Pedasi Town & Culture

Pedasi, a quiet, tucked-away corner of rural Panama, is quickly making its way to the forefront of the country’s swelling tourism and development. With its pastoral charm, charming local culture, and a diversity of activities to suit the adventurous and leisurely alike, Pedasi (located on the tip of the Azuero peninsula, in the Los Santos province) is the name on everyone’s lips.

Just four hours from Panama City and its Miami-modern glitter of condo towers, shopping and international trade, Pedasi of is the antithesis of big-city bustle. The road is impeccably smooth as you head down the peninsula, extending in gentle rises and falls.  There is little to no traffic on approach to Pedasi, except for the occasional groups of cattle being herded by local vaqueros (cowboys) on horseback. Now, in the rainy season, the hills are an incredible emerald green, and the fields are dotted with grazing horses and cows, newly fat from the rain-fed grasses.

Even so, Pedasi falls within what is known as the ‘Arco Seco’ — literally, the dry arc — a swath of land with less rainfall, on average, than the rest of the country. Pedasi’s summer, between January and April, brings a dramatic change; grasses bleach beneath the brilliant sun, and the landscape becomes a canvas of golden hues.  Trees adapted to the four-month drought drop their leaves, and burst into brilliant bloom. This is the season of sun and sea, when the peninsula’s myriad beaches fairly cry out for lounging bodies.

September, however, replenishes the dry earth, bringing overcast days, fitful showers and the occasional tropical downpour. This does not faze the local landowners, most of whom raise cattle or cultivate sugarcane and rice, who continue their work tending to fields and fence posts and newborn calves. Many can be seen sporting the hand woven, hand painted straw hat particular to the region; a finer version, exquisitely crafted and detailed, is worn for carnivals and other big events.

Once in Pedasi, the town works its magic within seconds. It’s in the smell of the sea blown in on warm, gentle breezes, in the quiet punctuated by sounds of daily life; in the feel of the community, where schoolchildren stroll past neatly tended gardens, and the occasional car is driven with the respectful speed that says “this is my home”.  The town’s layout is clean and simple.  There is no hurry, no stress, no sense that anyone is not exactly where they want to be.

The architecture, with its pastel colors, colonnaded verandas and tile roofs, combines Spanish colonial stylings with a flavor that’s very much native to Azuero. Many of the towns on the peninsula were founded long before Panama broke away from Colombia.

There are many smaller festivals and celebrations interspersed throughout the year, but for those travelers who venture to this less-frequented neck of Panama’s woods, there is no end of explorations and activities to entertain or soothe, as the case may be.

Several beaches lie within walking distance from the town, virtually deserted year-round. Here much of the beachfront land is up for sale, or under development, promising an explosion of tourists and part-time residents as vacation communities spring into being.