I wanted a new adventure for the family and I. Something that could bring us together with lots of new experiences, learning and a bit of struggle thrown in. Something that would get the kids off of wifi and away from Fortnite and other video games and expose them to a new culture and new people. I wanted to find a place we could spend part of our lives that was completely off grid. A place where we would learn to be more self-sufficient and grow our own food, filter our water, make our power and do it in style. What I mean by style is to have some standard luxuries of modern living and not be roughing it out there.
So, being the adventurous type that likes to take some risks, I ventured down to Panama in Central America. I had heard great things about an area in the northern part of the Caribbean side of panama called Bocas del Toro. Lauren and I made a trip down to take a look around and have a little vacation time. Lauren had already lived in Costa Rica for a year, so she felt comfortable in Central America, and we both speak enough Spanish to get by. We got to Bocas and spent a couple nights in Bocas Town, a couple nights on another part of the main island and then finished up the trip on a nearby island – Isla Cristobal. We stayed at a great bed and breakfast called Dolphin Bay Hideaway. I was talking to the owners Brian and Amy about how much I liked Bocas and asked “what’s the deal with real estate in the area”. Brian confided his next door neighbor was thinking of selling, but had not yet put it on the market. It seems that’s how a lot of things happen down here. So we hopped in Brian’s boat and went next door and there it was – Casa Piedra. That’s the name of the house on the property and it means house of stone because the house was built from stone collected from the property. The house was a very basic three bedroom home with two small baths and a small kitchen. There was a big veranda with a great view of Dolphin Bay. The house sits on a hill above the bay about 50-60 feet up so you can see the entire bay on one side, and the rainforest on the other.
The house sits on 220 acres of bay front property and rainforest. In years past there were cacao trees (CHOCOLATE!) planted – 80 acres of them and they sit under the canopy of the rainforest still producing cacao beans. We went on a hike of the perimeter of the property with two of the caretakers – Cipriano and Ocho. Four hours later we limped back to the house, exhausted. Incredible untouched old growth rain forest, streams, sloths, monkeys and not a soul to be seen anywhere. I was sold.
So as you can guess we put in an offer on the property and started on negotiations with the owners who were also Americans. Buying property in a foreign country was not something I was at all familiar with so I started reading and researching and hired a Panamanian attorney. It’s a long story that I can write about in a future blog, but needless to say there is quite a bit to it and you need to be careful. And there are two types of property you can purchase – titled (meaning you own it clear and outright), and ROP – right of possession which means in effect you have an indefinite lease on the property, so you need to know which type of property you are purchasing.a
It took us about a year to finalize the sale of the property. There were discrepancies in the size of the property and boundaries on the survey and all kinds of other fun little things on the way. Luckily we had a great Panamanian attorney named Ruth who held our hands through the whole process.
And so bottom line, we bought a huge stunning piece of property on an island in the caribbean in Panama for far less than what a 1 BR condo would cost in California. A completely off grid home that needed all of its “systems” upgraded but had great bones. Oh and did I mention, the only way to get to the property is by boat – no roads, cars etc.
So this blog is going to be about how we did this and why and how we are making it work, and lessons learned – its about the adventure. And guess what, we bought a second home four months after this one closed on a nearby island so we can throw that adventure in as well. Two for the price of one. So we hope you tune in now and then and check on our adventures and hopefully start planning a bunch more of your own. Manifest. Make your dreams become reality too.
Tony
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