Remance

About Remance:

Remance covers 78.4 square kilometres on the far side of the Río Santa María from San Francisco de la Montaña, the district seat. The southern villages are reached from the Panamericana by the Calabacito road, 16.9 kilometres including its branch to El Castillo, which was rebuilt with new vehicle bridges over the El Barrero and El Cercado creeks and handed over in June 2022. Where the villages face the Santa María, people cross on foot, by the suspension bridges at El Cortezo and at La Bodega; a vehicle bridge linking Remance with San Francisco’s town centre is on the district’s list of works. A first road cut toward San José has been opened. Beyond that, the network is dirt, nearly all of it rated in poor condition, and in the rainy season streams without bridges have to be forded.

People here farm. Remance is one of the corregimientos that grow the most rice and maize in the district, and most of the harvest is eaten at home rather than sold. At La Gorda the junta comunal runs a rice mill that local growers bring their paddy to, in a district whose farmers have no irrigation, no public market and no collection centre. El Ciruelar and La Bodega have multigrade lower-secondary schools, and the health post is at El Cortezo; the district plan calls for a proper health post to be built for the corregimiento. For a hospital, banks or a large shop, you go to Santiago.

The gold runs through a vein that crosses the area from north to south. The Veraguas Mining Company was exporting bars from the Remance mines in 1903, the mines were worked again in the late 1920s, and a modern mine operated from 1990 to 1998 before low gold prices closed it. Three tailings deposits were left exposed to the weather, and the municipality’s own plan names them as a lasting source of soil and stream contamination. A proposal to reopen the mine was turned down in May 2022, when the Ministry of Environment rejected its environmental impact study; the Santa María supplies drinking water to San Francisco and Santiago downstream. Two-thirds of the district’s soil is steep, worn ground fit only for pasture, forest or reserve, and only a small part of Remance has soil that can be ploughed.

The 2023 census counted 1,452 people in Remance, down from 1,618 in 2010 and 1,807 in 2000, in 422 occupied homes. Roughly six in ten houses have block walls; quincha and sheet metal make up most of the rest, almost every roof is metal, and about three homes in ten still have an earth floor. No house is on the national water utility: most draw from community aqueducts, some from private systems, and the rest from wells or streams. Some newer homes came through the state’s Techos de Esperanza and basic sanitation programmes and have biodigesters instead of latrines. Land is valued and sold as farmland, which makes Remance a place for someone who wants hectares, not a town lot.

Houses in Remance:

Houses are owner-built and sold together with the plot they stand on. Many houses for sale in Remance are a base to finish rather than a finished home: with an earth floor, quincha walls or no grid connection, the price should reflect what is still to be done. Find out which community aqueduct serves the house and whether it runs in the dry season, ask for a recent power bill, and check whether a truck can reach the door, because building materials here often cannot. A house on the Calabacito road and one at the end of a track across a ford are two different purchases, even with the same floor plan.

Land and Lots in Remance:

Most of what is offered is land. Fincas for sale in Remance are priced by the hectare and used for cattle, rice or maize, while smaller house lots come up near the villages. Walk the land in the rains, look at the slope where you plan to build, and confirm where water will come from. If the parcel lies anywhere near the old mine or downstream of its tailings, test the soil and the water before you plant food or drill a well.

FAQ:

• Is land near the old Remance mine safe to farm?

  Not without testing. The mine has been closed since the late 1990s, but its three tailings deposits were left open to the weather, and studies have looked at heavy metals and cyanide in the surrounding soil and crops. Before you buy near it, have the soil and any well or stream water analysed, and find out which way the drainage runs from the old workings to your boundary.

• What should I check on the title of a finca in Remance?

  Start with the mine. Ask the Ministry of Commerce and Industries’ mineral resources office whether the parcel falls inside a mining concession, because that affects what can happen on or under the land. Then confirm the finca is titled in the Registro Público rather than held as possessory rights, that the seller is the registered owner, and that every heir signs if the land was inherited.

• How do I get to Remance from Santiago?

  For the southern villages, take the Panamericana and turn north onto the rebuilt Calabacito road. San Francisco de la Montaña is only 16 kilometres from Santiago, but there is no vehicle bridge from the town across the Santa María into Remance yet; one is on the district plan. Off the main road, plan on a pickup or four-wheel drive and river fords in the rainy season.

• Will the plot have water and electricity?

  Do not assume either. There is no national water utility service in Remance, so water comes from a community or private aqueduct, a well or a stream, and some systems run short in the dry season. The district plan lists limited power and internet access among its problems and proposes solar panels for homes off the grid.

• What can be grown on the land?

  Rice and maize are the main crops, mostly for household use, alongside cattle on pasture. Two-thirds of the district is degraded soil classed as fit only for pasture, forest or reserve, and Remance has just a small area that can be ploughed, so judge a finca by its own ground rather than its neighbours’.