El Toro

About El Toro:

El Toro is one of the seven corregimientos of Las Minas district and lies west of the district seat, in the hills of the Azuero interior. The usual way in runs from the town of Las Minas to Chepo, and from Chepo the unpaved road carries on into El Toro. Las Minas is still where most errands end up, because that is where the buses leave for Chitré, about 50 km further down, from five in the morning until six in the evening. In late 2020 the rains left the Chepo–El Toro road in poor shape, and that December the public works ministry regraded and rebuilt the main route through the corregimiento. Local producers have also repaired the worst stretches themselves rather than keep waiting for the authorities.

Farming is the living here. Maize, rice and guandú are the crops El Toro grows, and pasture fills much of the rest of each finca, fenced the Azuero way with living posts. Across the district, families also raise pigs and fatten broiler chickens. In September 2025 the state marketing institute, IMA, brought one of its agroferias to El Toro, a one-day market of low-priced staples and local produce. Daily life in the hamlets turns on the El Toro school, the San Juan de Dios chapel, a couple of evangelical churches and the community roads that link them.

The ground is steep and broken. Hamlets sit on ridges and in hollows from under 200 metres around El Marín to close to 700 at Rincón de Juan Díaz, with hills such as Cerro El Toro and Cerro El Barniz standing over them. Part of the corregimiento lies inside the El Montuoso Forest Reserve, created by Law 12 of 1977 over 12,043 hectares of Chepo, El Toro and Leones to keep the rivers of upper Herrera clean and flowing. Some hamlet names point straight at it: La Loma El Montuoso, Peña de Tebario, La Peña del Suay. Environment ministry rangers patrol the reserve with the environmental police, and in August 2025 representatives from El Toro sat in on the Las Minas council session where the ministry discussed how the reserve should be run.

The population has come and gone. El Toro had 1,073 residents in 1990 and 797 in 2000, climbed back to 931 in 2010, and was down to 619 by 2023. Even the seat is a hamlet of fewer than two hundred people, and El Barniz and El Marín are smaller still. Buyers mostly come from the district or from the Azuero lowlands: farmers adding land, and families who want hill ground with water on it and do not mind living a long way from the next neighbour.

Houses in El Toro:

Houses here are farm homes and village houses spread along the community roads, and the largest cluster is El Toro village itself, near the school. Almost all of them sit on working land, so the house and the finca around it are normally sold as one. On a sloping site, drainage is the first thing to look at: see where the water from the hill above goes in a downpour and, if the house stands against a cut bank, whether that bank is holding. If you are weighing up houses for sale in El Toro, ask too whether the place is on the grid and where its drinking water comes from in the dry months.

Land and Lots in El Toro:

Land is most of this market: fincas of crops and pasture, larger hill properties and the odd lot beside a community road. Take a finca of almost seven hectares near El Marín. It sits at about 170 metres, has a quebrada that runs all year and sound perimeter fences, but in any season the only way in is a dirt track on foot or on horseback, and its soil is classed for pasture, forestry and permanent crops rather than for the plough. Good water, hard access and land better suited to grass and trees than to annual planting is a combination worth keeping in mind anywhere in El Toro. Where a finca reaches into El Montuoso, felling and new clearing need the environment ministry’s permission, which suits a buyer who wants forest and water rather than one who plans to run more cattle. Before you commit to any farmland for sale in El Toro, Herrera, walk the right of way as carefully as the boundary.

FAQ:

• Can every finca in El Toro be reached by car?

  No. Some parcels can only be reached on foot or on horseback all year round, along tracks that cross other people’s land. Before you buy, make sure the right of way to the property is written into the plan and the deed rather than resting on a neighbour’s goodwill. At the property registry, confirm as well that the finca has a registered title in the seller’s name and is not held only under possession rights, and that the area on the plan matches what is fenced.

• Is El Toro inside the El Montuoso reserve?

  Part of it is. The reserve takes in sections of El Toro, Chepo and Leones, and its limit does not follow fences, roads or hamlet names. Ask the environment ministry’s Herrera office to place the parcel’s plan on the reserve map; inside the reserve, cutting forest or changing land use needs the ministry’s approval.

• How do I get to El Toro from Chitré?

  Take the paved road up to Las Minas, about 50 km, then continue to Chepo and follow the unpaved road on to El Toro. Buses run between Chitré and Las Minas from five in the morning to six in the evening. Past Las Minas, a four-wheel drive makes the trip far easier.

• What happens to the roads in the rainy season?

  They suffer. In 2020 the rains damaged the Chepo–El Toro road badly enough that the ministry had to rebuild the main route, and producers have patched stretches themselves when help was slow to come. Visit the property and drive the route between September and November before you settle on a price.

• What does the land in El Toro produce?

  Maize, rice and guandú are the field crops, and pasture covers much of the rest. Steeper fincas do better under grass, timber or permanent crops than under seasonal planting. Ask the seller what the land has carried in recent years and which parts wash out or waterlog in the rains.