BOCAS del TORO, Panama • It’s 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night at Skully’s House, and Brian Noel is holding court at the property’s bar.

Noel, 42, a Colorado Springs native, is running the evening’s karaoke event, and he appears to be in his element. There are six other Coloradans at the bar cheering him on, and 13 University of Colorado students celebrating their spring break on the dance floor. The enthusiasm amplifies Noel’s efforts and energy.

Spend enough time in Bocas del Toro, on Colón Island off Panama’s Caribbean coast, and you will likely encounter former or current Coloradans, as denizens of the Centennial State are establishing a robust expat community here.

One of those being Wally Wild, who owns Bocas Beer Company.

Wild lived in Boulder and Denver from 1995 through 2013  but visited Bocas del Toro in 2009 and found himself continuing to return to the island town.

“The desire (to return) was unbelievable,” said Wild, who permanently moved to Bocas del Toro in 2013 with his family. “To me, it kind of reminds me of how Colorado was back in the 1990s. The snowboarding was big, and the brewing scene was super fun. I think there’s kind of a similar vibe of what’s going on here now. It’s very fresh and fun, and things just feel exciting here.

“Obviously, you’re in the outdoors a lot.”

Above everything else, Brian Noel said he feels embraced in this community, which perhaps is the biggest draw.

He’s dealt with his share of personal loss and grief from tragedies ranging from cancer to fatal car crashes, such as the deaths of his parents, his little sister and a girlfriend he intended to marry, all before he was 28 and when he was residing in Colorado Springs.

“The sense of community here is incredible,” said Noel, who first visited Bocas del Toro in 2023 for vacation, then moved to the island permanently six months later. “The people here are the happiest people you’ll ever meet. They’ll give you the shirt off their back … Everybody on the island is so quick to help with any situation.”

Other longtime Coloradans are thinking like Noel.

They estimate their numbers living in Bocas del Toro to be between 30 and 50. From Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Telluride, Wellington – they came from all over. And they say more Coloradans appear to be on the way.

The appeal of island life

The area’s appeal comes from a blend of natural beauty, laid‑back Caribbean culture, and easy adventure.

Bocas del Toro includes numerous islands and is the country’s northwesternmost province. According to the Tourism Panama website, almost 9,000 people live in Bocas town, which is the province’s primary hub and airport location.

It is a lush jungle setting, with omnipresent biodiversity. The backdrop is palm-lined beaches, mangroves, turquoise water and coral reefs. There are howler monkeys, three-toed sloths, bottlenose dolphins, poison dart frogs, green iguanas, and over 500 bird species, along with a close-in marine life that includes stingrays, species of reef fish, and sea turtles.

Outdoor activities include hiking, fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving and some of the best surfing in Central America.

Unique about the expats moving from Colorado to Bocas del Toro is that most aren’t near retirement age, and they don’t appear to have been politically provoked into making the move.

Emily Madison, 38, was at the height of her career — managing a successful escrow title company in Fort Collins — when she decided her days of working 60 to 80 hours a week were over. She still works part-time for a few Realtors back in Colorado as a transaction coordinator, and acknowledged slowing down took some adjustment.

“A lot of people didn’t think I’d do well moving out here because I’m a very Type A personality,” said Madison, who moved to Bocas del Toro in 2025 with her husband, Lucas Madison, and their youngest son. “But because I’m here now, it’s come very easy to me — just let it all go.”

Lucas Madison also works remotely as a building materials estimator for a lumber yard in Nebraska.

Panama offers no shortage of breaks — including tax exemptions — for those moving here from abroad. According to the website Bright!Tax, there are 16,000 U.S. expats in Panama and many more from other countries.

Greenback Expat Tax Services highlighted that the “only income earned inside Panama is taxable. Remote salaries, U.S. pensions, and investment income from outside Panama are completely exempt.”

“Those are great benefits,” Lucas Madison said, “but I would say the biggest benefit is just slowing down. Emily was working 60 hours a week, and I was working 50 to 60 hours a week in the U.S. before we moved here. There’s no time for life outside of work.”

“There’s a strong sense of community here, and everyone just kind of leans on another, and everyone’s here to have a good time,” Madison added.

Island life not without challenges

As Brian Noel quickly found out, there is a big difference between tourist life and living as a resident. When he bought his house, he was without electricity for 11 months.

“That was difficult to say the least,” Noel said during the interview. “I was told it was going to be turnkey-ready, but it wasn’t. I miss having a trash service. Right now, at the moment, I have no water. It hasn’t rained here in six days, so I’m praying for rain. I got 25 gallons of water in five-gallon jugs, so I’m making do.”

Said Lucas Madison, “If there’s a power outage, you just have to deal with it because there are not a lot of emergency backups and stuff like that here. The out-of-control issues on the island are the most challenging, but you deal with them.”

Growth is also a bit of a worry among natives — and also to the expats currently adding to that growth. The province has grown from 89,269 to 159,228 residents between 2000 and 2024. At the same time, tourism has also exploded. There are no visible big-name resorts on the island yet, but one can’t help but think they are coming.

The Panama connection

Perhaps no single person has sacrificed more to live in Bocas del Toro than Todd Sledge. He splits his time between the island and Colorado, while his wife, Shauna, and their 13-year old son, Skyler, live on the island full-time.

“It was really Skyler’s idea for us to move here full-time three or four years ago,” Todd Sledge said. “He wanted to go to school here full time, and it makes us feel like we are raising him like we grew up in the 80s where we would ride our bikes to school every day. He’s got the same life we did growing up right now.”

Sledge sacrificed to make the move, including giving up a lucrative 27-year career at a successful northern Colorado real estate business.

He’s still in real estate — now with Sotheby’s International Realty. He is the exclusive marketing agent for Bocas Homes. Shauna Sledge owns and runs the Nowhere Hotel in town.

The vibes at the Nowhere Hotel align well with island life on Bocas del Toro. There are 15 dome rooms and they provide adequate space and amenities. The real gem of the dome rooms is the ceiling windows and natural light that shines through, along with the early-morning sounds of howler monkeys that guests cannot only hear but often see nesting in the trees.

Perhaps, the sign at the front desk says it all: “Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and sometimes in the middle of nowhere you find yourself.”

“The biggest reward is seeing the guests have a reaction to Nowhere and to see them interact with one another,” Shauna Sledge said. “They know they’re in a really unique, special place on Earth that’s in the middle of the jungle.”

Todd Sledge plans on opening a satellite Sotheby’s office in Bocas del Toro sometime in the next year. He said Bocas Homes plans on building over 300 homes in the area in the next 5-10 years, speaking of growth.

Lucas and Emily Madison bought their home from Sledge and Bocas Homes built it. The company is also in the process of building another home for two other Fort Collins residents Sledge sold to, Stacey Pearson and Kim Mashek, who plan on moving to the island permanently in the fall.

“Todd had been making the push for us to come down for a long time,” Pearson said. “We finally came down in 2023 and were able to celebrate New Year’s Eve down there, which they just put ours to shame — the whole crowd just goes nuts the entire night.

“We had been looking at other places to live abroad, but what really pushed us over the edge … is when Skyler, who had to be around 9 or 10 then, just went into this massive crowd on the street. I looked at Shauna and was like: ‘Are you OK with this?’ She just said he’d be absolutely fine. After we heard that, Kim and I looked at each other and just said: ‘Yep, this is the place.’”

Moving the music and food from Fort Collins

Tommy Short and Antonio Race might as well be etched in Fort Collins lore.

Short could best be described as an entrepreneur and philanthropist with a knack for running successful businesses. He ran the popular Fort Collins music venue Linden’s from 1982 through 2000.

He and his former wife, Pat Stryker, the well-known Colorado billionaire businessperson, philanthropist, and political activist, launched the Stryker-Short foundation, a precursor to today’s Bohemian Foundation in Fort Collins.  

Race, meanwhile, is known for opening one of Fort Collins’ most well-known pizza parlors — Pulcinella Pizzeria & Wine Bar — that continues to thrive today under the management of his former wife.

Short and Race run Vibe in downtown Bocas del Toro, which has been in business since January of 2025. The venue features casual fine dining and various music genres.

“Antonio is my favorite chef in the world,” said Short of Race. “We go back as friends for over 35 years and have worked together on different projects. The timing just really worked out well with Vibe. We really liked the location and thought it could work.”

The dynamics of Vibe work well for Short, who has lived in Bocas del Toro full-time since 2022, and for Race, primarily because Short’s passion is music and Race’s is food and service.

“There is quality here,” Race said. “When it comes down to employees, you just have to be patient. We’re trying … to create this family vibe. We want to empower them and protect one another. Everybody’s voice here means something.”

For the Sledges, Short and Race, living and operating a business in Bocas del Toro present some challenges, but not nearly enough to topple the benefits.

“My favorite part about Bocas is that everybody’s here to be happy,” Race said. “Whether they are leaving Europe behind or the United States behind, they all want to be here to have a happy and healthy life. There is a real sense of freedom and community here.”

Added Short: “I just love the people and everything about it here. It’s the perfect place for me at this stage in my life.”