When Frank and I traveled to Panama (2015), our oldest son Brandon asked us to check the prices on a cell phone and tablet for his personal use. It turned out that a couple of the stores we went to the prices seemed really low. After sending him the photos and the specs he told us that they were Chinese knockoffs, and that’s what we suspected but we were not one hundred percent sure since the fakes look (almost) just like the real deal.
Beware of Chinese Knockoffs
You have to be careful because Panama is full of Chinese knockoffs, from electronics to foods. It can be confusing if you’re not sure what to look for because sometimes the fakes look just like the real thing. For those of you, who aren’t sure what Chinese knockoffs are, let us tell you in a nutshell.
Chinese knockoffs are counterfeit items made to look like the real thing and without the consent of the “actual” brand owner. Knockoffs cost far less than the real item, but that’s because they are usually made of poor quality and come with defects. So be wary when shopping for electronics, making sure you are buying the real item manufactured by the real company.
See some pricing of name brand tablets and computers in the video below.
Electronics Stores in Panama
The good news is the established electronic stores will not sell counterfeits. The two biggest electronic stores in Panama are PanaFoto and PriceSmart. We could easily venture to say that PanaFoto is the equivalent to a major electronic store in the U.S, perhaps like Best Buy. Price Smart too, has some great values on electronics but their selection is not as big as PanaFoto.
We picked up a good computer deal at PanaFoto when we were there and brought it back to Ecuador with us and we’re really glad we did; the same computer in Ecuador would have cost twice as much. After three weeks of combing the city and going into all the electronic stores, comparing computer prices and other electronics all over Panama City, here’s what we found out.
We Found Out This
The consumer will pay just a pinch more than in the U.S, unless a computer is on sale and we found that the really great buys were almost always dated computers. For someone who doesn’t need the latest technology, you’ll be able to pick up on some good deals just like in the U.S.
PanaFoto and PriceSmart both have some great cell phone and tablet deals as well. So all in all if you’re going to visit Panama or live there now, we found the two best places to buy what you need in the electronic arena are in these two stores. PanaFoto also sells small and large name brand kitchen appliances and other neat kitchen gadgets and small appliances. Oddly the store did not carry an Ethernet cable or a VGA monitor cable.
If you like Mall shopping, we did notice about three or four smaller electronic stores that carried some great deals on electronics, however their inventory is much smaller than PanaFoto or PriceSmart but it’s worth a look. Albrook Mall is huge though, you might be in there all day trying to find the electronic stores. Use the map at the entrances to the store to make life easier on you.
Websites:
PriceSmart - https://shop.pricesmart.com/pa/sp/
PanaFoto - http://www.panafoto.com/
Until we write again…
If you liked this article, then you might like these too!
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
Welcome to Gringo Good Samaritans, integrated with our 8 years of living in Cuenca Ecuador and traveling the world. We create informative videos and articles helping people come to awareness of what's happening in our world so they can enjoy their retire early lifestyle with their families, healthy, happy and free!
Live Healthy, Happy and Free
12 countries in 12 years
Friday, November 13, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Retiring or Moving Abroad? Have You Been Told Everything?
Have you been told everything? There's a lot to know! The nitty-gritty of life abroad is not something that anyone can tell you in just a video. It's what we've been telling our readers and viewers all along from the beginning. Our experiences and our conversations with the local people. Want to know the nitty-gritty about Panama? Then check out all of our videos and articles about Panama because like we said, there's a lot to know.
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
There’s a Bug Going Around in Cuenca and it’s Not Pretty, It’s Nasty!
I cannot remember ever being this ill. It started about a week to ten days ago when our oldest son came home with a scratchy throat, headache and feeling really tired. He was sick for one day and was fine. I guess that’s being young for you. Then our middle son caught what Brandon had except, he was in bed with a weird headache and fever for two days, off and on because whatever this bug is, it drains you of energy. Angelo still has a persistent dry cough a week later.
A fever always kills the bugs or they leave that host and find another immune deficient body to play their games in, and that happened to be our youngest son. He couldn’t understand why he caught this disgusting bug because he’d been eating lots of garlic ever since the bug became interested in our family. I asked him, “What else have you been eating”? The two biggest culprits he told me about were milk and sugar.
I promptly told my son, who was very disappointed to catch this terrible bug that only doing one thing right, such as eating garlic, will not necessarily keep you from getting ill with infectious viruses and bugs that are going around. It is only one line of defense. We have to keep our body in tip-top shape in all areas of health for our immunity to resist these persistent bugs, and now that we live in Ecuador, maybe new strains of bugs.
So the story goes, Alex had the scratchy throat and fever too and is now sick with a persistent cough. Come to find out the scratchy throat and the fever keeps waking you up all night long so the next day you will feel really tired and draggy, plus headachy. Ugh!
I still had not contracted the bug and felt fine. So, what stupid thing did I do? Well, I had (only) two pieces of Whitman Sampler chocolate candies (I never indulge like I used to when I was younger) and not but a half hour later my throat began feeling really strange. That’s how it comes on…very slowly and slyly.
Now before I began, let me tell you, Frank and I rarely get sick, except when we allow ourselves to get sick by eating sugar, white flour, having a lot of stress, and being out in the more polluted areas of Cuenca, where more buses travel, etc, etc.
That day, I had a big plate of chicken and Chinese noodles (white flour) for lunch. I really wish that I would have combined my food groups properly like Frank did. He ordered the chicken with vegetables, a completely healthy and proper combination of foods. However, I made a healthy dinner of homemade lentil burgers that night for dinner, but then I go and top it off with two Whitman Sampler chocolates later that evening. Plus I had coffee with milk.
Pasteurized products are another big no-no if we want our resistance levels to be unaffected by these nasty critters.
So, the four things I did that made my resistance low was eating white flour, sugar, milk, and going out in the polluted areas of Cuenca…I had too many whiffs of diesel fumes enter into my lungs three days in a row before getting this mean bug.
So, we turn out the lights around 10pm and my throat is feeling slightly scratchy. I get up and gargle with warm salt water and go back to bed. I did somehow fall asleep but awoke from weird dreams, a disgusting sand-paper throat, heart palpitations, chills, and I felt listless. Feeling listless is fine when you are in bed, but what about if and when you get up. This bug was attacking my body and this germ was tough!
Having a fever, if not above 103 degrees is perfectly fine to have. Any higher and you will want to make effort to work it down. So, you’ll want to make sure you gauge the fever every hour or so. Fevers are what kill viruses and germs in your body. Tonsils are also very much needed and help to trap viruses, germs and bacteria; it’s why God provided us with tonsils. Our bodies have many ways of resisting our enemies we only need to know what those parts of our body are and what they do. To find out more about how the tonsils work to keep us healthy and when you might need to have them taken out, click here.
Note: When I was 3-years old I had my tonsils taken out. There was complications from the surgery and one side would not stop bleeding, so I had to spend the night in the hospital and the doc must have done something wrong because, thankfully, it grew back so I still have one tonsil.
Traditional doctors are educated that if a young child gets sore throats often it must mean it’s time to take out the tonsils! No way! That’s ridiculous. There are only certain instances when a child actually needs their tonsils extracted, and the common sore throat is not it. Enlarged tonsils and maybe persistent tonsillitis is the only reasons people (usually children) should have their tonsils taken out. People who do not have tonsils get sick more often.
The next day, I try to get out of bed and could barely stand up. I was completely drained of all energy. Frank became my caregiver; he would bring me lime water, molasses tea and ginger tea because I was becoming dehydrated from the fever the night before and not drinking enough liquids because I was nauseated. It was difficult to sip even water.
The whole of the second day I was severely nauseated, I still had a fever, and I was in and out of sleep. I could barely hold my head up and it hurt so terribly; it felt like someone had put a vice grip around my head and squeezed! I have never felt this ill and for so long in all my life!
Last night, the third night, I slept through the night; what a relief that is to sleep through the night! The bug finally left me on the fourth day...that's today...thank God! I have been fasting for three and a half days, having only hot and cold teas. Even though I have been fasting I have more energy now then when the bug was in my body invading my cells and trying to make me suffer to my death. I have been drinking plenty of lemon water and some black strap molasses tea to keep hydrated and keep my energy levels up. It helps a lot, plus provides major minerals.
As I type this blog post out today, I’m finally able to sit up in a chair; even food poisoning has not been this awful! I never vomited because I wasn’t eating, yeahhh...
But I have never felt this sick in my life and I hope you won’t get sick!! I would not want this weird bug to attack anyone; it’s awful. It's a germ we've never had before. That’s why I wanted to write this blog while it is all so vivid in my memory to remind you to take special care of yourself during this time.
Frank never became the fifth victim in our family to catch this bug, and that’s because he has been doing everything right for his body, he stayed on the program that we outline in our BETTER HEALTH BETTER LIFE BOOK, whereas, I didn't. He has trained himself to be consistent and stay on the program.
The only thing he hasn’t done, which is inevitable, is stay out of the diesel fumes, but he fasted for a day and avoided it all. We never once thought about going to a hospital, a pharmacy, or a doctor. The wisdom of experience and knowledge tells us what to do, and for us frugal folk, it's just as well. All it cost us financially is zero. A lifetime of experience and knowledge however is yours for only $7. We serve a God of knowledge. No white coat, no degrees hanging on the wall. Just what works for us.
We never know when these bugs are going to come knocking on our door. Don’t answer it! Tell them to go away and stay away! Stay healthy and do everything you can to keep your immune system strong so it can evade these nasty critters.
Before I post this I want to let our readers know that I finally ate dinner tonight 11/11/2015. I ate a small bowl of lentil soup and a half of avocado and it settled well in my empty stomach. BTW, it is always best to not eat when you think you might be coming down with something; healing comes on much faster.
Until we write again…
You might like these articles too.
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
A fever always kills the bugs or they leave that host and find another immune deficient body to play their games in, and that happened to be our youngest son. He couldn’t understand why he caught this disgusting bug because he’d been eating lots of garlic ever since the bug became interested in our family. I asked him, “What else have you been eating”? The two biggest culprits he told me about were milk and sugar.
I promptly told my son, who was very disappointed to catch this terrible bug that only doing one thing right, such as eating garlic, will not necessarily keep you from getting ill with infectious viruses and bugs that are going around. It is only one line of defense. We have to keep our body in tip-top shape in all areas of health for our immunity to resist these persistent bugs, and now that we live in Ecuador, maybe new strains of bugs.
So the story goes, Alex had the scratchy throat and fever too and is now sick with a persistent cough. Come to find out the scratchy throat and the fever keeps waking you up all night long so the next day you will feel really tired and draggy, plus headachy. Ugh!
I still had not contracted the bug and felt fine. So, what stupid thing did I do? Well, I had (only) two pieces of Whitman Sampler chocolate candies (I never indulge like I used to when I was younger) and not but a half hour later my throat began feeling really strange. That’s how it comes on…very slowly and slyly.
Now before I began, let me tell you, Frank and I rarely get sick, except when we allow ourselves to get sick by eating sugar, white flour, having a lot of stress, and being out in the more polluted areas of Cuenca, where more buses travel, etc, etc.
That day, I had a big plate of chicken and Chinese noodles (white flour) for lunch. I really wish that I would have combined my food groups properly like Frank did. He ordered the chicken with vegetables, a completely healthy and proper combination of foods. However, I made a healthy dinner of homemade lentil burgers that night for dinner, but then I go and top it off with two Whitman Sampler chocolates later that evening. Plus I had coffee with milk.
Pasteurized products are another big no-no if we want our resistance levels to be unaffected by these nasty critters.
So, the four things I did that made my resistance low was eating white flour, sugar, milk, and going out in the polluted areas of Cuenca…I had too many whiffs of diesel fumes enter into my lungs three days in a row before getting this mean bug.
So, we turn out the lights around 10pm and my throat is feeling slightly scratchy. I get up and gargle with warm salt water and go back to bed. I did somehow fall asleep but awoke from weird dreams, a disgusting sand-paper throat, heart palpitations, chills, and I felt listless. Feeling listless is fine when you are in bed, but what about if and when you get up. This bug was attacking my body and this germ was tough!
Having a fever, if not above 103 degrees is perfectly fine to have. Any higher and you will want to make effort to work it down. So, you’ll want to make sure you gauge the fever every hour or so. Fevers are what kill viruses and germs in your body. Tonsils are also very much needed and help to trap viruses, germs and bacteria; it’s why God provided us with tonsils. Our bodies have many ways of resisting our enemies we only need to know what those parts of our body are and what they do. To find out more about how the tonsils work to keep us healthy and when you might need to have them taken out, click here.
Note: When I was 3-years old I had my tonsils taken out. There was complications from the surgery and one side would not stop bleeding, so I had to spend the night in the hospital and the doc must have done something wrong because, thankfully, it grew back so I still have one tonsil.
Traditional doctors are educated that if a young child gets sore throats often it must mean it’s time to take out the tonsils! No way! That’s ridiculous. There are only certain instances when a child actually needs their tonsils extracted, and the common sore throat is not it. Enlarged tonsils and maybe persistent tonsillitis is the only reasons people (usually children) should have their tonsils taken out. People who do not have tonsils get sick more often.
The next day, I try to get out of bed and could barely stand up. I was completely drained of all energy. Frank became my caregiver; he would bring me lime water, molasses tea and ginger tea because I was becoming dehydrated from the fever the night before and not drinking enough liquids because I was nauseated. It was difficult to sip even water.
The whole of the second day I was severely nauseated, I still had a fever, and I was in and out of sleep. I could barely hold my head up and it hurt so terribly; it felt like someone had put a vice grip around my head and squeezed! I have never felt this ill and for so long in all my life!
Last night, the third night, I slept through the night; what a relief that is to sleep through the night! The bug finally left me on the fourth day...that's today...thank God! I have been fasting for three and a half days, having only hot and cold teas. Even though I have been fasting I have more energy now then when the bug was in my body invading my cells and trying to make me suffer to my death. I have been drinking plenty of lemon water and some black strap molasses tea to keep hydrated and keep my energy levels up. It helps a lot, plus provides major minerals.
As I type this blog post out today, I’m finally able to sit up in a chair; even food poisoning has not been this awful! I never vomited because I wasn’t eating, yeahhh...
But I have never felt this sick in my life and I hope you won’t get sick!! I would not want this weird bug to attack anyone; it’s awful. It's a germ we've never had before. That’s why I wanted to write this blog while it is all so vivid in my memory to remind you to take special care of yourself during this time.
Frank never became the fifth victim in our family to catch this bug, and that’s because he has been doing everything right for his body, he stayed on the program that we outline in our BETTER HEALTH BETTER LIFE BOOK, whereas, I didn't. He has trained himself to be consistent and stay on the program.
The only thing he hasn’t done, which is inevitable, is stay out of the diesel fumes, but he fasted for a day and avoided it all. We never once thought about going to a hospital, a pharmacy, or a doctor. The wisdom of experience and knowledge tells us what to do, and for us frugal folk, it's just as well. All it cost us financially is zero. A lifetime of experience and knowledge however is yours for only $7. We serve a God of knowledge. No white coat, no degrees hanging on the wall. Just what works for us.
We never know when these bugs are going to come knocking on our door. Don’t answer it! Tell them to go away and stay away! Stay healthy and do everything you can to keep your immune system strong so it can evade these nasty critters.
Before I post this I want to let our readers know that I finally ate dinner tonight 11/11/2015. I ate a small bowl of lentil soup and a half of avocado and it settled well in my empty stomach. BTW, it is always best to not eat when you think you might be coming down with something; healing comes on much faster.
Until we write again…
You might like these articles too.
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
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