panama bars
Yesterday I went with my friend Kate, a real estate agent, to scout out property on Panama's Pacific Coast. We would be targeting the Santa Clara area, a sleepy 10 kilometer stretch an hour and fifteen minutes North of Panama City. Kate had been told that the trip was a lost cause because, "Every piece of ocean front property from here (Panama City) to Pedasi has been snatched up". Boy, were they wrong.
The drive up to Santa Clara is a memorable one. Starting out in Panama City, we crossed the Bridge of the Americas, the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal where you can see the large tankers, freighters and cruise ships start their nine hour trek to the Caribbean. This crossing is amazing at night, when the bridge is illuminated by gold and blue spotlights, making its metal frame come alive. Past the bridge, you move inland and can really move along the two lane highway. It is always amazing to me how well kept the roads are here, if you get on them early enough in the morning before the cops have had their morning caffeine fix, you can make it up to Santa Clara in about 45 minutes. The inland driving turns takes you through some lush farmland and into the mountains. Coming down from the summit, the Pacific Ocean is laid bare in front of you - a beautiful sight. From here, the rest of the drive is along the water, with plenty of small, unmarked dirt roads splitting off and taking you to numerous secluded beaches. This is what we came for.
We first wanted to look at a small surfing spot at a beach called Rio Mar. There was a small sign at the turnoff, nothing more than a hand painted "Surf School" with an arrow pointing down the road. After bumping along in our rental car for about three minutes, we came to the beach. The tide was out and the place reminded me of a ghost town. It was quiet except for the rustle of leaves, the assorted bird squawk and the far off rumble of the small waves. We decided to turn left and found ourselves at a small hotel called the Rio Mar Hotel. Situated on a point with views of Coronado and tributary mouth exiting right next to the Eastern border of the property, we sat and marvalled at how we were working in a place where most people come to vacation. Life is good here.
Sitting down at the bar we proceeded to ask, in our best approximation of what the Spanish language should sound like, if the bartender or any of the waitresses knew of anyone selling ocean front property - this being our mission. We struck gold on the second waitress. She had been working there for 10 years and was good friends with the owner. He lived in the city and had two ocean front properties to sell. She gave us his number, we thanked her, paid for our beers and jumped back in the car.
Two minutes down the main road and we turned off onto the next side street, this one was paved. Cruising down to the water we got on the frontage road and started asking everyone we saw if they knew any properties that were for sale. After failing miserably for about half an hour, we were headed back to the main road when Kate spotted a dirt road that lacked the inviting feel of the pavement. She gassed it and we came over a knoll into what appeared to be the Bates Motel. The rundown motel looked like it had been neglected for some time and the last occupants were there when big hair was in and glam rock was king. We got out and walked down towards the water. This place was beautiful, about 80 meters of ocean front with trees all over the property shielding it from neighbors and cooling off the hot sun. A Rastafarian youth rode down on his bicycle and we asked him about the property. Was it for sale? Yes. Did he know the owner? Yes. How big was it? One hectare. Jackpot. We exchanged info and jumped back in the car.
This was what we proceeded to do for the rest of the day. We ended up with four properties, which comes out to about one listing for every hour and a half of work. Not a bad outcome, especially because had we heeded the advice of Kate's boss, we would have spent the day in Panama City believing that any clients she had looking for ocean front property were out of luck. In one day, four ocean front properties came to our attention. We succeeded with hard work and limited Spanish, but the trip for me was less about the real estate and more about seeing Panama's countryside.
An hour out of the City are beaches that rival Hawaii's best white sand beaches, with friendly people, cold beers and plenty of opportunity. Anyone looking at Costa Rica or the Caribbean for ocean front property should take a good, hard look at Panama.
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