Rubén Cantú

About Rubén Cantú:

The corregimiento begins where the río Gallito meets the río Lajas, the point that marks its boundary with Santa Fe town. From there its edge follows the Gallito and the quebradas El Brujo and Las Peñitas up to the ridge of Altos del Cirgüeral, then drops along the quebrada Palo Grande to the río Gatú. Inside those lines sit 41 communities, among them El Juncal, Palo Verde, La Peña, La Sabaneta, La Pita, La Ciénega, Loma del Medio, La Pacora, Sabaneta de Pescara and El Común. Most of them reach Santa Fe, and the road on to Santiago, over a single crossing: the Bailey bridge on the Lajas at El Juncal.

That bridge is the fact that shapes daily life. On 7 October 2020 the Lajas rose, carried the structure more than 200 metres downstream and cut off 18 communities, and for three weeks people crossed by boat until a new bridge went in on 30 October. Services are in Santa Fe town, not here. From La Sabaneta or Palo Verde a visit to the health centre means a walk and then a bus, more than two hours in all, and from La Pacora it can take over five.

Farming is how the corregimiento makes its living. Across Santa Fe district the land goes to coffee, oranges and other citrus, plantain, yuca and ñame, with cattle on the pasture, and the farmers here were the first to feel the 2020 closure because the bridge is their route to market. Around 1,160 people lived in Rubén Cantú in 2010, spread over 69.8 square kilometres. That is a thin population for that much ground, and it leaves a great deal of open hillside between one community and the next.

Water in rural Santa Fe arrives mostly by gravity, piped from springs, rivers and quebradas rather than from a treatment plant, so a parcel with its own source matters more than its size suggests. The same rivers decide access when the rains come. The district as a whole has long sent more people to the cities than it takes in. Buyers who come the other way are usually after hill land near Santa Fe: coffee and fruit trees, a cabin with a mountain view, a finca with a river through it. Rubén Cantú suits the buyer who wants space and quiet more than a short drive to the shops.

Land and Lots in Rubén Cantú:

Land is the market here. It runs from small lots beside the road through the communities to working fincas with pasture, fruit trees and water on the property, and most land for sale in Rubén Cantú is rural ground rather than subdivided plots. The features that set the price in the hills around Santa Fe are the same few every time: a spring or quebrada, a view, frontage on a usable road and a power line within reach. Check each of them on the ground, because a few hundred metres off the road can mean a steep track and a ford. Drive the route from El Juncal in the wet season before you judge the price, and agree in writing whether you are buying a titled finca or possessory rights.

Houses in Rubén Cantú:

Houses here are country homes, not projects, and they nearly always come with the land around them, so buying a house is in practice buying a small finca. Look first at how the house gets its water and what happens to wastewater: outside Santa Fe town most homes draw from springs and quebradas, and a septic tank is the exception rather than the rule. Confirm electricity and phone signal at the house itself rather than assuming the community has them. If you plan to live here part of the year, count the trip to Santa Fe for shopping and the health centre as part of the cost of the place.

FAQ:

• Where is Rubén Cantú in relation to Santa Fe town?

  It meets Santa Fe corregimiento at the confluence of the río Gallito and the río Lajas, and borders El Alto and Gatú on its other sides. Most of its communities reach the town over the bridge at El Juncal, and from Santa Fe the road continues south to Santiago.

• Can the road be cut in the rainy season?

  Yes, and it has been. In October 2020 a flood on the Lajas swept away the Bailey bridge at El Juncal and isolated 18 communities for three weeks until it was rebuilt. Beyond the bridge, find out how your parcel is reached when the quebradas are high, and whether the last stretch is a track you can drive all year.

• What should I check about the title before buying a finca here?

  Start with whether the land is a titled finca in the property registry or a parcel held under derechos posesorios, because family land in rural Veraguas is often the second and it still has to be titled before your purchase is secure. Walk the boundaries, which in this country follow quebradas and ridges rather than fences. Rubén Cantú only exists since 2008, so older papers for the same land may name El Alto or Gatú as the corregimiento.

• Who was Rubén Cantú?

  He was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1922 and came to Panama in 1949 to work for an air company, building runways and landing strips across Veraguas and flying patients and cargo to and from the hill communities. The national government decorated him with the Order of Vasco Núñez de Balboa in February 1967. He died in a crash at the El Común strip that December, and Santiago’s airport also bears his name.

• Can a foreigner buy land in Rubén Cantú?

  Yes. Foreigners can own titled property in Panama on the same terms as Panamanians, and this corregimiento is nowhere near the border zones where foreign ownership is limited. Possessory rights are a different matter: you are buying a claim that still has to go through titling, so have a lawyer confirm the status of the parcel before any money changes hands.