Los Hatillos

About Los Hatillos:

Los Hatillos fills the country north of San Francisco de la Montaña, the district seat, which lies 16 kilometres from Santiago on the road to Santa Fe. The village of Los Hatillos sits at 341 metres, about eight kilometres north of the town, and Carabalí, lower down at 253 metres, is on the way. Of the corregimiento’s 72 kilometres of road, a little over 9 are gravel and the rest is dirt, and all of that dirt is in poor condition. A concrete double track takes the steepest part of the climb toward the village, and elsewhere you ford creeks such as the Madroñal. Passenger pickups run the internal routes, and for a hospital, a bank or a supermarket, everyone heads down to Santiago.

This is farm country. Together with San José and Remance, Los Hatillos grows most of the district’s rice, and very little of it is sold: the harvest feeds the household. The corregimiento also produces more than a quarter of the district’s bejuco beans, second only to San José. Growers are organised in a producers’ association at El Peñón with 48 members and a smaller group at Los Pérez. There is a working health post in Los Hatillos, a primary school at the village, and, at Juan Basilio, the district’s sanitary landfill, built on a 10.8-hectare site with property-tax money and run for all six corregimientos.

The land is pasture broken up by living fences of fruit and timber trees, with patches of secondary forest on the slopes. Toward Los Hatillos Abajo, farms run down to the Santa María, the longest river in Veraguas, and to the Gatú, its tributary. The Santa María basin is a protected hydrological reserve under Law 171, which matters to anyone who wants to build near the water. There is gold in this ground too: an English company worked the Los Hatillos mines between 1927 and 1931, and some maps still name the village Minas Hatillos.

Los Hatillos had 1,365 residents in 2010 and 1,178 in 2023, living in 393 occupied homes, so the population is shrinking rather than growing. None of those homes is on the national water utility. Most take water from community aqueducts, including the one at Los Hatillos village that pumps groundwater with a solar-powered turbine into a 4,000-gallon tank, and the one fed from an intake at Paso Hondo; 80 homes rely on shallow wells and 27 on creeks or the river. Buyers come for hectares: local families adding pasture, and people from Santiago and beyond who want a finca with water, timber and a house already standing on it.

Houses in Los Hatillos:

Village houses are owner-built and come with the lot under them. Of the 393 homes counted in 2023, 234 have block walls; quincha is the next most common material, followed by sheet metal, and 116 still have earth floors. Fewer than one home in six is connected to the power grid, which reaches mainly the communities close to the Santa Fe road; elsewhere, solar panels and other sources do the job. On the larger farms you will find country houses as well, such as a two-storey timber house running entirely on solar power, or a five-bedroom house looking onto the Santa María. When you view houses for sale in Los Hatillos, ask how materials reached the site, because the same truck will have to get there for every repair.

Land and Lots in Los Hatillos:

Land is what this market is made of. Fincas for sale in Los Hatillos run from a couple of dozen hectares with a spring, two waterfalls and planted pine and cocobolo, to riverside farms of 50 hectares or more with flat ground under watermelon and a block of 20-year-old teak. Smaller house lots come up near the villages. Exploration applications for gold that include Los Hatillos have been on the Ministry of Commerce and Industries’ list for years, so on a large parcel, ask whether it falls inside one. Walk the land in the wet season, and check where the water for the house will come from in March.

FAQ:

• Is this the same place as Los Hatillos de La Colorada?

  No. Los Hatillos de La Colorada is a community in the La Colorada corregimiento of the Santiago district, with its own school of the same name. This page covers the corregimiento of Los Hatillos in the San Francisco district. Ads often drop the district, so confirm the corregimiento on the title before you go and see a lot.

• Many fincas here have no title. What should I check?

  Land tenure is a known weak point in the San Francisco district, and the municipality has made titling a priority, so expect possessory rights rather than titles on part of what you are offered. Ask for the folio number and confirm in the Registro Público that the seller is the registered owner. If there is no title yet, the process goes through ANATI and takes time, so agree in writing who pays for it and what happens if the survey shows a different area.

• Can I build next to the Santa María or the Gatú?

  Not freely. The Santa María basin is a protected hydrological reserve under Law 171, with restrictions on activities that conflict with protecting the water. River frontage is what makes a finca here valuable, so before you plan cabins on the bank, ask the Ministry of Environment what the reserve allows on that stretch.

• Where is the district landfill?

  At Juan Basilio, inside Los Hatillos. It takes the solid waste of the whole San Francisco district on a 10.8-hectare site. If you are looking at land in or near Juan Basilio, find out where the landfill boundary lies, which road the collection trucks use and which way the land drains.

• Can I reach a finca in Los Hatillos all year?

  Some, yes. The gravel stretches and the concrete track on the climb toward Los Hatillos village hold up, and some farms north of the town have all-weather access without four-wheel drive. Most of the network is dirt, though, and in the rains creeks like the Madroñal rise over the fords, so drive the exact route to the gate in the wet season before you buy.