Yesterday I met with a couple of new Panamanian residents who are both active bloggers. We had a very interesting couple of beers.

Firstly John Baeyens who is a Belgian entrepreneur. He is the guy behind PhotoBlog, which is a really cool (you guessed it) Photo Blog site. He and the entire company are moving from Belgium to Panama in October. He says in many ways it’s a logical choice as they have many clients in Latin America.

Secondly Willy who is the guy behind A42.com. He is another very interesting guy, who has lived all over the world. He recently moved here from Costa Rica. Willy is an avid OSS/Linux fanatic, it’s good to see more like this here.

The conversation was long and varried about everything from life in Panama, to economics and politics. John mentions that no one back home in Belgium can quite understand why he’s leaving and why he’s going to Panama.

For me it’s not just the weather and the low cost of living, it’s something much more fundamental about personal freedoms. As an expat you always give up some freedoms you are used to at home, but you generally achieve a much greater freedom than you can ever have at home in a place filled with many expectations about who you should be and how you should act.

I am happy to say I’m a chronic expat. I left Denmark when I was 20 (14 years ago). So I don’t really have many of those expectations hanging over me.

Anyway another reason that we all like Panama is that it is so cosmopolitan. We literally have people here from every country in the world. You yourself choose to what extent you integrate in society. But no one wonders why you are here.