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I hadn’t visited the interior of Panama since March and I wanted to go back up to Altos del Maria to see how the project was developing. Our good friend Pedro Sarasqueta told me that the project was in full swing and that there had been lots of new people from all over the world that have bought property and were now building houses in Altos del Maria: one couple from Montana was even in the process of building a small Bed&Breakfast. Pedro thought our readers might get a better idea about what it’s like to live in Altos del Maria if I interviewed one of the more recent buyers. So he arranged for me to meet with Bill – his real name is different, but he asked me not use his name for privacy reasons. Bill is a trained doctor in Oriental Medicine; he is originally from Southern California and was trained in Oriental Medicine in the 1970s in Hong Kong. I knew he was from southern California when I met him; it was obvious. But Bill was very friendly, articulate and smart – and very enthusiastic about living in Panama and especially Altos del Maria.  I asked him how he had come to Panama. He told me he had been to Fiji, Hawaii, Bali and Thailand and though he liked those places, he didn’t think they were places he could live full-time. He told me that when he stepped off the plane in Panama and smelled the warm jungle air, he had said to himself that this is the place for me. He told me that he had read Roger Gallo’s article on Altos del Maria and that’s what started him thinking about Panama, though he had visited Panama before the article was published. He told me emphatically that the pictures from the Gallo article did not go nearly far enough in representing how beautiful the project is in person. I then asked him about what had he been looking for when trying to decide where he wanted to relocate outside the U.S.  He outlined for me his criteria for relocation. First, and most importantly, he was interested in a healthy environment. He told me Altos del Maria had the best water, air and soil in Panama. He backed this up with a good deal of information. The drinking water he told me was of a very high quality as the water came directly off the mountains. There was no animal grazing or agricultural fields in the hills above Altos del Maria.

Top photo is of entrance to house. Bottom photo is of back of house, below the entrance.  Contact Altos Del Maria

The mountains he referred to were part of the Panama Canal Watershed so the forest behind the mountains would be protected in the future. And most importantly the water that fed the project came from fast moving streams that ran down rocky passes; the water therefore was highly oxygenated as it was constantly agitated and oxygenated by bumping into the rocks in the streams above Altos del Maria – unlike, say, well water on the East Coast of the U.S.  which because it lies stagnant collects harmful minerals, like lead. He said the air in Altos del Maria was exceptionally clean because the air blew directly off the Pacific Ocean and because Panama and its neighboring countries were not industrialized, the air was clean. He also pointed out that there was nothing between the Pacific Coast of Panama and the South Pacific Islands: the air blowing off the Pacific was pure sea air. And finally the soil was volcanic and because the farmers in the area did not use heavy amounts of fertilizers, the soil was great for growing vegetables and fruits – we would later see some very beautiful herb gardens in Altos del Maria..
 

Looking from the floor of the valley up to the walls of the crater.  Contact Altos Del Maria Second floor back porch to new house in Altos del Maria. Contact Altos Del Maria

When people talk to me about the environment like this I tend to be extremely skeptical and dismissive – and when he told all of this I thought “Oh, Christ, moonbeams and sunbeams”. But later I thought about what he had said and came to the conclusion he was right. I remembered back to when had I lived in the deep countryside of Panama. The long walks, the clean air, the fresh natural food, the sleepy, early nights. I had forgotten through the struggle to make money, the driving of cars, the pollution, the bad restaurant food, the stress of modern life, the staring at the computer, how your environment affects your thinking and health: if life is biology and chemistry and if psychological states are rooted in biology and chemistry, then certainly the environment can affect what kind of biology and chemistry you have. If you were able to slowly leave the ground and rise up above the pattern of trees and fields that surround Altos del Maria and get a birds-eye view of the project, you would see that the project lies in a huge crater. Some of the houses are built on the lip of the crater, while others lie on the floor of the crater. On one side of the crater the wall of the crater is open: this opening gives everyone in the project a direct view of the Pacific Ocean – but more importantly it allows the fresh air of the Pacific to blow off the coast, up a mountainside, and then cool from the altitude, and then pass into the crater and through the project. The quality of the air in Altos del Maria is sweet; you sleep well and your skin becomes soft and clear. So Bill was right about the air. The second point that Bill made was that people from all around the world are now living in Altos del Maria. When he bought property in Altos del Maria, he was worried that there would be hundreds of people from the States in Altos del Maria. He was happy to find out that his neighbors were from Argentina. There are people from Germany, Holland, Venezuela, Spain, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada, U.S., France, South Korea and India, now living in the project. So like Panama in general there is great diversity in Altos del Maria. The third point that Bill made, and he stressed this to me, was the fact that if you buy in Altos del Maria you get title to your land. Unlike, some places where it’s almost impossible to get a title to your land, Altos del Maria gives you title and they will provide title insurance. As I finished the interview with Bill I asked him about some of the other housing developments in Panama. He told me originally he had considered buying in Boquete, but changed his mind when he found out that if he bought land in Boquete there were too many restrictions on what he could build and how he could resell his land in the future. He also stressed that Boquete was environmentally questionable as farmers used heavy amounts of fertilizers in their fields. Agriculture in Boquete was commercial rather than subsistence. Bocas he never considered because you would never get title to your land and it was too far from Panama City. For him, Altos del Maria made sense as it was near the city, you received title to your land and the environment was healthy. It was a short interview and Bill had made his points with a doctor's precision and so we parted and Pedro and I began the 50-minute ride from Panama City to Altos del Maria.

The first thing I noticed when we arrived to Altos del Maria was the number of new houses that were under construction. I saw maybe 10 or 12 new houses being built. The price of construction is between $38.00 and $45.00 a sq. foot. Most people are building their houses on the floor of the project where the rivers run. Here the green areas are still very abundant; on the upper levels of the project you see lots of pine trees, but not thick forest. Also, under construction were some small shops and stores. The stress here should be on small. If you need a supermarket, you need to travel 20 minutes to Coronado. The road right now to Altos del Maria needs repair and this dry season – January to March – the road will be repaired. This year there has been a lot of rain in Panama so many roads are in need of repair. Most homes have Direct T.V. and internet is becoming less expensive in Altos del Maria - most homes have Whisper technology.
 

After an hour driving around the floor of the project, Pedro drove me to the entrance of a road that stretches from Altos del Maria to El Valle. El Valle is a town that is located about 30 minutes by car from Altos del Maria. The drive takes you through virgin forest. The town of El Valle is famous for its market. It’s a small market – it’s nothing when you compare it to the markets you’ll find in Ecuador or Guatemala – and on Sunday you can buy fresh flowers and produce from the farmers who cultivate the very rich farmland that surrounds the town of El Valle. On the ride over from Altos del Maria you pass through cloud forest and high mountain meadows. On the ride over we saw some horses and birds and other animals. On a section of the road I had not been on before, the mountains rose very suddenly and very high; it reminded me of something you might see on a South Pacific Island: the steep green mountains, the agricultural fields at the base of the mountains and then clouds passing through the blue sky which were then cut in two by the sharp green mountain peaks. Small rivers ran near the road and there were beautiful terraced watercress plantations. The watercress, the sound of streams flowing through the mint green landscape, farmers swinging their machetes through high grass and farmers whistling at cattle to move upland, and then wind blowing through unrolled car windows across my face. Here I could feel the environment around me very acutely, felt it heal my body, felt the pace of things slow down and I began to sleep. Only later, and after reading about, did thoughts of Iran enter my head, with Brazil in the background. In other words, this is as far from Dover, Delaware as you can get.  Later we went to the market in El Valle and bought fresh watercress and packed it into a cooler to take back to Panama City. We also visited the thermal baths. The baths are nothing great, but you can go for a small charge and put hot mud on your face. We left El Valle and headed back to Panama City. We stopped in Coronado, a beach town, to have lunch at a small and very good Italian restaurant. The 45-minute drive back to Panama City was relaxed and I felt better for the first time in a long time. Information: Streets: 47kms that are maintained by the developers of Altos del Maria. Water: Altos del Maria has built three aqueducts to supply the project with water. Electricity: 120V, 60Hz, 1F Telephone: Cable&Wireless Security: 24 hours Click Here To Contact Altos del Maria

Top photo is of horse on the road to El Valle. Bottom photo is of house on the floor of Altos del Maria. Contact Altos Del Maria

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Letter To The Editor Of Escape From America Magazine From Recent Buyer In Altos del Maria:

Amazingly, my wife Honey and I didn't read the February issue of  your Escape Artist magazine until two weeks after we had arrived in Panama, already escaping from the USA, looking for a better place to spend the remaining years of our lives. 

I write to thank you for covering the Altos del Maria project, because otherwise we might not have discovered it. By the time we did, we'd already been to Boquete, Bocas del Toro, Cerro Punta, and other lovely spots.  But the Altos project tops them all, at least for us.
 

Top photo is of stream that feeds into Altos del Maria; it's located on the road to El Valle. Bottom photo is of new house being built in Altos del Maria.  Contact Altos Del Maria

Things have progressed very rapidly since we read your story and looked up Altos del Maria in the Panama City phone book.  The receptionist there immediately connected us with Pedro Sarasqueta, who handles most international sales because he speaks several languages, English among them. To "check out your story" we put Pedro through his paces, big time: up and down the steep (but beautifully paved) roads of the project, looking at lots, for two days.  At last, one captivated us, and we are now in the process of building upon it.  We've already checked out the back road to El Valle, hiked around El Picacho (the highest peak in the area)to a mountain lake, and down the Rio Maria trail across some swinging bridges to observe the river and its several waterfalls. Honey and I have also made friends with some of our new neighbors, and they have been happy to answer the many questions we've had about the climate, building materials, hired help, etc. They have also gone out of their way to welcome us into their homes, introduce us to their families and friends, and "show us the ropes" of the area.  I must say that, glowing though it was, your story was also very accurate.  To those who have read your report and thought it sounded too good to be true, let me mention the only drawbacks we have yet found:  In March, the farmers of Panama burn off last year's growth of brush and grass, occasionally filling the sky with a haze not unlike the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  Also, the mountainous areas of Panama can get windy during the dry season. Additionally, country living in Panama, as anywhere, means dealing with bugs although we have not seen any mosquitoes in Altos del Maria.  Honey and I have decided that none of these three factors is serious enough to dissuade us from moving here and enjoying our golden years, comfortably and affordably.  So let me close with additional thanks, and with advice to anyone considering discovering Altos del Maria for himself to call Pedro Sarasqueta directly, on his cell phone:  507-671-2628. Sincerely,  Larry Dodge Montana, U.S.A

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Other Information About Panama

If you are thinking about studying overseas and want to come to Panama then contact FSU-Panama

If you are thinking of coming to Panama for the cold winter months in North America and would like to have a experienced tour guide show you around the country, then I highly recommend Panama Tropical Tour Guides. They can be reached at panamatropical@hotmail.com

Quotes

"Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places."

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