Hello all,
Actually, reviewing it I realized we didn't list everything.
Mostly we covered sport or outdoor-oriented things to do in or near Puerto Armeulles.
Did we miss something?
I know there is also the non-outdoor activities to write about.
For instance, the art and music classes at Bellas Artes.
March 20, 2012 - plus more recent updates
This park is right on the waterfront in downtown Puerto ArmuellesTwelve years after Chiquita Banana closed its operations in Puerto Armuelles, the former Chiquita company town is once again showing signs of life.
Puerto Armuelles is slowly reemerging as the second most vital city in Chiriqui Province, after David.
David Panama, a little over an hour away, holds the honor of being the regional capital, shopping mecca, and largest town in Chiriqui.
Puerto Armuelles is the second largest town in Chiriqui, with a steadily improving economy and real estate activity.
Investors who bought land for pennies on the dollar while Puerto Armuelles was in its post-Chiquita Banana doldrums, are now looking like investment sages.
Real estate prices in Puerto Armuelles continue to rise.
Although, they are still far below land prices elsewhere in Panama, Costa Rica, or many other places in Central America.
Beach front lots are going for as little as $60/square meter.
The signs of economic recovery in Puerto Armuelles are various and gaining momentum.
The past two years, or so, has seen a notable increase in the number of expat residents.
At present, you can drive through most neighborhoods and see at least one expat construction project underway.
There are two beach areas with multiple house/condominium projects being built.
Two guys from Costa Rica are building a house on the beach in Coronado (located just past Corazon de Jesus), ten minutes north of downtown.
An expat is building his new home in the Porvenir neighborhood
A couple recently bought a house one block back from the beach in the Corazon de Jesus neighborhood.
A woman from Maryland just purchased a beachfront lot in the Cucuy area. She already has an architect drawing up her house plans.
The San Vicente neighborhood of Puerto is experiencing tremendous activity - especially the beachfront in the southern end of San Vicente.
There are actually too many recent purchases in or near Puerto Armuelles to list here. In fact, there is certainly more real estate activity that we have not heard about. There is no clearinghouse of real estate activity in Panama. This lack of full information is both a boon and a bane to Panama real estate investors.
One of the obstacles for people to visit Puerto Armuelles in the past was lack of information about it.
The one downtown hotel of Puerto Armuelles.Then even if you did hear about Puerto, there were very few options for staying overnight.
(FYI: Right now there are only 2 hotel options in Puerto. One is a dive and the other is marginally okay. There is one excellent B&B, but it is often full. But one new hotel and a B&B are on their way!))
In the past, most of Puerto Armuelles’ new foreign residents were friends of current residents.
These folks usually discovered the town while staying at a friend’s house.
Often these people also fell in love with Puerto Armuelles’ laid-back, beach town atmosphere.
However, if you didn’t have a friend in Puerto, it was very unlikely you'd visit Puerto.
Now, with the steady arrival of more expats, there are more chances for “friends of friends” to get a chance to visit.
Even better, the options for staying in Puerto Armuelles is finally increasing.
An expat and San Vicente resident is starting a new hotel, Tsunami Inn.
Tsuami Inn is located at the very south end of the San Vicente neighborhood.
It is a small hotel of cabanas, a rancho where breakfast and drinks will be service, and a swimming pool.
The cabananas will include bed, bath, and kitchen facilities.
Fishing and horse back riding tours will be offered.
According to the owner, Tsunami Inn will open in June.
Soon there will be a B & B in the Las Palmas Neighborhood
There is currently a B&B, called Finca de Oso.
Also there are additional longer-term rentals on the market.
You may also want to stay out on Punta Burica. Click here for lodging options on Punta Burica.
A couple of hundred meters down the beach road from the new hotel project, an expat couple has opened a beautiful new bar/restaurant on the beach.
It is called“El Ojo de Agua” (The Watering Hole) and is brand new.
When I visited, they still didn’t have gas connected to their range.
However, the sea breeze, the view, and the excellent quality of the construction and design of the place were a real treat.
The drinks are outstanding and reasonably priced.
A little further down the beach, heading back to town are several nice bars and restaurants.
Another beachfront restaurant is now under expat management and looks very inviting.
A little further down the road, a Panamanian-owned beach front restaurant has recently put on a second story addition to handle its expanding business.
All this says to visitors that Puerto Armuelles is no longer just a beans and rice place to eat lunch or dinner.
Other signs of growth for Puerto Armuelles are subtle, yet convincing.
You know the old saying, “nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd” ?
As recently as four years ago, a quarter of the store fronts were boarded up;
Unemployment was reportedly over seventy percent. The town was in desperate straights.
Now new businesses are popping up all over the place. The economy has noticeably improved.
At that time, retirees looking at Puerto Armuelles, often decided to move to David, or even Boquete.
This was the case even though one reason they moved to Panama was to live near the beach.
Now these “disappointed” folks who had really wanted to live on the beach, are jumping on the bandwagon and coming to give Puerto Armuelles a second look.
Puerto Armuelless is Attracting Alot More AttentionLocal Puerto expats are bumping into more and more retirees, especially expats from Boquete, who are tired of the cold, and the horizontally blown afternoon rainstorms, and are looking for a place to live in the tropics that is actually warm, and by the ocean.
I ran into one guy from Boquete who came to Puerto to fish for the day.
He said he had had no idea that Puerto Armuelles even existed before.
He had thought Puerto was just a boat launch, rather than a town of over 20,000 inhabitants.
Probably the predominant group checking out Puerto Armuelles are expat transplants from Costa Rica.
If you have ever visited Costa Rica, you know that it truly is a spectacular tropical paradise.
Plus Costa Rica has a longer history of tourists and expat residents and consequently more amenities to serve them.
The big down side to Costa Rica is that along with all its successful development, has come a corresponding rise in living costs.
The cost of everything in Costa Rica, especially when compared to living costs in Panama, is sky high.
Puerto Armuelles is just thirty minutes south of the Costa Rica border crossing at Paso Canoas.
So it makes sense that expats from Costa Rica are stopping by to have a look.
It appears, they like what they see in Puerto.
Housing is a fraction of the cost of comparable properties in Costa Rica.
Plus, lunch here still costs under two dollars, instead of the ten that you might spend in Costa Rica.
Find out for yourself why some people consider Puerto Armuelles to be the only true beach town in Panama.
Drive for 30 minutes on the road going south from Pasa Canoas and you will arrive at Puerto Armuelles.
Or if you are browsing the internet, it seems like every week there is something new being advertised in Puerto.
Who knows? You, too, might just find yourself calling Puerto Armuelles “home”.
But it cannot be denied that Panama has some great real estate investment opportunities as well.
Right now, we have a doozy of an investment opportunity for you!
(Click to See A Solid Puerto Armuelles Investment)
All of our properties are located in the Puerto Armuelles area.
The reason is that Puerto Armuelles is Booming.
The economic climate in Puerto Armuelles has noticeably changed on many fronts.
The Panama government has recently joined the ranks of players that are revitalizing Puerto Armuelles.
Puerto Armuelles is positioned to be the future strategic shipping port and free trade zone for western Panama.
Right now Puerto Armuelles is the 2nd largest city in the very popular Chiriqui province.
It will continue to grow.
Investors are increasingly seen in Puerto Armuelles, looking at both commercial and residential properties.
Photo by Mark Strozier.
Edited: May 22, 2019
Puerto isn' San Francisco and it isn't really gay-friendly, but there is evidence of a surprising level of gay tolerance. Regardless, I would avoid all PDAs.It appears that Puerto has a thriving, albeit small, transvestite scene.
I have lived in Puerto Armuelles Panama for five years now. (This article was originally written in 2012)
Of all the places I've been in Central America, the Panamanian beach town of Puerto Armuelles exhibits a higher level of gay-friendliness or at least gay acceptance than any other place of similar size I've been.
(Note: I've never visited Puerto Vallarta for Spring Break)
Granted, this is Panama. There are still no openly gay politicians.
The long, dark shadow cast by the Catholic Church is just beginning to fade.
However, despite the superficially tough “macho” culture which exists in all of Latin America, Puerto Armuelles seems to have a softer side for its own gays. Gay men, at least.
And, while a person might be described by locals as “the queer guy who works at the market”, or “the gay man who cuts my hair” with no hint of scorn or judgment, you are still not likely to see a gay couple holding hands while walking down the street in Puerto Armuelles (as of early 2012).
I have heard of no similar "gay-friendly" tolerance for lesbians. Although, it isn't completely absent.
For instance, we know a local female doctor who has been living with her "best friend" for about 20 years. It is quite obvious to most people that they are a couple. The situation is not discussed, but it is tacitly acknowledged and tolerated. The same is true of a lawyer we know, although she is based in David.
You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to sleuth out the fact that Puerto Armuelles is somewhat of a magnet for Panama's gays.
Ask any local, and they will tell you, that yes, for some reason Panama's gays are attracted to Puerto Armuelles.
Currently, Puerto Armuelles would not make it onto any list of top gay-friendly places to live. But, if you are gay, and looking for a place to live in Panama, Puerto Armuelles is definitely worth a look.
January 19, 2012
Economic Freedom Feels GoodPuerto Armuelles has been in economic shackles for years because of the enormous debt owed by Coosemupar.
Coosemupar is a worker cooperative that owns and operates the many banana plantations in the Puerto Armuelles area of Panama.
President Martinelli and members of Coosemupar, signed an agreement that states that the government will:
This is great news for those of us living in Panama, especially in Puerto Armuelles.
Until the early 2000s, Puerto Armuelles was a prosperous and beautiful beach town.
Then Chiquita Banana left.
Chiquita Banana has had a tremendous impact on the physical look and the economy of Puerto Armuelles; for good and for bad.
Chiquita came to town in 1927. It was called United Fruit Company back then.
Chiquita transformed Puerto Armuelles into a unique jewel of a town.
Chiquita built whole neighborhoods of great classic wooden tropical houses on stills, a club house, golf course, and an airport.
Most importantly, Chiquita Banana provided a steady supply of relatively high paid work.
Starting in 2003, when Chiquita Banana left Puerto Armuelles, the town's economy has diminished steadily.
At that time, Chiquita's banana plantations were taken over by a workers' cooperative named COOSEMUPAR.
1) A self-serving (now former) union leadership that treated the cooperative as its own personal property. It was the antics of this same union that prompted Chiquita to leave Puerto Armuelles. It wasn't the only reason, but the union's penchant for debilitating worker strikes was a significant reason for Chiquita's departure from Puerto.
2) Chiquita Banana imposed the biggest obstacle to Coosemupar's success.
As part of the terms for the transfer of operations to Coosemupar, Chiquita required that the bananas from its former plantations be sold exclusively to Chiquita. Not only that, but Chiquita got to decide what to pay for those bananas. Perhaps in revenge for forcing them to leave Puerto, Chiquita set the price they would pay for Coosemupar's bananas way below the market price.
These 2 factors guaranteed the ultimate failure of the cooperative.
The only reason that Coosemupar survived was due to government subsidies.
Unfortunately, given Coosemupar's self-serving leadership, those subsidies were not always used appropriately.
After years of these subsidies, the Panamanian government finally insisted that Chiquita renounce its exclusive banana contract with Coosemupar. Chiquita eventually complied.
Unfortunately, by that time, Coosemupar was a crippled company with massive debt.
No one would buy and take over operations from Coosempar because of its debt.
A new company would have to pay the almost 20 million dollar debt.
In addition the plantation workers were still living on the plantations. Those workers want to be compensated for all their time and efforts in keeping the banana trees alive - usually without pay.
In addition, most prospective buyers wanted the workers removed from the plantations. This was not popular with workers who had lived there for years, sometimes for generations.
Various companies started negotiations to buy the banana plantations from Coosemupar, but they always backed out.
However, soon that will be all behind Puerto Armuelles.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) will sell by public auction the 3,500 hectares of plantation land. MEF will award the land to those companies that will generate the greatest number of jobs.
Using the proceeds from the sale of the plantations, the government will pay the debt own to Social Security for the worker-employer portion of the retirement funds.
In addition, the workers will receive individual titled land upon which to live. This process of awarding land to plantation workers will take 6 months to a year to complete.
This agreement is a great relief to the people of Puerto Armuelles.
A vision for Puerto Armuelles's future is slowly and steadily being implemented.
A construction project to widen the 2 lane to a 4 lane road to Puerto Armuelles will begin soon.
The key reason for the road project is to service the deep container port outside of Puerto Armuelles. Construction of this pier is estimated to begin in conjunction with the road construction project . The future Puerto Armuelles' port will have 217 storage facilities, a deepwater container and future cruise ship port, and a marina.
The Puerto Armuelles road is envisioned as a 4 lane "dry canal" highway connecting Puerto Armulles to Chiriqui Grand on the Caribbean side of Panama. It is anticipated it will have a similar economic effect to the "wet canal" in Panama City
These 2 construction projects along with the government's agreement to cancel the debt of Coosemupar and the workers, shows that the Panama government is through ignoring the once-vibrant town of Puerto Armuelles. The Panama government is now activity promoting the economic revitalization of Puerto Armuelles.
A main intersection in Downtown Puerto Armuelles
We wrote of about 6 neighborhoods in or near the downtown area of Puerto Armuelles.
Each has a distinct character and feel. Almost all of them are on the ocean.
Click here, to learn about these, and many other neighborhoods in Puerto Armuelles.
Main road through CarmenA look at these neighborhoods gives a sense of how unique Puerto Armuelles is compared to other locations in Panama.
