#1 Arrival to Panama 30th Aug

The Flight

Seventeen hours on a Turkish Airlines A350 carried us across the Atlantic. Jet-lagged and bleary-eyed, we bundled into an Uber bound for Costa del Este, where an Airbnb apartment was waiting for us, booked for sixteen days.

The Airbnb

On paper, it looked flawless. The listing showed a high-floor apartment with sweeping views, a spacious living room, and access to a gym and pool. In reality, the views were there, but the interior told another story. The carpets from the photos were gone. Lighting came in two flavors: sterile office blue and disco ball kitsch. The windows wore a blue tinted film that turned daylight into something artificial. In one word: underwhelming.

The worst of it was the heater. Everything in the apartment ran on natural gas the stove, the dryer, even the washing machine but the heater was maddening. To coax warm water, we had to open two taps at full heat and wait two to three minutes for it to reach the shower. Three or four minutes later, it would shut down again, leaving us either in lukewarm water or forced to restart the whole ritual. Showers became a race against time.

The Search

Frustration drove us out into the city almost immediately. For two days straight we toured apartments across Panama, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood in search of something better. The breakthrough came on Reef Island, where we walked into a building completed in 2020. Bright, modern, with all the amenities we were looking for and nearly fully furnished, it felt like a place we could actually call home. We made an offer, and to our relief it was quickly accepted.

The Payment

The next challenge was money. The landlord refused cash, Bitcoin, or stablecoins, insisting on a traditional bank transfer. Opening a Panamanian bank account is not easy almost impossible for a non-resident. Even in the best case scenario, with the help of a law firm, the process would take two to three weeks. We had no choice but to improvise. The amount was split into three parts and deposited as cash at three different bank branches in a single afternoon. Exhausting, but it worked.

Moving In

Our final conditions before taking the keys were not small: a full deep cleaning of the apartment, washing all the carpets, and adding a few essential kitchen appliances including a coffee machine we simply couldn’t live without. On moving day, however, the technicians tasked with cleaning the air-conditioning system uncovered a bigger issue. The drains had been improperly installed, with no slope to carry water away, so it leaked directly onto the faux ceiling. To fix it, they had to cut the ceiling open.

By then we were too committed to turn back. We hauled our things in anyway, settling into rooms still buzzing with work. Over the next days, plumbers, installers, plasterers, and painters moved through the apartment in shifts. It wasn’t the smooth beginning we had hoped for, but between the hum of tools and the smell of fresh plaster, the place slowly started to feel like ours.

Victor’s Study Space

The next task was carving out a real study space for Victor. For nearly two weeks he had been in his new online school a program he already loves but the “classrooms” along the way were far from ideal. In The Hague, he squeezed into a narrow desk in the corridor. In Turkey, we shared a double room, and his lessons forced us out of it every evening from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. In the Airbnb, he claimed the only table available the dining table, cluttered with books and cables.

Seascape finally gave us the chance to change that. One of the bedrooms, once holding a just a queen bed, was slowly transformed into his classroom. It took us a couple of days, slowed down by the lack of internet we had to wait for a separate contract with the ISP but in the meantime, the coworking space next door became his temporary campus.

Today, the 9th of September, marks a small but important milestone: his first day at his own desk.

A big monitor, a full-sized keyboard, even the option to stand while working it’s a space designed not just for lessons but for focus, play, and growth.