About Pedasi
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29 November 2011
Panama is a uniquely placed country in the world, a rare intersection of world commerce, tropical beauty, political stability, and extraordinary living conditions.
Most famous for the Panama Canal, it is the crossing point for billions of dollars of trade goods each year; but in the last decade, it has defined itself as far more than the home of the canal, as a dynamic place to do business, retire and travel.
Whether it’s browsing designer goods along Panama City’s fashionable Calle 50, or wrestling a record sailfish from the rich Pacific waters, there is something to suit all tastes (and budgets) on the isthmus.
The Crossroad of the Americas
Panama City is a complex, cosmopolitan city that has undergone a tremendous development boom in recent years, with a throng of high-rise towers now dominating the cityscape where it overlooks the Pacific Ocean.
Luxury storefronts look out over the city’s broad avenues, with brand name goods sold at a fraction of the usual price. Hundreds of restaurants offer international fare, and Panama’s nightlife is vibrant with casinos, clubs, live music and entertainment, catering to the eclectic mix of visitors.
Modern health care facilities are available in Panama City, most notably the Punta Pacifica Hospital, a John Hopkins affiliate. Medical tourism is gaining momentum, thanks to cutting-edge procedures being offered at a fraction of the cost compared to North America and Europe.
The business sector is also lively. Many international companies have offices in Panama, taking advantage of its central position in the Americas, and a strong bilingual labor pool.
The Tocumen International Airport in Panama City serves as a jumping point between North and South America, reinforcing Panama’s strategic position as the ‘Hub of the Americas’.
More than 100 international banks are represented here as well, and in the absence of a Central Bank, Panama’s financial sector is one of the regions most robust, thanks to strong privacy laws that encourage international investment. Conservative credit management has also shielded the country’s banks from the global economic crisis, and recently a $210 million dollar loan was approved by the Andean Development Corp. to further improve the country’s liquidity.
In fact, Panama’s economy is set to be one of the few that are expected to grow this year, in defiance of global recessions. While estimates vary wildly, the World Bank predicts Panama’s economy will grow by 4.5 per cent in 2009, and government officials predict at least 3 per cent growth, despite reduced trade volumes.
This is in no small part thanks to the planned expansion of the Panama Canal, a $5.2 billion dollar project that is expected to generate tens of thousands of jobs and allow the Canal to remain competitive. The project, set to be completed in 2014, will widen the canal’s locks to allow the passage of ever-larger shipping freighters and add a new set of locks to ease congestion on the busy throughway.
The Canal receives more than five per cent of the world’s trade goods each year, making it a crucial hub for global commerce. This has led to the formation of the Canal Free Zone (CFZ), the world’s second largest duty-free zone after Hong Kong.
The Zone houses more than 2000 merchants selling wares from all over the world, and it is a substantial player in Panama’s economy. In fact, the CFZ is the country’s second largest attraction after the Canal, receiving more than a quarter of a million visitors annually.
A Diversity of Beauty and Culture
This tiny country packs a great deal of diversity into a small sliver of land. Just slightly smaller than South Carolina at 78,000 square kilometres, it boasts an incredible 2500 kilometres of coastline, fringed with sandy beaches and tropical islands.
Tourism has only recently become an important industry in Panama, and local and foreign investors are just now tapping into the country’s tremendous potential. Hotels across the country are in high demand, even in Panama City where business and medical tourism have been well established for many years.
This burgeoning development means the country is ripe for first-hand discovery, an abundance of natural wonders to be explored.
For the traveler, public transportation in Panama is efficient and roads are in generally excellent condition. A network of regional airports allows for swift and easy passage to just about any point within the long, sinuous country, and those who wish to explore the countryside more closely can follow the Pan-American Highway from the border with Costa Rica in the west, and winding east into the deepest heart of the Darien National Park bordering Colombia.
The Pan-American spans a bewildering variety of landscapes, from the mist-shrouded volcanic crags of the interior, to lush green mountainsides where spring reigns eternal, to the sunny, tropical lowlands where the hills dip to meet the ocean. There are micro-climates to suit all tastes, but across the country the weather is uniformly warm, with the seasons divided between dry (January – April) and rainy (May-December). Panama is not within the hurricane band that plagues the Caribbean coasts to the north, nor is it subject to the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that threaten many countries in the region.
Panama is home to rich biodiversity, both on land and in the water. More than 900 bird species move through here, and some 10,000 plant species blanket the land. The Pacific and Caribbean teem with marine life big and small; thousands of tropical fish, rays, sharks and mammals thrive in coastal waters. Visitors can spot several species of whales migrate along Panama’s coasts, and a half-dozen sea turtle species lay their eggs at night along its beaches.
History too is rife here. The Spanish influence is everywhere evident, from the colonial charms of the Casco Viejo (Old Town) in Panama City to the fortress ruins of Portobello where Spanish ships left bound for Spain laden with pearls and precious metals. Older eras have also left their mark: pre-Columbian artefacts litter the isthmus, particularly the Azuero Peninsula, where the remains of settlements dating back as much as 12,000 years have been found.
The modern-day descendants of Panama’s indigenous populations can still be found today ¾ the most notable are the Kuna Yala, a large tribe with its own semi-autonomous territory on Panama’s Caribbean. Visitors are welcome to spend time in Kuna Yala villages, and take part in the Kuna traditional way of life. The Kuna are also renowned for their intricately stitched clothing panels, known as molas, brightly patterned with designs passed down from generation to generation.
Idling Away the Hours
Given its size and the relative youth of its tourist industry, there is no shortage of activities to keep a person busy while in Panama. Panama City has its clear attractions, from shopping to nightlife to watching the ships enter the Canal; and the Casco Viejo (or Old Town) flanking the city is an alluring sampling of old-world colonial charm mixed in with chic boutiques and jazz cafes, fusion restaurants and art galleries.
Outside the city, nature is the major attraction. Hiking through lush national parks, surfing uncrowded waves, snorkelling and scuba diving with throngs of brilliantly-colored fish, discovering sea-turtles as they nest and monkey troupes climbing the trees above, watching the spouts of Orcas and Humpback whales as they migrate along the Pacific coast – the nature enthusiast will find in Panama a hotbed of diversity in a pristine environment.
Game-fishing is also very popular in Panama, where sport fishers can find sailfish, marlin, yellow-fin tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo and many more year round.
Local culture offers no small entertainment too, with small towns each celebrating their local fiestas, culminating in the biggest celebration of the year: February’s Carnival. The five-day-long extravaganza is at its most colourful in Las Tablas, in the Los Santos province, where dance, music, fireworks, traditional costumes and floats pack the streets in a heady mix of joyous abandon.
Practical Matters
With all that there is to see and do, many people are finding they need more than just a week’s vacation to experience all that Panama has to offer.
Panama’s government has put a number of incentives in place for those who wish to live or invest in the isthmus. These range from real estate tax breaks to ‘instant passports’, easing the way for investors and retirees and driving the impressive growth the country has seen in recent years.
Tourist visas in Panama are generally issued for 90 days, after which they can be renewed for another 90 days. There are also a number of options available to those who wish to spend more than three months a year in Panama.
Under the ‘pensionado’ program, any person who can demonstrate an income of $1000 a month or more can obtain a visa as a retiree. Pensionados are also entitled to hefty discounts on travel, restaurants, health care, utilities and more.
Those willing to invest in Panama can obtain visas under several categories, by investing in bank term deposits, reforestation projects, local businesses and real estate.
Property taxes are relatively low in Panama, and new constructions (those that are issued building permits before December 31st, 2009) are currently exempt from property taxes for 20 years. This tax exemption is transferable when the property is sold until the 20 years lapse.
The land itself is not part of the exemption, however, and remains subject to taxation (as do older constructions). Property taxes start at $30,000 value, ranging from 0.7% to 2.1%. There is also an alternative tax rate that can be applied for properties that are up to date with their tax payments and properly registered, bringing the maximum tax rate to just 1%.
Tax benefits also exist for projects that help develop the tourism industry in specially designated ‘tourism zones’, including the Pedasí area in Los Santos. These can include real estate and income tax exemptions, as well duty and import tax exemptions on furniture, equipment and construction materials.
As prime beachfront land in Panama grows ever scarcer, investors and developers have been looking to this sleepy stretch of coastline on Panama's central Pacific for the next wave of development, and discovering in the Azuero Peninsula the very heart of Panama.
Because Panama allows titled property right up to the waterfront, beachfront parcels are being snapped up at a dizzying rate in areas like Pedasi and Playa Venao at the very tip of the peninsula. Despite its long, sinuous shape, Panama's coasts offer relatively few truly golden beaches. Much of the Pacific coast is fringed with mangrove swamps, where clouds of mosquitoes billow up to prey on the unwary, while on the Caribbean side, where there is also a thick tangle of mangroves, much of the coast is battered with constant rains, or under the territory of Panama's aboriginal tribes and not open to outside development.
While there are several excellent beaches close to Panama City, most of these are well-developed or well on their way. The first two hours' drive west on the Pan-American Highway are littered with signs for beachfront resorts, villas and condos, offering dreams of ocean view lifestyles, but many of these have taken on an almost suburban feel, as the developed stretches now begin to crowd and bleed into one another.
At the bottom of the Azuero Peninsula, however, one feels almost at the end of the world. There is a timeless quality to daily life there, a blend of the ultra-modern with the centuries-old traditional ways. Impeccably paved highways slink through endless green fields and tiny clustered towns, colourful and tranquil; because they tend to hug the highway, very few towns have sprung up along the many beaches here, and the waterfront is largely deserted but for the fishing boats that moor in shallow waters to haul their catches ashore.
The peninsula's waters are known as the 'Tuna Coast', offering excellent, year-round fishing, with an abundance of yellow-fin tuna, red snapper, marlin and sailfish for the taking and charter boats are available for sport and deep-sea fishing. Edible catches can be brought back to shore to be cooked up to taste at one of Pedasi’s restaurants, paired with one of Panama's fine beers for less than a dollar.
Just half an hour from shore lays Isla Iguana, which despite its Pacific location, appears to be a perfect Caribbean island. An extensive coral reef surrounds the palm-dotted island, giving it a powdery, blinding, white-sand beach, and its crystal-clear, shallow waters offer the laziest snorkelling imaginable, as hawksbill turtles, cornet fish, and a myriad brightly-colored tropical fish nibble and dart about the coral branches. The island, named for its thriving colony of spotted lizards, is also the regions only nesting site for the Frigate magnificent, the magnificent frigate bird, which swoop in thick flocks overhead.
Surfers can take advantage of some excellent breaks, the most notable of which is in Playa Venao, just a half-hour drive west of Pedasi, and scuba divers can choose from a number of dive sites, including Isla Iguana and the Frailes Islands to the west. In addition to the many species of marine turtles, rays, eels and tropical fish that call the tropical Pacific home, lucky divers will spot hammerhead sharks school at certain times of year, and the whales and dolphins that haunt the coastal waters with their young.
Isla Cañas, just beyond Playa Venao and less than an hour from Pedasi, is also a major nesting site for several marine turtles. The mangrove-ringed island is home to about 700 residents, and boasts a 14-kilometer long beach where pregnant females lumber up during the night to dig holes in the soft sand, laying clutches of up to one hundred eggs. A little further afield, the Cerro Joya National Park offers hiking through pristine rainforest, with several waterfalls, monkeys and birds galore.
The Peninsula's towns burst into festivity in the summer months, running from December to April, the height of which are February's carnivals, when all the towns don their festive best to parade, dance, and celebrate day and night. Las Tablas, just an hour from Pedasi, boasts the best carnival in the country, but there are few communities that do not participate, each with their own traditional costumes and variations.
With so many activities, natural beauty, charm and culture, it is no surprise that Pedasi, once Panama's best-kept secret, is about to be its best-known ambassador.
