Querevalo

About Querévalo:

Querévalo covers about 37 square kilometres in the southeast of Alanje district, on low ground between the city of David and the Gulf of Chiriquí. The way in is Route 48, the old David–Querévalo road, which leaves the four-lane stretch at La Riviera on David’s south side and runs out past La Berlina to the village. A second link is under construction: in January 2026 the public works ministry started a 5.92-kilometre road from the Interamericana at Coquito to La Riviera, so traffic from the west will no longer have to cross the city. From La Berlina, the new road to Playa La Barqueta runs through La Nobleza into neighbouring Guarumal, and the ministry put it at 95 percent complete in July 2026.

This is one of the more productive corners of the district. Rice, maize and sugar cane cover the flat land, cattle graze between them, and which crop a family farms depends partly on which bank of the río Chico they are on. Combines and grain trucks share Route 48 with passenger buses and private cars, and for years the road broke up under that weight; as recently as 2024, ministry crews had to dig out dirt that residents had shovelled into the potholes before they could patch them. The village has a health centre, primary schools in Querévalo and Orillas del Río, and since March 2026 a synthetic football pitch in Querévalo Viejo.

The panecito is what people outside the district know the place for. These are small sweet breads of fermented maize, shaped by hand into leaves or rings, and a single baker can go through eleven or twelve quintales of maize in the weeks before Easter. Demand has kept them going year-round, so stalls along the main road sell panecitos, sweets and fruit conserves next to leche agria, fresh cheese and juice. The name Querévalo is said to come from a cacique of the indigenous people who once lived in the area.

The 2023 census counted 2,006 people, up from 1,751 in 2010 and 1,536 in 2000, when just under 800 of them lived in the village itself. Besides the cabecera, the corregimiento takes in Orillas del Río, with several hundred residents of its own, plus Querévalo Viejo, Calabazal, La Berlina, La Lora and La Nobleza. Most families here live from crops and cattle. If you work in David, Querévalo puts a rural lot with pasture around it a short drive from the city, and the paved beach road now puts La Barqueta on the same route.

Land and Lots in Querévalo:

Most of what changes hands is land. Road-front lots along Route 48 and the new La Barqueta road are the simplest to build on, since that is where power and water connect most easily, and the ministry fitted drainage culverts at the driveways along the rebuilt beach road. Larger titled parcels come up too, such as a flat block of a little over 22 hectares with all basic services, offered as fifteen minutes from central David. Riverside ground is a separate case: before you buy land for sale in Querévalo along the río Chico, walk it after a heavy rain and ask the neighbours how high the water has come.

Fincas in Querévalo:

Farm holdings on offer run from parcels of twenty-odd hectares to estates of more than 130 hectares. The ground is flat alluvial land already worked for rice, maize, cane and cattle, so a buyer is usually taking over a going concern rather than clearing new country. When you compare fincas in Querévalo, look at how trucks get in during the wet season, whether the land has river frontage or a well for water, and how the parcel connects to Route 48, which carries the harvest out.

Houses in Querévalo:

Homes are single-family houses on their own lots, from older village houses near the river to concrete three-bedroom, two-bathroom builds of around 180 square metres. Some of the most central plots sit on the riverbank facing the health centre, a short walk from the shops, the schools and the bus. If you are looking at one of those riverbank houses, find out how far the protected strip along the río Chico reaches into the lot before you agree a price.

FAQ:

• How do I get from David to Querévalo?

  Take Route 48 from La Riviera, on the south side of David, and follow it past La Berlina to the village. Once the Coquito–Querévalo link is finished, drivers coming from the west along the Interamericana will be able to reach La Riviera without going through the city centre.

• Does the new La Barqueta road run through Querévalo?

  Yes. The 15.96-kilometre project starts in Querévalo, with the first 3.6 kilometres between La Berlina and La Nobleza paved by late 2025, then continues into Guarumal and down to the beach. Along the way, the old bridges over the Guarumal and Espatarra creeks were torn down to make way for new ones.

• Can I build right down to the río Chico?

  No. Panama’s forestry law requires a strip of vegetation on both banks of a river, at least as wide as the channel and never less than ten metres. On a riverside lot, take that strip off the usable area before you compare prices, and check how the low corners behaved in the last rainy season.

• What should I check on a road-front lot?

  Rebuilding the beach road has added new culverts, ditches and road edges, so the frontage you see on site may not match the old survey. Ask for the registered plan and the folio from the Registro Público, confirm with the public works ministry where the road reserve ends, and make sure any entrance or culvert sits on your side of that line.

• Is Querévalo a place for a beach house?

  Not directly. The beach, the resort and the beachfront lots are at La Barqueta, in Guarumal. Querévalo is the farming country you drive through on the way, which suits a buyer who wants a house with land and the sea within reach rather than on the doorstep.