Las Minas

About Las Minas:

Las Minas sits in the uplands of western Herrera, on the paved road that climbs from Chitré by way of Pesé and Los Pozos, a drive of around 50 km. The name comes from gold. Spaniards worked deposits in these hills, and the old El Gallo mine, an open pit on a hilltop, was reopened for gold, silver and lead in the late nineteenth century. For a long time the town was called Minas de Vaca Monte, the name it carries in a colonial list of towns from 1790, and the largest bell in its church is marked 1776. In 1821 it was one of the towns that signed an act backing the Grito de La Villa de Los Santos, and its patron is Santa Bárbara, the patron saint of miners.

The local bus cooperative runs 14 buses between Las Minas and Chitré from five in the morning until six in the evening. That route carries much of daily life, because hospital care, banks, big shopping and a good deal of the work are down in Chitré. To the north, the public works ministry has been rebuilding the road to Ocú, which gives the town a second paved way out. The health centre stands on the main road and handles emergencies and general medicine on weekdays. Las Minas is also where people from Leones, Quebrada del Rosario and Chepo come to catch the bus, shop and deal with the municipality.

Farming carries the corregimiento. Maize, rice, guandú and yuca are the field crops, beans come from around El Bebedero, and the cattle fincas around town keep horses as well as cows. Goats are raised in and around the town and at Las Margaritas, and pigs are kept almost everywhere in the district. In town, households fatten broiler chickens, bake bread, make crafts and run small shops.

The hills are part of what draws people. Cerro La Cruz, above the town, is a lookout where friends meet, and from these heights you can see across much of Azuero, from the Gulf of Parita to the Gulf of Montijo. The moist hill forest is home to the Flor del Espíritu Santo, the orchid that is Panama’s national flower, and several residents grow it in orchid houses at home. Every year at the end of August or the start of September the town hosts the national Flor del Espíritu Santo festival, with orchid shows, ox carts and a farm fair. Most buyers come from the region: families from the district or from the Azuero lowlands looking for a house in town or land close to it.

Houses in Las Minas:

The town was never laid out on a grid. Its first homes were ranchos and low houses of tile and quincha, built wherever the ground allowed, and the streets bent around the plaza on the hill. Today the houses for sale in Las Minas are mostly family homes on their own lots in town, plus country houses on the edge where the street turns into a farm road. Because the town sits among small hills and hollows, many lots slope, so look at where the rainwater runs off and whether a retaining wall is needed. In a town where houses have passed from parents to children for generations, ask who holds the title before you ask the price.

Land and Lots in Las Minas:

Outside the town, land means fincas: pasture for cattle and horses, fields of maize, rice and guandú, and smaller parcels along the road. Water and access set the value. A finca with a quebrada that keeps running through the dry season and a track a car can use in October is a different property from a dry hillside reached on foot. Parcels near town have the paved road and the bus on their side, which counts if you plan to build a house rather than run cattle. Before you agree terms on any of the fincas for sale in Las Minas, Herrera, walk the boundary with the plan in hand and find out where the water comes from in March.

FAQ:

• Does Las Minas mean the town or the whole district?

  The corregimiento of Las Minas is the district seat: the town plus about 57 km² of farmland around it. The district has seven corregimientos in all, among them Chepo, Chumical, El Toro, Leones, Quebrada del Rosario and Quebrada El Ciprián, and a finca described as being in Las Minas may lie in any of them. Look at which corregimiento the plan and the deed actually name.

• What should I check before buying a house in the town?

  In a town this old, many lots have been handed down within families without ever being formally divided. Confirm in the Registro Público that the lot is titled in the seller’s name rather than held only under possession rights, and that every heir with a share signs. On a sloping lot, walk the boundary too, because fences and walls do not always follow the plan.

• How far is Las Minas from Chitré?

  Around 50 km on a paved road through Pesé and Los Pozos, a trip of about an hour by car. Buses run the route from early morning until six in the evening. The road north to Ocú gives a second way out of the hills.

• What services are there in town?

  Las Minas has a health centre with emergency and general care on weekdays, the municipal offices, the church and everyday shops. For hospital treatment, banks and larger stores, people go to Chitré.

• Is Las Minas a quiet place to live?

  For most of the year, yes. The town fills up for the orchid festival in late August, for the Santa Bárbara fiestas on 3 and 4 December and for carnival, when Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo each have their own tamborito. If you buy near the plaza, expect music on those dates.