Los Islotes - Mango Village Casitas
You could say that Lief Simon spent more than 12 years looking for this piece of land on the Pacific coast of Panama's Azuero Peninsula. In those dozen years, Lief has tromped beaches from Nicaragua to Honduras...from Belize to Mexico...from Ecuador to Brazil...from Argentina to Uruguay...
Over the 20+ years of his career, Lief has traveled not only the coasts of North, Central, and South America...he's also explored the sandy beaches of the islands of the Caribbean and the shores of the Med. He's seen coastlines from Thailand to the Philippines, from Vietnam to India, from Egypt to Australia, and from Turkey to New Zealand.
And here on this western-facing coast in Panama's Veraguas Province is where he's chosen to focus his attention. This is a region of Panama that is just beginning to attract attention but that sits smack dab in the path of this country's current progress.
Here, Lief and his wife, Kathleen Peddicord, have purchased 750 acres with 1 kilometer of Pacific coastline and two separate beaches, one of which continues for 9 kilometers to the south, allowing for long, uninterrupted walks on the sand. The other is in a secluded cove where the waters of the Pacific are calmed and warmed...perfect for swimming.
Just offshore Los Islotes are three small islands, from which the property takes its name. Beyond them, each evening, is the sunset. This coast is the only place in Panama where you can watch the sun set over the water, for it's the only stretch of Panama's coast that faces west.
Nearby are Cerro Hoya National Park and Coiba National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where jaguars and ocelots roam free and the scarlet macaw is common.
This is a natural paradise, a region of Panama that boasts some of the best deep-sea fishing in the world, plus surfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Around Coiba lies the largest coral reef on the Pacific side of the Americas.
On these 750 acres, Lief and Kathleen have master planned a private, gated, residential community that will include a Spanish colonial-style town with shops, restaurants, apartments, and a central plaza for daily strolling and nightly entertainment.
Other areas of the property will be given over to individual homes, low-rise condos, casitas, and town homes, as well as a high-end boutique hotel.
Planned community amenities include a gatehouse, a beach club, three pools, an equestrian center, tennis courts that will double as basketball courts, a fitness center, parks, hiking trails, riding trails...even an area of petanque.
All utilities will be underground. The plan calls for central wastewater treatment, fiber-optic cable for Internet, and sidewalks. It's an ambitious project that will take 10 years to build out in full.
"Buy what you see," Live and Invest Overseas reminds you often. This advice is no less important in the context of Los Islotes. What do you see at Los Islotes today?
Simply the most beautiful piece of land for development that Lief has found in more than a dozen years of concentrated searching. Its undulating hills, dramatic shore and surf, and expansive ocean, island, and mountain views are postcard-perfect.
That, then, is what you'd be buying today. A chance to participate in the development of a piece of land that boasts the best Mother Nature has to serve up anywhere.
Accessed via a paved highway.
Hidden about 75 minutes from the bustling, fast-growing town of Santiago.
In a part of this country where big names with deep pockets are right now making serious and long-term plans. Furthermore, at Los Islotes, you're buying into a piece of property officially zoned for development and that has received all government approvals required for the launch of retail sales.
Where, in addition, the internal roads are in and construction is under way for the colonial-style Founder's Lodge.
This western Sunset Coast of the Azuero Peninsula is Panama's next big thing, the market where everyone--investors, travelers, and retirees--is headed.
Los Islotes is the gold standard private residential community on this coast. Nothing else in the region compares.