El Cortezo

About El Cortezo:

El Cortezo lies west of Tonosí town, past La Tronosa, and its western edge is the provincial line with Arenas, in the Mariato district of Veraguas. Apart from the village of El Cortezo itself, people live in small hamlets such as El Cortezo Arriba, La Pintada, La Pintadita and Provincia, which climb toward the border hills. Everything runs through Tonosí. A bus leaves early in the morning and comes back in the afternoon, and if you miss it, getting out that day becomes a real problem. La Pintada is more than five hours by road from Panama City, remote enough that plenty of people in Las Tablas have never been there.

This is cattle country, and a remote kind of it. In 2017 an outbreak of bovine rabies, spread by vampire bats, killed about fifteen head in the Provincia sector on the Veraguas border; the agriculture ministry vaccinated herds within ten kilometres and stopped animals moving in or out. El Cortezo Arriba, La Pintada and La Pintadita each have a primary school, and La Pintada’s has run with twelve pupils and one teacher. Secondary school means the daily bus to Tonosí at about five dollars a day, so many teenagers move in with relatives in town to finish. Mains power reached La Pintada only in the early 2020s, mobile signal works at certain spots only, and in May 2024 the Junta Comunal opened an Infoplaza there with seven computers on satellite internet.

The forest above the farms is protected. Cerro Hoya National Park, created in 1984, takes in part of El Cortezo together with La Tronosa, Cambutal and Guánico on the Los Santos side and Arenas and El Cacao in Veraguas, and it is where the Río Tonosí begins. The mountains around La Pintada are often wrapped in cloud. Lower down, the slopes are pasture cut by quebradas, and in heavy rain the river is watched closely. The wet months are what decide access: some farms here have no vehicle road at all, and even the bridges on the farm roads need regular repair, as the one over the Quebrada Barro Prieto did in January 2026.

The population is small and getting smaller: 760 people in 1990, 662 in 2010 and 554 in 2023. Buyers are mostly ranchers adding pasture and families with roots here who want land of their own, and now and then a bank sells off a repossessed farm. For years people on both sides of the border have asked for the old cut over the hills, from El Cortezo through Provincia, Changuales and La Barra to Flores de Arenas, to be surfaced and given five vehicle bridges, which would link some twenty Mariato communities with Tonosí. Until that road exists, value any farm on the access it has today, not the one it might get.

Fincas in El Cortezo:

Farms here are cattle land: fenced pasture on the slopes, paddocks along the quebradas, sometimes a simple farmhouse and corrals, sold by the hectare. Big holdings do come up: one repossessed farm of 59 hectares at El Marroquín went on sale with a note that it could only be reached on horseback. Water that lasts through the dry season and a way in that a truck can use in October are what separate one finca from the next. When you shortlist fincas for sale in El Cortezo, ask whether the herd has been vaccinated against rabies if the cattle are part of the deal.

Hill Land near Cerro Hoya in El Cortezo:

Toward the park and the Veraguas line, the land gets steeper, wetter and harder to reach, and more of it is forest or old regrowth rather than grass. Ground like this suits a buyer who wants streams and tree cover more than a working ranch, and it comes with rules. Clearing or logging forest needs a permit from the environment ministry, and land inside Cerro Hoya National Park is not available as private farmland. Before you make an offer on land in El Cortezo on the high ground, put the survey plan next to the park boundary and walk the route in yourself.

FAQ:

• Can I buy land inside Cerro Hoya National Park?

  Not as a private finca. Park land is protected state land, possession inside it cannot be turned into a title, and felling, burning and new pasture are not allowed. Part of El Cortezo lies inside the park, so on the high ground have the plan checked against the park limits at the environment ministry before you sign.

• How do I get to El Cortezo, and what happens in the rainy season?

  By road from Tonosí, past La Tronosa, with one bus out in the early morning and back in the afternoon. Farm roads and their small bridges take a beating in the wet months, and some fincas have no road at all, only a horse trail. Make the trip in October, not just in March, before you settle on a price.

• Was El Cortezo affected by the October 2026 earthquake?

  The strong earthquake of 9 October 2026 had its epicentre in the Tonosí area. Houses in Tonosí town cracked and some collapsed, and damaged bridges, roads and landslides cut off several communities in Los Santos. If you are buying a house here, have a structural engineer inspect it, and check that the access road and its crossings came through intact.

• What should I check on the papers of a hill finca on the Veraguas line?

  Start with which side of the line it is on. A farm near Provincia or the border hills may be registered in Mariato rather than Tonosí, and the survey plan should show which. Many remote parcels are still held under possession rights or inherited by several siblings, so confirm the land has its own entry in the property registry, that every heir signs, and that possession-only land has been through ANATI. If the only way in crosses a neighbour’s farm, get the right of way written down and registered.

• What services are there?

  Primary schools in El Cortezo Arriba, La Pintada and La Pintadita, and an Infoplaza with internet in La Pintada. The hospital, secondary school, bank and shops are in Tonosí, and Las Tablas is the nearest city.