It was a case of beauty and the beast – roughly speaking.

And the key word is rough. It describes the infrastructure in the Panama City, Panama, city center.

With its status as the financial center of a region stretching from the south end of Central America to Colombia in northern South America, the city boasts gleaming, modern skyscrapers and high-rises, many housing international bank branches. That’s the beauty part.

But you don’t want to gaze upward at those majestic buildings, or you might find yourself in a 3-foot hole in the sidewalk, your feet covered with trash. Even when watching your step, it needs to navigate broken and uneven concrete in many places. And you’d better know exactly where you’re going, because street signs are non-existent. That’s the beast part.

I learned all of this during four days attending a conference of International Living, an agency that scouts out locations across the globe and ranks them for subscribers who are potential expatriates – people who relocate out of their country. Their numbers are on the rise in the United States as the political chaos and turmoil wrought by the new presidential administration worsen, and the United States’ very democracy is threatened. High inflation, tamed in recent months, could break out again due to unbridled trade, immigration and domestic policies. And, with this new guy heading the Department of Health and Human Services – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the pariah of the famous Kennedy political family – the price of eggs may never come down as the bird flu continues to spread and the health czar seems bent on letting contagions run amok. I eat eggs daily, and my wallet is looking slimmer.

So … what to do. Panama has lots of advantages, such as the pensionado program for expats that gives big discounts on most things (including eggs) if you have income of at least $12,000 annually. The health care system is excellent and inexpensive, and the food is healthier than the fare available in the U.S. The conference dug into just about every detail of moving to and living in the country, except one of high importance to me: how large and active the expat community is. I’m single and certainly not a young dude. I’d want to make friends to do things with. But little was said on that subject.

The elephant in the room for a lot of attendees was the Donald Trump factor (Do I have to call him President Trump? Presidents Day is over.) But no speaker brought it up. An audience member did. Panamanians seem to have a wait-and-see attitude toward the orange guy’s stated intention to take over the country. They don’t seem too concerned.

While I didn’t make any friends on my brief stay in Panama, I did strike up a friendship on the plane trip back to Tampa. Sitting bolt upright in the middle of three seats, my knees brushing the back of the seat in front (I’ve often wondered if sardines didn’t feel claustrophobic in those little cans), I read from John Grisham’s hugely successful legal thriller The Firm. Noticing, the woman in the aisle seat remarked, “Isn’t that a coincidence? I just saw a movie based on The Chamber.” She had read a number of Grisham’s nearly 50 novels.

The marketing side of my authoring surged to the fore. I pulled from my wallet a card bearing the cover of Blood on Their Hands, and showed it to her. “My most recent and best novel,” I said. Turning it over, I pointed to an excerpt from an Amazon reviewer: “If you’re a Grisham fan, you will love this book.” The woman gazed, mouth open, and exclaimed, “I’m going to get this book.” I pointed to the info on Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died, and related the true story portrayed in the novel. “I’m going to get that book, too.” The plane landed and, as we parted, she repeated her intentions to buy. A few minutes later, I wanted to kick myself for failing to ask for reviews on Amazon. I’m hoping she contacts me.

But I digress. Besides needing the company of other expats in the new nation I choose, things to do is an important consideration. I’m a jazz buff, like a lot of classical music, and have recently become passionate about ping pong – excuse me, aficionados, table tennis. Panama City has a population of 1.1 million, large enough to support these pastimes. One symphony orchestra exists in the whole country of 4.5 million, compared with 23 for Mexico’s 128.5 million. So Panama’s music climate appears a little more robust per capita than Mexico’s, except when one considers that Mexico is a lot poorer than Panama.

Why am I homing in on Mexico? Because that’s where I intend to explore relocation options next. Merida in the Yucatan Peninsula is considered a quite attractive, comparatively upscale city, but I’m not certain about its cultural attractions. Farther west, I’ll probably look at San Miguel de Allende, the Lake Chapala area, and nearby Guadalajara, the country’s second largest city with 5 million.

An important consideration is the milieu for writers. San Miguel has a reputation as fertile grounds for visual artists and writers. Farther west, Chapala and Ajijic, two adjacent small cities with a plethora of expats, have been home to a few famous authors from way back. But I also want a place with a literary-oriented population, so I can make my books known. Who knows? By then I may have found a publisher for my creative nonfiction manuscript Little Rag Doll: The Story of Wanda.

If anybody in reader land has experience with the places I mentioned, or others, I’d appreciate your input.

Ping pong awaits. Then the publisher search resumes.