Living and Investing in Panama [Paperback]

Christopher Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 2004

Ist edition 2004 by Christopher Howard.

In this one of a kind book,is everything you need to know to live, retire and make money in Central Americas most overlooked country.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"We highly recommend this guidebook to anyone thinking of living or investing in Panama." -- Central America Weekly

About the Author

Christopher Howard is one of the few authors of many guide books about Central America who actually lives in the region. It is not surprising therefore, that he is considered to be the foremost expert on all areas of living, retirement and investing in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Costa Rica Books (October 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188123312X
• ISBN-13: 978-1881233121
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Central America > Panama

More About the Author

Christopher Howard has resided in Costa Rica for over 30 years and is Costa Rican citizen. During this time, he has had the opportunity to gather a plethora of information about living, retiring and investing in Costa Rica. It is not surprising that he has first-hand knowledge and insight into all aspects of Costa Rica's culture and its people. Because of his expertise, he is a frequent lecturer at numerous retirement and investment seminars. He has also appeared on the NBC Today Show and CNBC World Business News and was interviewed for Good Morning America.

Mr. Howard has extensive foreign language background, having earned a B.A in Latin American studies and a Masters degree in Spanish from the University of California. The author writes columns titled "Learning the Language" for the Association of Residents of Costa Rica's magazine La Voz, "Short Cuts for Learning Spanish" for the newspapers AM Costa Rica and Inside Costa Rica and the Costa Rica Living News Group.

Christopher has written 14 language and travel guidebooks about Latin America including 16 editions of the perennial bestselling "New Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica", "Official Guide to Costa Rica Spanish" and the one-of-a-kind "Guide to Real Estate in Costa Rica."

Due to a multitude of requests from the readers of his guidebooks, Christopher Howard began to offer monthly relocation and retirement tours to Costa Rica starting in 1997. Since then he has personally helped thousands of people move to Costa Rica successfully through his one-of-a-kind licensed tours, seminars and private consultation services. Please see www.liveincostarica.com for more information about his unique tours.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, but..., August 12, 2005

By 

KV Trout (Centerville, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Living and Investing in Panama (Paperback)

I've never seen a book with more typographical errors. It looks like no one proof read it, they just published the rough draft... Usually a few typos doesn't bother me but there are so many here, it is annoying and makes you feel like the author didn't put much effort into the work.

Okay, aside from that, it does have some good info, and since it is basically the ONLY book on living in Panama, you will have to buy it. (There is another one but it has no reviews here, and I took a trip to 2 book stores and did not find it in either store.)

He only gives you the lowdown on a couple of the most well-known areas to live in Panama, doesn't give any info on any "off the beaten path" places where one might (?) find cheaper real estate.

Actually, he does not go very much into buying real estate at all. How about some names of attorneys to use, that people have used and recommended? How about some realtors (other than himself and a couple others)? How about more info on buying real estate which one would assume one would need to know if one is planning to "live and invest in Panama". How about the procedures for surveying and checking the land you are going to buy? How about other tips for checking and buying real estate? There are a lot of things that could have made this book better but it seems the author was just into making a fast buck, rushing out a book on Panama before someone else beat him to it.

I found this book very disappointing. I think anyone could have written as good a book with just a few months of research. [...] Everyone says that Howard's book on neighboring Costa Rica is great. I haven't read it. But this one is far from "great".

It should have been much better. Buy it only if another one isn't available by the time you read this. And really, if anyone is interested in writing one, this one won't be hard to beat, at all.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sadly, You Have to Buy It, January 3, 2006

By 

John "Kula Kine" (Kula, HI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living and Investing in Panama (Paperback)

Unfortunately, this is only one of two (the other / better being "Choose Panama by William Hutchings") books about retiring to Panama. Equally unfortunately, if you are serious about moving to Panama Mr. Howard's book has a lot of useful information and you are left with no choice but to buy it.

That said, the book loses one star (and I'm being kind) for being so poorly edited. The author is a native english speaker, there is no excuse and it is simply disrespectful to your audience to have such a mountain of typographical errors. [...]

That said, all [...] absurd editing aside, this book is a must buy if you are serious about moving to Panama. [...]

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok info, bad presentation, July 5, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Living and Investing in Panama (Paperback)

Although the content of this book was somewhat helpful, I could hardly get past the typos. It looks as though the rough draft might have been mistakenly published. Also, several of the websites listed were not available. There is some advertising in the book here and there and some of those businesses are also not accesible via the internet. For the price of the book, I felt it to be poorly put together and would not recommend spending the money.