La Arena

About La Arena:

La Arena covers 27.6 km² on the western side of the Chitré district, along the Carretera Nacional that comes in from Divisa. Drivers from Panama City leave the Pan-American Highway at Divisa, cross the Parita district and reach La Arena on the last stretch before central Chitré, about two kilometres further on; the whole trip is roughly 255 km. It borders San Miguel de Monagrillo, and roads branch off toward Pesé, toward Las Balas and, along Calle Belén, toward Cuatro Caminos. The Vía Roberto Ramírez de Diego, home to residenciales such as Cubitá and to a Riba Smith Selecto supermarket, ties the corregimiento to the rest of the city.

The name comes from the ground. The first settlers found a sandy red clay that stood up to firing, and the women of the village, the olleras, worked it sitting on the floor and burned their pots in the open with firewood and dried cow dung. In 1931 the teacher Diana Julia Chiari arrived, brought the potters into her school and later introduced the wheel, the kiln and moulds; a national pottery school followed in 1938, and its building, which now carries her name, passed to the state culture institute for craft courses. In the late 1980s the Organization of American States named La Arena the most artisan town in the Americas and decorated the master potter Toribio Ruiz, who now has a street named after him. Today three large workshops, Cerámica Murillo, Cerámica Calderón and Cerámica Marcelino, work alongside more than a hundred family workshops turning out tinajas, flowerpots, cazuelas, roof tiles and painted souvenirs.

Bread is the other trade. Panadería La Arena moved here from Santiago in 1947 because the family already owned a house on the roadside, and set up in a quincha-and-tile house on four pillars opposite the John F. Kennedy primary school, firing its ovens with wood and braiding its rosquillas by hand. Other family bakeries, fondas and craft shops have opened along the same stretch, and on long weekends demand is high enough to keep the ovens going day and night. Some of the old quincha houses with tiled roofs still stand between the newer block buildings. The patron is the Virgen de las Mercedes, whose feast falls on 24 September.

The census counted 6,429 people in 2000, 7,586 in 2010 and 8,780 in 2023, a steady rise as Chitré has spread west. Buyers range widely: young families using a first mortgage in the new barriadas, people who work in Chitré’s clinics, banks and offices and want a yard close to town, and buyers at the top of the regional market who pay for a guarded street in Cubitá. On the edge of the corregimiento, the larger tracts are offered as development land. The low ground near the creeks is the weak point: in July 2021 a creek burst its banks and flooded houses here, and La Arena has shown up again among the Chitré areas hit when heavy storms come through.

Houses in La Arena:

House stock here falls into three groups. Along the highway and on the older streets you find block houses, and a few quincha ones, on generous lots, some with a shop or a family workshop attached. Then come the newer barriadas, with single-storey three-bedroom houses, a carport and a fenced patio. At the top end, Residencial Cubitá is a gated PH with a guardhouse staffed round the clock, where houses of around 240 m² with three bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms change hands, and Residencial Marejobo has two-storey homes on lots of more than 1,500 m². If you buy in a PH residencial, ask for the reglamento and the current cuota de mantenimiento before you make an offer. If you buy an old quincha house, budget for the roof and the walls; earth walls last as long as the render and the tiles are kept sound.

New developments in La Arena:

The largest project under way is Bosques de San Pablo, planned in six phases with 585 homes in all. The smallest model has two bedrooms and one bathroom in 57.5 m² on a lot of about 150 m²; the largest reaches 81.2 m² with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each house has its own parking space, and the plan includes green areas and a children’s playground. Prices sit at the entry level of the Chitré market, and the developer pitches it at buyers who can use the government’s housing bonus. Before you sign, find out which phase your house belongs to, whether that phase has its construction permit, and when the streets, water and power will be handed over.

Land and Lots in La Arena:

La Arena still has land at very different scales. On the road to Pesé a 72-hectare property is on offer for a housing development or agrotourism, and in the Las Balas sector a finca of almost five hectares sits 1.8 km from the Vía Belisario Porras. Closer in, there are urban lots of 1,000 to 1,400 m², including a flat parcel in the quiet streets around Cubitá, and a raised lot of 6,693 m² with more than 70 metres of frontage at the end of Calle Belén, on the way to Cuatro Caminos. The large tracts are still rural land, so a subdivision means getting the land use changed and the roads and services approved before the first lot can be sold. On any parcel, find out where the nearest creek runs and how high it rose in 2021.

Rentals in La Arena:

Rentals are mostly whole houses let by the month, with two or three bedrooms, a den or a storeroom and parking for one car, sometimes furnished. In Cubitá there are also furnished two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments. Tenants tend to be professionals posted to Chitré, couples who work in the city and families who have not bought yet. Ask whether the house has a reserve water tank, and agree in writing who pays water, power and rubbish collection.

FAQ:

• Is this the same La Arena as the one in Los Pozos?

  No. Herrera has two corregimientos called La Arena. This one belongs to the Chitré district and is part of the city; the other is a rural corregimiento of about 500 people in the Los Pozos district, inland. If a listing only says “La Arena, Herrera”, check the district on the survey plan before you travel to see it.

• Does La Arena flood?

  Parts of it can. In July 2021 a creek overflowed and damaged houses, and the corregimiento has had flooded streets in later storms. Ask the seller directly whether water has ever come into the house, look for tide marks on the walls and the fence, and check how far the property is from the nearest creek.

• What should I check before buying in Cubitá or another gated residencial?

  These are propiedad horizontal developments, so you buy your house plus a share of the common areas and agree to the building rules. Read the reglamento for what it says about extensions, rentals and pets, ask what the monthly fee covers and whether it is up to date, and confirm in the Registro Público that the unit is registered under the PH regime in the seller’s name, free of liens.

• I’m looking at a large tract on the road to Pesé. What should I check?

  Start with who actually owns it. If the finca came down through an inheritance, make sure every heir registered on the title signs, that the registered area matches the survey plan, and that the access road is public rather than a right of way through a neighbour’s land. Then ask the municipality and the housing ministry what it takes to change the land use before you price it as development land.

• Can I still watch the potters and bakers at work?

  Yes. From early morning you can watch potters at the wheel in the family workshops, buy straight from their sales rooms and stop at the bakeries on the highway on the way out. Weekdays are calmer; on long weekends the bakeries are busy enough to bake around the clock.