Anywhereist

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Anywhereist

Taxis, Busses and Automobiles — Getting Around in Panama

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There's been a fair amount of car talk around our house recently, for two reasons. First, I'm planning a trip back to the US in another month. My primary mission will be to retrieve my car (our daughter's been using it over the summer) and sell it, so we'll have some funds. Second, we've decided it's time to get our own wheels here in Panama. We've gone carless since March. We've saved a lot of money as public transportation here is plentiful and inexpensive. And we've been able to go from …

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Get Your Mail Overseas, Avoid Panic Attacks

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"OMG!" my husband exclaimed. "Does this mean I'm going to be arrested when I step off the plane in October?" Last week we made one of our occasional forays into Chitre to retrieve our mail. Every couple of weeks I call the US to verbally go through the stack of mail that's arrived for us. I decide what to shred, what to trash and what to forward, and it gets sent to a forwarding address in Miami. From there, it travels to Panama where it spends some time in customs. Ultimately it arrives at …

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Develop a Portable Career as a Stock Photographer

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Have camera -- will travel. Or not. The beautiful thing about creating a portable photography career for yourself is, it's easily portable to anywhere in the world. But what if you're not traveling? Does that mean there's no business for you? Not exactly. Whether you're living in one place or circumnavigating the globe, there's a way to earn a decent living with your camera. It's called stock photography. And demand for good stock images is increasing by leaps and bounds. What is Stock …

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Saying Goodbye to Flies and Mosquitoes

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As an expat, small things can have a disproportionately big impact on your happiness. In this case, the "small things" all had wings. One of the first things I noticed about our rental house in Las Tablas, Panama, was the absence of screens on the windows. At first this wasn't a problem. Even with windows and doors open all the time -- necessary to allow the cooling breezes through -- bugs weren't a problem. Smugly I thought, "this is great." Then the rainy season started. Suddenly the house …

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VPN4All: A Virtual Private Network that’s Truly Private

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Oh, no, not another review of a VPN (virtual private network) I hear you groan. Well, um, yes. It seems there's a lot of interest in this topic, and every time I write about it I hear more recommendations. Sometimes a company will contact me and say, "hey, why don't you take a look at ours?" That's what happened after the contest in the spring for the free subscription to Hotspot Shield. One of the companies that approached me was VPN4all. They offered me a free trial subscription so I …

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Why Your Expat Website Needs an Editorial Calendar

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If you're creating a portable career to help support your overseas living, you probably have a website as well. Maybe you're a life coach, a freelance writer or a photographer, and your website is a big part of your marketing strategy. Perhaps you're a blogger, and your website is the foundation on which your business rests. If your website is static -- if it doesn't change very often -- you can skip this article. But if your site is a blog or includes a blog or regular new articles of some …

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