We’re going to Panama — and you’re coming with us
On April 10, 2026, Brian and Kent pack their bags and head to Panama City for the first time as serious expat candidates. Follow along as we report back on everything — the gay scene, the grocery prices, the attorney meetings, and the moments in between.
Panama City
April 10 – 22, 2026Well. It’s happening.
After months of reading, researching, debating over dinner, reading some more, and filling this website with everything we’ve been able to learn about Panama from a distance — we are actually going. Bags are being packed. Flights are booked. April 10th, Brian and Kent will board a plane to Panama City, and we’ll be there into April 22.
And we want you to follow along.
Every guide on this site has been built from research. The late April and May posts will be built from actually being there — and that’s a different thing entirely.
Here’s what drove us to write this. When we started researching Panama seriously, we kept running into the same problem: great information that was six months old, or two years old, or clearly written by someone who’d visited once and extrapolated. Prices that didn’t match what people were actually paying. Venues that had closed. A general cheerfulness that glossed over the things that genuinely matter to us as a gay couple trying to figure out if this country could be home.
We built this site to be different. And now we’re going to go prove it.
What we’re planning to cover
This isn’t a vacation. We’re going as researchers, reporters, and — honestly — two guys who are genuinely figuring out whether Panama is where we want to spend the next chapter. Everything we see, eat, pay for, wonder about, and discover goes into the blog.
What we’re documenting in April & May
Grocery store price photography
We’re walking the aisles of El Rey, Super 99, Riba Smith, and a local market with a camera. Actual shelf prices on produce, meat, dairy, wine, imported goods, and pantry staples — side by side, so you can compare what shopping local really costs versus buying the imported stuff you’re used to.
Hardware stores and home goods
What does a basic home improvement run cost in Panama? We’re visiting El Machetazo and Novey — Panama’s equivalents to Home Depot — and pricing out tools, building supplies, paint, and fixtures. Useful if you’re thinking about renovating a rental or eventually buying property.
Getting around the city
We’re riding the metro, taking the MetroBus, timing Uber rides across different neighborhoods, and showing you real receipts — not estimates. Including what it costs with the Pensionado discount applied.
Restaurants — from fondas to fine dining
Actual bills from a local Panamanian fonda, a mid-range restaurant, and a nicer dinner in Casco Viejo. Pensionado discount applied and shown. Plus an honest take on what Panama City’s food scene is actually like.
The neighborhoods, on the ground
Casco Viejo, El Cangrejo, Bella Vista, Punta Pacifica — we’ll be wandering all of them. What do they actually feel like to walk around? Where would we actually want to wake up every morning?
The mall — yes, the mall
Panama City has some impressive shopping. We’ll visit Multiplaza and Albrook Mall to give you a sense of what retail looks like — clothing prices, electronics, what’s available, what isn’t, what costs more than it would at home.
The gay scene — firsthand
We’re visiting the gay bars. BLG, XS Club, Maluka Panamá, El Sótano — and yes, HamMan Sauna. We’ll tell you what each place is actually like: the crowd, the vibe, how welcoming it feels to an English-speaking expat couple walking in for the first time. Real reporting, not a press release.
Brian’s Pensionado visa — we’re starting the process
Here’s the piece of this trip that’s the most personally significant for us: Brian will be meeting with our attorney in Panama City to begin the formal Pensionado visa application process.
What is the Pensionado visa?
Panama’s Pensionado visa grants immediate permanent residency to anyone with a lifetime pension of at least $1,000/month — including U.S. Social Security. It comes with legally mandated discounts on healthcare, restaurants, transportation, entertainment, and more. It’s one of the best retirement visa programs in the world, and it’s how most American retirees establish legal residency in Panama. We’ve written a full guide to it here if you want the details.
We’ll be documenting that process as honestly as we document everything else. What documents did we need? What did the attorney meeting actually look like? What questions came up that we hadn’t anticipated? If you’re thinking about the Pensionado visa yourself, following Brian’s process in real time will give you a much more concrete sense of what’s involved than any checklist can.
We’re not going to pretend it’s going to be perfectly smooth or that we have all the answers before we walk in the door. That’s the point. We’re figuring this out alongside you.
Why we’re telling you all this
Honestly? Because the best thing about the expat research process — the part that actually helps — is hearing from people who are one step ahead of you and being real about it. Not the polished “we moved to Panama and it’s paradise” version. The version where you’re standing in a grocery store photographing price tags, wondering if the internet will be fast enough in the apartment you’re looking at, and trying to figure out how to ask an attorney a question you’re not sure how to phrase.
That’s the version we’re going to give you.
We’ll be posting throughout the trip — not one giant wrap-up after the fact, but real-time dispatches as we move through the city. Subscribe to the newsletter below and you’ll get each post the moment it goes up. Or bookmark the blog and check back. Either way, we’d love to have you along.
Panama is either going to feel like home or it isn’t. We’re going to find out.
— Brian & Kent
Follow along in real time
Subscribe to the newsletter and get each post delivered the moment it goes live — starting late April when we land in Panama City.
Subscribe to the newsletter → Browse all postsBrian & Kent — Gay Expat Panama
We’re a gay couple who spent years watching Panama from the outside and finally decided to find out if it’s really as good as everyone says. This site is what we wish had existed when we started researching. We write everything ourselves, we verify everything we can, and we tell you when we don’t know something. Reach us any time at he***@*************ma.com.
