere thereafter!)

*offers for housesitting epic homes

*tide pools, rainbows, incredible fishing, shooting stars, swimming in refreshing jungle rivers

*howler monkeys on isolated beaches

*a farmer’s market vendor who would save his special greens in a cooler for me, so they wouldn’t sell out before I arrived

*new friends baking us cookies and treating us to meals

*accidentally renting a home exactly between a MC Yogi retreat and a YouTube fisherman personality (celebrities to Tom and I)

*homemade dark cacao ice cream delivered to our home

*so much more!!