What are the main cities, towns, communities and developments of the El Valle de Anton area and what is each one like?
Lourdes Townshend
El Valle, located in Antón, Republic of Panamá, was traditionally mainly a place for a second home town for locals; as Panamanians are very much into weekend country and beach family getaways. Houses in El Valle and surroundings had been inherited from generation to generation, with everyone knowing each other in town, keeping the same maids and gardeners for years. In recent years, El Valle has very much attracted foreigners...
El Valle, located in Antón, Republic of Panamá, was traditionally mainly a place for a second home town for locals; as Panamanians are very much into weekend country and beach family getaways. Houses in El Valle and surroundings had been inherited from generation to generation, with everyone knowing each other in town, keeping the same maids and gardeners for years. In recent years, El Valle has very much attracted foreigners for the peace and beautiful weather and nature that it offers, in addition to the better quality of life and the prices in the neighborhood.
El Valle is located approximately 2 hours driving time from the city of Panamá, and you can get there by taking a nice highway, called the "Interamericana.
There are several cities and towns before you get to El Valle, each one with unique charming different things to offer; some beaches and mountains with many options for bird watching and surfing, or simply doing "country style relaxing" time in hammocks.
After you take the second road from the highway, it will take 30 minutes to arrive in El Valle, going through, again, several little towns and villages. There's lots of flowers and green vegetation along the way.
At the present time, many residential projects are been offered, inside and outside El Valle, at different prices. But the preference for new visitors is inside the town, where a person can enjoy beautiful houses; many high class restaurants and hotels; a small exotic bird zoo; a public vegetables, fruits and art & craft public market; and an orchid and gold frog sanctuaries.
Overall, El Valle offers a good place to live, with very nice year round weather, and lots of contact with nature.
Posted January 5, 2014
Adam Brunner - abc realty panama
El Valle is basically just a caldera (cauldron) of the volcano that is extinct. The whole town is inside this caldera. It’s a mega volcano that blew up some 10,000 years ago and turned into a lake and now it’s a town. El Valle is broken up into six sections. It has a population of 7,000 people, all located in this crater. They have made zoning laws and rules here, so the population density is not very high.
Most of the folks...
Most of the folks...
El Valle is basically just a caldera (cauldron) of the volcano that is extinct. The whole town is inside this caldera. It’s a mega volcano that blew up some 10,000 years ago and turned into a lake and now it’s a town. El Valle is broken up into six sections. It has a population of 7,000 people, all located in this crater. They have made zoning laws and rules here, so the population density is not very high.
Most of the folks who are well to do in El Valle live in Panama City and come up for the weekends have houses in the area called Capirita. It is a nice part of town. Lots of folks are expanding their properties over there. Capirita is pretty much where you have the river coming through the valley that comes from the mountain and that runs down through El Valle. There are some new homes being built out there and some old homes that are fantastic as well. Some of the older homes just needs some TLC to fix them up. The homes in Capirita can range in size from two bedrooms to nine bedrooms. That’s the kind of variety that they have there. It’s a mix of wealthy folks and people who have been living there since the 1920s. These are mostly first homes.
Next to Capirita, you have El Hato. There are nice houses with nice people and you have an expat community living up there as well. El Hato is an area which is expanding up along the side of the crater going up the mountainside to where all these new houses are coming in. This is a millionaire’s area. This is where you’ll find homes with the nine bedrooms. They are fantastic homes and a lot of them are just weekend homes, which surprises me. You have the new roads there, built by the homeowners, not by the state, so they are all concrete roads, not asphalt roads.
Most of the folks who are well to do in El Valle live in Panama City and come up for the weekends have houses in the area called Capirita. It is a nice part of town. Lots of folks are expanding their properties over there. Capirita is pretty much where you have the river coming through the valley that comes from the mountain and that runs down through El Valle. There are some new homes being built out there and some old homes that are fantastic as well. Some of the older homes just needs some TLC to fix them up. The homes in Capirita can range in size from two bedrooms to nine bedrooms. That’s the kind of variety that they have there. It’s a mix of wealthy folks and people who have been living there since the 1920s. These are mostly first homes.
Next to Capirita, you have El Hato. There are nice houses with nice people and you have an expat community living up there as well. El Hato is an area which is expanding up along the side of the crater going up the mountainside to where all these new houses are coming in. This is a millionaire’s area. This is where you’ll find homes with the nine bedrooms. They are fantastic homes and a lot of them are just weekend homes, which surprises me. You have the new roads there, built by the homeowners, not by the state, so they are all concrete roads, not asphalt roads.
Another area is Las Medinas, which is also a nice area and nice place to live. You’ll find a bed and breakfast and a hostel there. There’s a little store where you can buy sodas. Las Medinas is pretty much on the same side as Capirita and El Hato; it’s just on the other side of the main road. The main road cuts through the center of the crater. Las Medinas is still a developing area. Lots of the natives still live there, but they also have a lot of new properties and homes starting. If I’m not mistaken, they’re all the way at the west end of Las Medinas. There’s a new road that goes through a development that our former president Ricardo Martinelli has procured and is now building homes and neighborhoods and a road that goes over the mountain to what I think is going to be a resort or casino. But that’s going to be further down the line, probably eight years down the line before it breaks ground, if it breaks ground.
You go past downtown and you get into an area called La Reforma, which is heading towards the native quarters and there’s a little more density between the houses too because the houses are a lot smaller. The folks have been living there since the 1920s. That’s when they started establishing their homes. Properties in La Reforma are handed down through generations and they do not sell these, preferring to keep it to themselves. There is an elementary school there. You can rent a one or two bedroom for around $400. If you are an expat or a gringo, in order to live there, you would have to be adventurous.
Las Cruces is where the main road breaks up in two directions. One goes up to Crater Valley Hotel where there are zipline tours. You also have the waterfall that you can visit there. When you go to the left, you go through the native quarters and you wind up on the road that would take you to Penenome and there are also some more waterfalls at the end of that. You can take those trails as well. Those are a lot more fun, I think, because, in addition to other things, no one charges you. The road one on the right side goes all the way up to La Mesa where you have chicken farms, but before you get there, you run into the Crater Valley. There’s a hotel where they have the zipline as well as the Chorro, which is the Macho waterfall. The Chorro Las Mozas are the bigger falls. It costs US $3 to go in there and see the waterfall and walk around the trails. A lot of people like doing that. The zipline costs about US $50.
El Gaital is like a development that was started by Mr. Melo, which is one of the largest farm equipment providers in Panama. He also did the Altos del Maria project, which is the outside of El Valle. He started a gated community there, and it has something along the lines of about 50 properties. Almost all of these properties are large and phenomenal. They cost around half a million dollars. There are a few houses there that are smaller, around US $250,000 to $300,000, dollars, but most prices are higher because this is a very desirable place to live.
Downtown is where the market, restaurants, hardware stores and hotels are. I really can’t say much more. That’s about it.
Downtown is where the market, restaurants, hardware stores and hotels are. I really can’t say much more. That’s about it.
India Dormida (which means “The Sleeping Indian”) is the big attraction of El Valle. When you come in the valley, you will see her outline on the ridge line of the crater. Her hair is a bunch of trees and the outline of the mountains outline her face, her neck, bust, all the way down to her waist. And she’s lying on her back staring straight up. People can hike up there. You can drive to the location and walk from there, if you like.
Posted February 20, 2015