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I’m sure we discovered Puerto Armuelles one of the many times we pored over nautical charts of Panama’s coast looking for that ideal seamount or ledge that would spell “big fish”. Five or six years ago, Panama (and its real estate market) was largely a big question mark. But the fish were a certainty. Just around the corner of Punta Burica was the famous angler’s destination of Golfito, Costa Rica. Since fish don’t really respect borders, the same record breaking catches were bound to be swimming right off the beaches at Limones and Puerto Arumuelles.

A trip to the bookstore netted us one solitary guide from the folks at Lonely Planet and we eagerly sought out a description of the little town that once housed a thriving division of the United Fruit Company’s effort to corner the world’s banana production. At the end of the chapter on Chiriqui Province, there was a passing reference to the bus stop in Puerto Armuelles-the end of the line for public transportation and the jumping off point to make the trek to “Mona Feliz”, an eccentric eco-lodge at the tip of the Burica Peninsula. Years later, friends would bring the new Frommer’s guide to Panama and, searching once again, we found not even a mention of this, one of our favorite spots in the country.

Panama has miles of some of the most rugged and beautiful coastline in the hemisphere. And, by and large, you still risk your axels and your kidneys trying to reach them. The breathtaking vistas at Boca Chica, for instance, are a challenging hour-and-a-half ride from the InterAmerican Highway and you had better have plenty of gas and provisions with you as there’s no petrol station or grocery store at the end of that ride.

Arriving in Puerto Armuelles via an immaculate paved road, you pass several gas stations, a couple of grocery stores, and the town is dotted with typical restaurants, clothing and sundries stores, banks, pharmacies, internet cafes, bakeries, and pretty much whatever you might need to sustain life. Okay, basic is the watchword, but we couldn’t help but wonder why this complete town was so completely ignored by even locals.

The old banana pier sits in disrepair jutting out from the “Malecon”-a sort of seaside walkway that fronts the Pacific side of the town. There you can join the locals and jig for dinner in the clear depths. There are several places where you can sip a cold cerveza and one really outstanding restaurant, “Don Carlos” that has served the town in good times and bad with superb fresh fish dishes and the best (and possibly the only) pizza in town. If you are lucky, the owner (a local doctor), will stop by your table and regale you with stories, opinions and tales of old Panama. His father started the place back in the banana heyday and the legendary Pier 3 sauce still on the menu is not to be missed. That pier is gone, but the fond culinary tribute remains a testimony to better days.

The banana company housed its employees in a tiered system. Much of that housing remains and much of it is being lovingly restored today. You can see the middle management area known as San Jose, where little clapboard houses line a few streets, all dressed up in tropical colors. You can explore the rattle-trap worker housing right on some of the best beach real estate in Panama. And then you can step back in time and look at Las Palmas, a neighborhood of some 45 homes laid out on rolling green lawns. This was the enclave of the privledged, the bastion of the upper management sent down to the torpid jungle to mine the yellow gold known as “musa sapientum” or ‘fruit of the wise men’.

There are a few places outside of the big city that speak as loudly of the history of this tiny nation than the villas that dot the gentle hills of Las Palmas. In their glory days, these expansive stilt-elevated homes with their teak-slatted windows and soaring ceilings were meant to cushion spoiled foreigners from the rigors of native life. The neighborhood was endowed with a swimming pool, tennis court and a nine-hole golf course to sooth away the boredom and restlessness that must have come with being stationed at what was then the end of the earth. There was (and still is) and airstrip, oddly positioned in the middle of one of the fairways, where small planes could whisk you away to the city. Beyond, you can see the ghost go-downs where packing and production took place.

It is almost impossible not to envision ladies in wide-brimmed straw hats and their gentlemen in white linen suits strolling about the winding lanes exchanging greetings at sunset as the parrots cry overhead as they make their daily trek home. Aside from the occasional boat parked in a driveway, or the ubiquitous SUV, there’s little about Las Palmas that has changed over the decades since it was built. Horses still wander freely through the unfenced perimeters of generous lots, birds still populate the huge old-growth trees, and the Pacific still lends its cool breezes to the porches that open into the equatorial dusk as it descends on the undiscovered and unspoiled charm of Puerto Armuelles.

http://www.buyingrealestateinpanama.com for information, pictures and listings of properties in Panama

http://www.puertoarmuellesrentals.com for a new site describing furnished and unfurnished rental apartments in Puerto Armuelles, Panama

Lisa Leuthesser is a freelance writer and communications manager for BuyingRealEstateInPanama.com, a licensed real estate company specializing in the interior provinces of the Republic of Panama.

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