Hi Russ, and thanks for the warm welcome! :-)

I'm very happy to have found this forum, there is a lot of information to be found here!!

That's great your friend is moving to Panama! Here's a thought...take a trip there and see how you feel. It's beautiful there, the people are very friendly and helpful, the weather was perfect and the ocean with all it's healing properties was close by. We took about a half hour boat ride to Bocas Del Toro (which I hear is flooding at the moment)and spent 2 days on the island doing nothing but lounging on the isolated beach.
If you're a nervous driver, I would advise ya not to drive. Scared the heck out of me watching my husband drive Panama City as well as David. There are permanent claw marks on that rental car dashboard, lol