We are selling only 4 titled home sites and one approximately 4 hectare parcel. The large parcel is approximately 38,991, square meters with 502 meters of shoreline and may be developed or used as one very large home site to possibly accommodate a family compound. We have already cut the road into the large parcel that is shown on the PDF file below. We have identified about 15 building sites on the large parcel which are also shown. The smaller lots are of varying size and will be sold on a first come first serve basis. Electric is available at each lot. Water is available from the lake. A local company provides a system or pumps and filters for the lake water making it suitable for drinking. Each of the four lots is right on the lake and can have their own private dock. The back of each lot is on the access road. Each lot will also have the right to use our private paved boat ramp for put-in and take-out of water craft. There will be an annual fee of $800 to help offset the cost of the full time security guard who will keep an eye on your property while your away. We recommend each home have an alarm system that connects to the security house.
You are welcome to contract the company building our cabins or you can select any builder and building design that the lot will accommodate. Local building permits are available for 1% of the building costs. There are a number of builders in the area to choose from and we can help with choosing the right one for you. We have an architect/draftsman available to help you with your home design and will also assist you in getting your building approvals.
This is the only lake of significant size in Chiriqui and its easy access from Boquete and David make it a truly rare opportunity to own titled property on fresh water. Email Paul McBride to get more information or to schedule a visit to Lago Escondido. Act soon as they will not be available for long.
Lot Price $44,950,00 each
Parcel price $325,000.00
We have begun construction of our own cabins on the lake and are nearing completion of the first one. We have completed a guards quarters which is a about a 1000 square foot structure. It is a complete living quarters for an on site full time guard.
The cabins are constructed of treated Canadian Spruce. These first cabins are about 1500 square feet with two bedrooms and one bath. They have a large sitting/dinning room, beautiful kitchen and front and rear decks. We contracted to have these built by a Canadian company that also brings the lumber into Panama.
The lot owner is free to choose any building design and building method that meets Panama building codes.
To date we have only caught a fish known locally as Saballo which gets up to about 2 lbs and puts up a pretty good fight. They are very abundant and seem to only have river otters and birds as predators. We are looking into stocking the lake with several varieties of bass and crappie or blue gill. We hope to have more information on this in the coming month. This Youtube video is of one of our fishing excursions.
About four years ago AES and the country of Panama decided to build a hydro plant near the town of Jualaca. Jualaca is a small community about 30 minutes from Boquete on a newly paved road. As the project progressed I visited the engineers and even had a chance to go deep inside the tunnels where the generators are located before the reservoir was filled. They had to build a large earthen dam and then cover it with concrete which formed a lake about 750 acres in size with two small rivers, a 14 kilometer tunnel from Fortuna dam, and a canal coming from the Chiriqui river as water sources. Together these water sources bring a great deal of flow to the reservoir each day. So much that the water level of the lake changes less than one meter. Before filling the reservoir, AES engineers cut every tree and removed any other objects that could potentially cause damage to the generators if they were to work their way into the tunnel. When all was ready the lake took only a few weeks to fill, even though the depth of the water was over 130 feet deep near the dam and near the shore it drops off rapidly from 40 to 80 feet.
I began negotiating with AES about that time to buy a farm that would give access to the water. Although AES had several projects in Panama, they had not sold any property around any of them and this was a new concept that required lot of approvals through out the organization. They had bought out all the small cattle farms that would make contact with the water. There were a total of about 7 farms and most were large and encompassed a lot of water below the water surface which of course was not usable for our intent. It took about three years of negotiation, but we eventually were able to purchase about 5 hectares of property that has about 850 meters of lake front, good road access and electricity.
Our first efforts were put into making a boat ramp. We were fortunate that there was on old farm road that went into the water at an easy angle, perfect for our needs. Within a few days of work with a backhoe, we were able to put our bass boat into the water for our first day of fishing. The lake has an abundant Sabalo population. Sabalo are a cross between and bass and a trout and give a nice fight. Our plan is to bring small mouth bass, blue gill and a variety of other fish that should thrive in this environment.
In the last few months we have put in infrastructure of basic roads, electric, water and the construction of a guard house and two beautiful wood cabins. We have paved the entire ramp and parking area in concrete. Our intention is to continue to develop the property into a private area for water recreation such as fishing, water skiing, and boating. The acquisition of this property gives us the only access to the water which in effect makes the lake very private. We have also negotiated the right of first refusal for the purchase of additional property on the lake. Although AES has other farms for sale on the lake, their size and ease of access make it unlikely that they will be sold and developed anytime soon.
Want to see a photo album of Lago Escondido? Click here!