An Unexpected & Unusual Retirement - Sharon Whiteside

Sharon Whiteside a Canadian and avid rambler who spends half the year living on her boat in Ontario and the other in a tiny eco-house in the paradise of Panama.

When Sole Sisters asked me to share a story about living on a houseboat or being an expat in Panama, it took me a long time to start writing. The problem I realized was that these two stories are actually a single story of my journey to an unexpected and unusual semi-retirement lifestyle.

A little background. I am 61 years old, married for the second time, with two grown kids, two grown steps, five grandkids, and two grandpuppies. I've had several careers, including being a travel agent, fitness instructor, sales representative, marketing and event planner, and fundraiser. Currently, I work part-time doing virtual administration support.

I'm not a risk taker, but my husband is, so we balance each other out and do things our friends say are brave, and others say are crazy. We've had a wild ride these last few years, but we've come out on top.

Early in my relationship with my husband, he was offered a job in Mexico, and we decided to sell everything and move down there for a year. A year turned into two and a half. Our most significant takeaways from that experience were how little stuff we needed to get by and that we wanted to escape the Canadian winters every year.

In 2017, we went to Panama on vacation and instantly fell in love with the people, the weather, the food, and the feel of the place. So, we started looking for a property where we could live out our snowbird retirement dreams. A year later, we found a small plot of land, spent four months preparing to build a home, and then returned to Canada for the summer.

We returned to Panama again in December 2019, and rented an apartment in a quaint beach town called Gorgona. Gorgona sits on a spectacular black sand beach near a large expat community in nearby Coronado. We hired a contractor to build our new house and started integrating ourselves into this vibrant community.

Then the pandemic arrived, so we were forced to return to Canada without knowing where we would live. We sealed our half built Panama house for the duration and flew back to Canada on the last international flight before the airport closed.

When we arrived in Canada, we moved into a friend's basement and then an Airbnb to wait out the lockdowns and figure out what to do next. Neither of us was working as the pandemic ended both of our jobs. We could not afford to return to Panama until May 2021. When we did, my stomach was in knots while we rode the bus to our property about what shape our tiny half-finished house would be in. I was happy and relieved to see it was fine!

However, the house was not yet livable, so once again, we rented an apartment in Gorgona and got started on our to-do list. I joined the local Gorgona expats Facebook group (organized by our intrepid Sole Sister Karyn Saunders). This is how I met fellow Sole Sister Jane Witherspoon.

It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. We rambled often, and it felt like I'd known her for years. Jane introduced me to some of her friends, as she had lived in Panama for many years. I discovered that there is a fantastic expat community in Panama. My friendship with Jane eventually led me to Sole Sisters, which I immensely enjoy.

I returned to Canada in August of 2021, and my husband returned in October. Still nomadic and homeless in Canada, we discussed housing options for our Canadian summers. A YouTube video about a couple living on a TugBoat near Toronto Island in Ontario sparked our interest in living on a boat.

So we started searching and bought a boat. We soon became the proud owners of a 1967 Chris Craft Cavalier—a vintage treasure, 38 feet in length, with twin Corvette engines.

We spent our first two nights aboard, thinking about everything we didn't know! My husband had crewed on a sailboat when he was a teen but has no boating experience and am a poor swimmer who is afraid of being in water over my head. What the heck were we thinking?

However, after more than two and half years of living with friends, I was thrilled to finally have a kitchen of my own! When I said this, I was quickly corrected and told it's called a galley. I was also thrilled to have a bathroom (the head), a bedroom (stateroom), and a guest room (crew quarters).

However, it was October, and the marina was closing for the winter, so we had to put our excitement on hold and learn how to get our boat out of the water, winterize it, and put it into storage.

We were planning to return to Panama for the winter to work on our house, but as often is the case, life had other ideas. My mother-in-law became very ill, so we stayed in Canada until she died and my husband grieved. Once again, we found jobs and lived in a friend's basement. Except for a short trip to Panama, we remained basement dwellers until we finally got our new boat home on the water in April 2022.

We returned to Panama again in December 2022 and rented a tiny apartment as our house was not quite ready to move into. My husband and the crew worked hard to get it ready to move in.

We finally moved in January 2023, and I love my tiny house in paradise. The home we chose to build is an earth-covered dome and is the first of its kind in Panama. The main floor is a standard cement block, but the second floor is made of fiberglass and polymer panels that fit together like giant Lego and then are covered in waterproofing earth.

The earth helps insulate and keep it cool in the heat, and the greenery on top helps our home blend into the scenery. We left as many trees and plants as possible, and are often visited by butterflies, hummingbirds, and many other birds I cannot yet identify. The geckos chase the bugs as the sun sets, and the tree frogs sing at night. We have a mango tree on our property, and when they are in season, there is nothing like a bowl of fresh mango to start the day!

My husband and I love to sit on the deck and enjoy our morning coffee or evening cocktail, listening to the sounds of nature and reveling in our space.

Many expats from Canada and the USA live in the Coronado area, so many restaurants cater to that crowd with wing and beer nights, sports bars that screen hockey games and other sports events. There is also an English book exchange, karaoke nights, and so on.

We mostly only visit the expat restaurants when we have guests, but we love the local Fondas. A Fonda is a small restaurant, usually located in the front living area of a local house, that serves a set daily menu. They don't sell alcohol and typically don't offer a bathroom, but they all have a sink where you can wash up before eating.

Fondas typically serve what is called a Comida Corrida, which includes meat (usually chicken, pork, or a shredded beef stew), rice, beans, a small green salad or coleslaw, and fried plantain for about $5. Local juice from whatever fruit is in season is also available for about $2. It is a fantastic meal, and we love supporting the locals and have made many connections in the community by frequenting these spots.

I have also connected with wonderful expat locals, including other Sole Sisters. We enjoy hiking, meeting for dinner and movie nights, and classes at a local art space catering to those with zero artistic talent.

When people ask us, "Why Panama?" I always say, "WHY NOT?" It's easy to get here (there is a 5-hour direct flight from Toronto), many locals speak English, and encourage our bad Spanish. The food is inexpensive and fresh, the weather is gorgeous, and the people are friendly and welcoming.

From a practical perspective, the internet is excellent and inexpensive, and the main roads are well maintained. It's hard to get lost as the primary highway runs along the entire coast, so as long as you have water on one side and mountains on the other, you know where you are!

It is also easy to get residency visas. We have the Friendly Nations Visa as we are not of retirement age and don't have a government or work-provided pension.

The Panamanian government offers a Pensianado program for women over 55 and men over 60. As a resident, you get discounts on things like car insurance (our vehicle insurance is $160 a year), chain restaurants, airline tickets, and movie tickets. We can see a first-run movie for $2.50. We also get a preferred lineup at the bank and the grocery store at the meat/deli counter to get served quickly.

Respect for the elderly is a core value here, and the government takes good care of older people. Health care is inexpensive and many prescription medications are half the price of back home.

What don't I like about Panama? Well, it's hard to whine when you live in paradise, but garbage is a significant factor. Litter on the beach and along the roads is a concern. While the government is working to fix it, it will take a generation of teaching to get people to stop chucking their garbage out car windows or leaving it on the beach. The few garbage cans provided at the beach are often overflowing, and the dogs get into them and drag garbage all over the place.

For me, the slower pace of life is a love hate thing. While I enjoy a slower lifestyle, I have also had to lower my expectations when I leave the house with a to-do list.

Many wealthy Panamanian families have beach homes in Coronado and come here from Panama City for weekends and holidays. That means the traffic in and around town often gets very backed up and hectic. We plan our weekly errands around this and understand that we must adapt to the local ways.

I recommend Panama as a place to retire. However, I caution those thinking of doing this to visit for a few weeks, explore different areas of the country, and visit at different times of the year. It is a small country but with many different microclimates. 

In closing, as I sit in my floating tiny house on Lake Ontario, I am excited to say we have booked tickets for our next winter in Paradise. I am already feeling the chill at night and seeing the fall and winter clothes in the stores, so I am ready! I love the boat life, but I am okay with closing her up for another season because I know my other life is just as magical.

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