Our Panama Paradise

Finding Los Islotes wasn’t easy.

Nor was getting here.

There wasn’t a direct road to the property. To gain access you had to hike in from the neighbor’s property, or come in from the beach. It was originally a cattle farm and the ranchers got their livestock in and out via the beach. They didn’t spend any money putting even an access road in.

I found it through lots of research and legwork.

Back in 2006, Kathleen and I explored the far side of the  Azuero Peninsula, where the expat haven of Pedasí is located. My take? The terrain there wasn’t compelling. The prices weren’t either.

I figured there must be something better in the next Path of Progress in Panama.

And so we studied the map and came down this side of the peninsula in early 2007. We looked at pretty much every property that was available at the time, as well as some that weren’t. And that’s when we found Los Islotes.

It was perfect from day one.

Seventeen years on, it’s here I’m building my own “intentional community”.

Amidst lush jungle and beach, colonial-style homes constructed to the highest standards dot the hillside.

Kathleen and I already spend much of the year here… and our neighbors are other expats who want the freedom to live in paradise and be left alone.

We’re four to six hours from  Panama City (depending on who’s driving)… and far enough off the beaten track that I don’t see the government ever paying much attention to us.

At the same time, we’re right in a Path of Progress that’s been moving down the Azuero Peninsula for years now. So, Los Islotes offers the opportunity not just to ncrease your freedom… but also the potential to rent your home and enjoy cash flow and appreciation.

Right now, we’re in phase one of development.

We have electricity. We have WiFi. We have recently run fiber optic to the office down by the main gate, and we’ll eventually pull the fiber optic all the way up. But meanwhile, our WiFi is connected via a tower. Down at the office, we have 85 or 100 megabits directly connected to the fiber optics. Progress continues.

There’s a handful of houses built. The style is Spanish Colonial/Mediterranean. We just finished a spec house to help keep construction moving forward. Mostly we’re selling lots—with construction options available. But the spec house is move-in ready.

The electricity comes and goes sometimes—like it does in all of Central America and even Panama City. That’s why we have generators and keep them stocked with gas.

The most exciting thing that’s happened in the last few years is the hotel/restaurant/minimarket/bar—the bramador, which opened up just at the end of the paved road where you turn off to come to Los Islotes.

Now, if you forget the milk in the town of Mariato, you don’t have to drive back for 40 minutes. You can drive five minutes to the bramador for whatever you need.

The other thing that we have that no other project along this coast really has is direct beach access.

There’s two beaches here. One we call the swim beach, it’s got calmer waters. The other beach is more for surfing, and part of a nine-kilometer stretch that goes around a bay. We’re at one end of that stretch, with a little peninsula separating the two beach sides. There’s plenty to do out on the water.

Plus, you don’t have to leave the project to get to the beach. It’s a two-minute drive from our house.

We have estuary access and horses, too. The stables are going in now—so there’s more amenities being put in every year.

This is a family project and we expect to be here forever. That’s why we also bought the lot next door to our house, for the guest house, but also to have more space for the growing family with the kids and the grandkids and others.

Everybody who comes down here says it’s beautiful but it’s not right for everyone, which is OK. We don’t want everyone.

We want the people who can see the vision—and who want the sense of community and privacy that we’re trying to build here.

Los Islotes is a refuge from a crazy world and an incubator for an independent way of life that went out of fashion in the States a long time ago…

Stay diversified,

Lief Simon

Editor, Offshore Living Letter