Pocrí

About Pocrí:

Pocrí lies about 22 km by road from Las Tablas, the provincial capital, heading south-east towards Pedasí. You cross the bridge over the Río Pocrí a kilometre and a half before the first houses. The corregimiento covers just under 58 km² and has around a thousand residents, more than any of the other four corregimientos in the district. Paraíso is the next village back towards Las Tablas, and the Pedasí district begins to the south. Buses run by the local transport cooperative make the trip to Las Tablas for one balboa, and Las Tablas is where people go for a bank, a hospital or a bigger supermarket.

Daily life turns around the Parque Santo Tomás de Villanueva and the church of the same name, whose patron feast brings novenas, a procession and a mass on 21 and 22 September. Behind the police station, the Santo Tomás craft market sells tembleques and polleras made in the district. The biggest date of the year is 12 November, when Pocrí marks its adhesion to the 1903 separation from Colombia with two days of ox-cart parades, a queen and princesses from every corregimiento, a dance and a civic parade. Even the name has a story: an explorer’s 1631 account mentions a river called Puerí, and the usual explanation is that a copyist’s hand turned it into Pocrí.

The district lives off the land first. Maize and rice are sown here on a large scale, Pocrí ranks among the country’s heavier maize-growing districts, and cattle go to the auctions and slaughterhouses of neighbouring districts. About two dozen small boats fish the coast for snapper, grouper and shark, and the catch is sold fresh on the seafront at La Yeguada. The dry season, called verano, runs from January to April. That is why every land seller here leads with water: a parcel with a stream or a well that lasts through April is the one people ask about first.

The coast belongs to La Concepción, a small community with its own church a short drive from town, and to Playa La Yeguada, about 4.5 km from Pocrí along unpaved roads with several forks. To the north of the access point there are almost 4 km of open sand up to the mouth of the Río Pocrí, plus a rocky point where the tide leaves clear pools. There are no lifeguards, and the surf can be heavy: strong swells have damaged parts of this shore, and at the southern end some houses stand empty or for sale. Close to a third of the district’s residents are over sixty, and most of the new interest comes from outside, from buyers drawn by the beach and the views towards Isla Iguana.

Houses in Pocrí:

Houses are concentrated in the town itself: village homes on their own lots, a few of them sold as a house with room for a small business. Near the health centre and the park you are within walking distance of almost everything Pocrí has. Down at La Yeguada there is a short row of modest houses along the seafront, some of them let to visitors. Before you fall for a house by the water, look at where the high tide reaches and how far the sand has retreated.

Land and Lots in Pocrí:

Land is what this market mostly trades. In and around town, titled house lots of roughly 1,000 to 1,500 m² come up close to the main roads and the services. Towards La Concepción the offer changes scale: beach subdivisions with lots of around 500 m² on a dirt road with power already run in, and whole oceanfront globes of two hectares with some 200 m of sand. Those globes sit in a completely different price bracket from a town lot. Inland, land for sale in Pocrí means pasture and crop ground, and the parcels sellers push hardest are those with direct road frontage and water all year.

Rentals in Pocrí:

Long-term rentals are few and mostly at the beach. Furnished cabins facing the sea at Playa La Yeguada are let by the month, with water and internet included, to people who want a season by the coast within about 25 minutes of both Las Tablas and Pedasí. Cabins and small guesthouses also take visitors by the night, and La Concepción has a hotel.

FAQ:

• Is this the Pocrí near Aguadulce?

  No. There are two. This Pocrí is the district seat in Los Santos, on the Azuero coast between Las Tablas and Pedasí. The other is a corregimiento of Aguadulce in Coclé, beside the Inter-American Highway, in another province altogether. Check the province on every listing and every bus ticket.

• How far is the beach from the town?

  Playa La Yeguada is about 4.5 km from the centre of Pocrí, on dirt roads that split several times, so use a map app the first time. Playa La Candelaria is further north, beyond the mouth of the Río Pocrí, in the neighbouring corregimiento of Paraíso. There is no bus to the beach; from town you go by car or taxi.

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

  Pocrí marked out its urban area and municipal ejidos as long ago as 1890, so ask early whether the lot has its own registered title or still sits on municipal land that has to be awarded or bought from the municipality. Ask the property registry for a certificate showing the owner and any mortgage, and compare the plan with the fences on the ground. On older family plots, make sure every heir who appears on the title is ready to sign.

• Is a beachfront lot at La Yeguada a safe place to build?

  Look at it at high tide, and preferably during a swell. Heavy surf has damaged this coast, and houses at the southern end show what erosion does to buildings set too close to the water. In Panama the beach itself is public, so a lot cannot fence or close off the sand in front of it. Check the setback from the high-tide line, the legal access road, and whether power and water actually reach the plot or stop at the main road.

• Can I get around Pocrí without a car?

  Between town and Las Tablas, yes: the cooperative’s buses cover the route for a balboa. Reaching the beach, a finca or Pedasí is harder, and anyone living near the coast relies on a car, a taxi or a neighbour with a pickup.