A Slow Start to Nomad Life: Wandering Avenida Balboa, Panama City, Panama

When we decided to start our full-time nomad journey, we knew we wanted to ease into it. No whirlwind itinerary, no rushing from one country to the next. Just time—time to settle, to adjust, and to really live somewhere. Panama City, Panama became our first stop, and it’s been the perfect place to begin. While we have lived in many countries for up to 90 days at a time, this was our first stop without having a home of our own to come back to, and this is just a few hour flight back to the states.

We rented a condo (AirBNB) on Avenida Balboa, right in the heart of the city, with sweeping views of the water and the skyline. From our windows, we watch the city shift with the light, and just across the street, the Cinta Costera stretches out like a postcard—our favorite part of the day often begins there. We can also see the boats lining up to go through the Panama Canal, which is surprisingly entertaining!

That part of the city and the views, REALLY make this area comfortable. It is much hotter and more humid than we are used to and there is a lot of rain - we knew this coming in and expected it. Our original plan was to travel down through South America, but it has not quite worked out that way…I’ll get to that in additional posts.

We took a week to see if this place could meet our needs and it does. We found a couple nice groceries, a nice wine and cheese shop, and the walking along the coast is just beautiful and very convenient. WiFi is fast and reliable -actually better than I have back home (a trend I’ve found while traveling). While we don’t LOVE our AirBNB, we are coming back to Panama City after a quick 2.5 weeks at home to regroup based on our modified plans (including my first cruise and back to Europe — mostly Portugal — for winter.