Those are good questions.  Seems to me the infrastructure is getting worse, even after all the promises of improvements.  The Canal thing is fixable, but will likely require major cash, hopefully without the graft (fat chance!)  While I agree, in part, with a limited quarantine in the current circumstances, the way the government has gone about it is nothing short of draconian.  I can be out of my house for 4 hours per 168 hour week, too short a time to wait in line at Rey's.  That, simply, is house arrest.  Alcohol might have alleviated the situation a bit, but Panama and South Africa (great company) are the only Countries to adopt such a stringent measure.  Would I recommend Panama to prospective immigrants?  A resounding NO and for this main reason:.  The breadth of government control and the ease that it was implemented over every aspect of our lives is just frightening.  I can live with power outages and water interruptions but this has gone way too far.  Ooops, time to get off the soapbox..

JohnF this is tom I live in New Mexico. I would like to hear some more from you. we are considering moving to boquete but not certain it is a good idea. tell me more.

Hi Tom,

In general, Panama is very nice and its people are easy to live with.  The climate is excellent (especially for those of us escaping snow) and the availability of many different types of climate to suit your needs is second to none.  However, this pandemic has highlighted the fact that we have a very draconian government who have the explicit backing of the National Police to do pretty much anything they want.  Lawyers I speak to tell me that the measures brought in by the government go against the Panamanian Constitution, but they just don’t care as there is no real opposition.  In general, the Panamanian people will unquestioningly do what the government dictates, they just don’t have the background rebellious nature of some Countries.  If that bothers you, then this is not the place to be.  However, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives (I likely wouldn’t be saying that if we were still under house arrest) and I do like it here.  Hopefully, as we come out of this thing cooler heads will prevail and a more sensible approach to these sort of problems will be developed.

We have been here 13 years.  We LOVE it here.....everything about it.  By the various modes of confinement and mandates Panama is keeping its rate of transmission at an almost even level.... RT 1 ( a bit over) .   Health care in this country is not that of the USA therefore management has to be more strict in order to offer care to the sick when needed.  As it is, hotels are now being used.  Draconian?  From a nurse's  POV I'd say they are doing a pretty good job holding back the virus 

Infrastructure....always a problem and worse in certain areas. 

Alison