Land

Last week we went back to Veraguas, the province to look for some land on which to start our tourism business. When we were there in January/February last year, our interest went out to the area around Morillo. The beach there is quite good for surfing and swimming. But land there is expensive and due to a change in the law, many landowners are still acquiring title deeds over the 200m closest to the beach. Until last year, you could only lease the land from the high water mark to 200m inland. Many farmers only go through the process once they know they want to sell, or have already found a buyer.

The plot that had our interest, was about 3.5 hectare in two pieces divided by a small tidal creek river and some mangrove forest. The owner wants about 240,000 U$ for that plot. Another plot of 47 hectares with 200 m beach front was for sale for 750,000U$. Neither of the plots has direct road access, nor water, electricity or phone connections. There are also no villages nearby and no shops or bars. So apart from a hefty sum of money for the actual land, we would also need a lot to build our little resort.

Therefore we decided to have a look around for plots that are close to, but not actually bordering on, the beach. Those plots tend to be a lot cheaper, but still have a lot of potential. While looking around, we were approached by a young guy who had 180 hectares for sale at 500 U$ per hectare, with see view and not too far away. But to get there you had to go by foot, or use a roundabout road only accessible with 4 wheel drive. We decided to check it out. Kees went ahead with the guy and Loes went to get some water because we brought none and she would follow later together with Rodrigo, our friend.

After about a one hour strenuous hike, crossing a fair-sized river at a shallow point and walking mostly uphill, Kees and the guy were still not at the plot. Loes and Rodrigo got lost, but could see Kees somewhere ahead climbing towards the hilltop where the plot was supposed to start. At the one hour point, Kees could see where it was, but that was at least another half hour by foot and still uphill. Yes, the view was marvelous, but you almost needed binoculars to see the sea. So we decided to give it a miss and return to the car. On the way back we got a good drenching by the first rain shower of that day (it is the rainy season).

We looked at two other plots, significantly closer to the sea and the road etc. than the other one. And twice we got rained upon. Oh well, since we were not made of sugar, we didn’t melt as the Dutch saying goes and it helps to keep your head cool. But it was rather nice to be able to wash and dry off and dump our clothes in a dryer at the house of the friend of the owner (are you still with us?) after the visit.

The two latter plots look quite promising and the little village nearby also appears to be nice. There are about 135 people living there (30 households) and the village has a primary school with 25 pupils, two shops, and buses stop four times a day. If you want to have something to eat in the one shop that doubles as restaurant, you have to give advance warning. All inhabitants belong to some Christian sect that forbids alcohol consumption, so you can’t buy alcohol in the village and people lead a sober life (sorry, couldn’t resist that one). However, rumour has it that they don’t take that rule too seriously and occasionally slip away to the next village for a drink or two.

Another interesting point is that the villagers have started a small association to protect the turtles nesting on their beach. During the egg laying season they patrol the beach and after the turtles have laid their eggs, the patrol digs the eggs up. The eggs are buried again on the beach in a special enclosure that keeps out the dogs. Dogs apparently are the main threat to turtles here. The villagers have been doing this for a couple of years and have had assistance from Peace Corps. In the last year they claim to have seen an increase in the number of turtles that come to nest on the beach.

The association is now going to apply for a concession to manage the beach, so they can continue with this work. Beaches are in principle public and anyone can do whatever (s)he wants to as long as it is not illegal, even if that endangers the turtles. The association obviously wants to prevent that. And since they cannot prevent developers buying surrounding land, they can ensure that they have the right to manage the beach as they see fit. To do this, they have asked support from a local NGO called Mar Viva.

There is also a local boat builder in the village, and we are thinking of letting him build us a boat so we can take people for a tour to the nearby Cebaco Island or to Coiba island, which is a World heritage Site. So, there are exiting developments and we will keep you informed.

TANAGER TOURISM corp.

Hip hip hurrah, we’ve got a company: Tanager Tourism corporation officially exists in Panama as of Friday 21 July, when we signed the paperwork at our lawyers’ office. Tanager Tourism has 500 shares, the value of which we have yet to determine in a meeting o the board of directors (Loes and Kees). Before getting on with that though, we had a beer (or two) to celebrate this fact in a pub around the corner.

Unlike in Mozambique, all paperwork was organized within one week and we received everything at once from our lawyers: statutes, impressive looking certificates, each worth a number of shares and value. Furthermore a book in which we have to register who has how many shares and a book with numbered pages in which to keep the minutes of annual board meetings. The latter book is no longer obligatory, but it looks very formal and impressive.

A process like this would easily take six months or more in Mozambique. Statutes are still written by hand in two separate official registries maintained at the notary office. Just verifying whether the name you want is available, takes one week. After that you have to write another umpty letters, all with notarized signatures to all sorts of important people, requesting them to certify something which is their job. The book for registration of the minutes has to be sent to the court to have the pages numbered by hand. So time flies…

So Business set up in Panama was a pleasant surprise. Registration was accomplished within the time estimated by the lawyer and, actual costs were only 3$25 above actual cost, an error of only 0.3%. We are quite impressed with our lawyer so far. There remain things to be done (of course). We can now apply for a commercial license to start trading in Panama and register ourselves as investors, to take advantage of a number of existing incentives and tax exemptions for tourism businesses. But we have taken an important first step. We can now open a bank account without having to deposit and maintain a ludicrously high amount of money in the account.

We still have to get a declaration of good conduct for our visa application. We’ve got an impressive looking piece of paper from the Mozambican government with about 6 stamps, each one more impressive looking than the previous one, but not impressive enough for the Panamanian government. Since we don’t want to go back to Mozambique for just one stamp (and we did ask specifically for the one we need, the Apostille of the Convention of The Hague, but no official knew where to get that) we will get one from Holland. That also has its little problems (translations needed), but those appear to be easily surmountable. As you can see, bureaucracy is keeping both us and the Panamanian government pretty busy.

Public Transport

Panama has an amazing public transport system. That is, we assume there is a method to this madness, even though we haven’t discovered it yet.

Panama is a pretty noisy city as we wrote before. Taxis assume that every pedestrian is a potential customer whose attention has to be drawn by a short double hoot. In the commercial part of the city about 1 in every 3 cars is a taxi and they all drive around slowly looking for customers. So there is a lot of hooting going on. This seems strange to us because most people who need a taxi clearly indicate this, usually by waving or jumping in front of it.

If Loes walks alone in town, she also hears another variation, which is a mechanic version of the wolf whistle. Taxis drive by even slower and often the driver actually asks “No quieres un taxi, babe?” (Do you want a taxi, babe?).

Because of all this looking for customers, taxis drive slowly and when they finally have a customer, they stop in the middle of the road to let them get in or get out. Other road users occasionally get upset by this behaviour and make this known by extensive use of the hooter. In general, when traffic comes to a grinding halt, which happens often, the drivers of stationary cars use their hooters often. This is of no use, because usually it is a traffic light that interrupts the flow of the traffic and those are not impressed by hooting.

Anyway, Panamanians love their cars and middle class households have a car for ever adult member of the household and they use their car a lot. Not very efficient, but fuel is relatively cheap in this part of the world: 2$90 per gallon (3.78 litre). Compared to Maputo, very few people walk in Panama.

Panama city and Panama country are all connected by bus services. In Panama city there is a large bus terminal called Albrook. It looks like an airport, with arrivals at the first floor and departures at the ground floor. The intercity destinations actually have their own terminals and gates on one side of the terminal. Only passengers are allowed to enter the terminals, a favour for which you have to pay and admission fee of 5 cents (on top of your bus ticket). Provincial towns have similar bus terminals, but smaller.

The size of intercity buses varies from 9-passenger minibuses to big coaches. The latter usually serve the long distance routes between the larger cities. To travel on such a bus you have to be prepared. Take a jacket or pullover because the air conditioning is always on and invariably set and locked on ‘freezing’. Ear plugs are useful as well because the radio also has only one setting which is ‘very loud’. Your MP3-player or iPod are no match for the sound systems on the Panamanian bus. Taking a blindfold can also be useful because some buses show violent action movies (definitely 16 years and older).

Panama city itself is also served by buses. These stop in a rather less organized way on the other side of the Albrook terminal and in the city you can hop on and off at nearly every street corner. You pay a quarter (pronounce: quarra) irrespective of your destination. The buses are old US school buses with a new, and much better, customized paint job. They are not as crowded as those in Mozambique and there are many, so it is actually not too uncomfortable a way to get around town.

Monkeys in Panama and Holland

Earlier this year we spent two months in Panama, trying to assess the opportunities. During that time we attended a presentation by Adrian Benedetti for the Panama Audubon Society (www.panamaaudubon.org). Adrian is the director of the Summit Gardens in Panama and presented the master plan for the Summit Gardens (www.summitpanama.org). The Summit Gardens were constructed/planted by the Americans early in the last century to do research on tropical plants. Nowadays it s a zoo/botanical garden/picnic area. Adrian mentioned that it was not difficult to obtain sponsorship to renovate the enclosures of the Harpy Eagle, (Panama’s national bird), the jaguar and the larger and colourful parrots and macaws. Finding money to renovate the monkey enclosures proved to be far more difficult.

So when we were in Holland, we decided to try and help out. We approached the Apenheul Primate Park (www.apenheul.nl) a zoo specialised in monkeys. They were interested and invited us for a meeting. So we got some more information from Adrian via e-mail and went to have a chat.

The Apenheul Primate Park has established a trust, the Apenheul Primate Conservation Trust (APCT) and donates 2% of its income to the trust. The trust also receives gifts from individuals etc. The trust uses this money and the expertise of Apenheul staff to help protect wild populations of primates and to improve living conditions of primates kept in zoos. The trust is especially interested in long term collaboration with partners and in projects that are or will become self sustainable. Furthermore, they have a particular interest in squirrel monkeys.

Well, squirrel monkeys do occur in Panama, in the international park La Amistad on the border with Costa Rica and the Summit Gardens are aiming to become self sustainable, so the match was pretty good. The meeting went quite well and we sent the minutes to Adrian for his information as well.

And last week we received good news. The board of the APCT has approved collaboration with Summit Gardens! We told Adrian the good news and also gave him all the information from the APCT and the Apenheul Primate Park. Together we designed a strategy to start with small a project and slowly increase the collaboration as trust between the organisations grows. We also visited the primate enclosures once again, this time in together with Halit, who was recently contracted to improve care for the monkeys. Adrian had certainly been busy during the last few months. This is all quite exciting and although we are doing this as volunteers, and therefore won’t be able to make a living out of this, it will help to build some social capital in Panama.

First Impressions

We came in a bit late, the plane was half an hour late and one of our new suitcases was damaged. We refused to accept that this was ‘wear and tear’ and had some discussion to that effect with the Delta person on the ground. We will have to talk/mail to someone manager because the gentleman on the ground said he could not take these decisions. Makes you wonder why he was there.

The next day was Sunday, which we spend mostly doing nothing very much. We did watch the final of the soccer championships intermittently while we were trying to get connected to the Internet in the Clarocom café. The latter is a nice place. If you have wireless, you can connect for free and do your thing. You can also get connected via a wire, which costs a little bit. The company appears to take its social responsibility serious; most of the staff are people with Down’s syndrome and they would probably have difficulties getting a job.

After the match we had a look at an apartment, but it was not quite what we wanted. Basically we want to get in now and get out in two or three weeks time, when we can leave the urban jungle and head for the real one. Before we can do that however, we need to register a company and get us a set of wheels.

Tuesday we got ourselves a room in an apartment. It was the only possibility at short notice and for a short time. So it is back to our student days, sharing a kitchen and bathroom and living in a rather small room. The good thing is that we have a huge balcony, so plenty of space and a good view of the urban jungle and direct exposure to its noises. The noises of the urban jungle consist of taxis that continually hoot to attract the attention of potential customers, i.e. every pedestrian, and car alarms set off by the more violent thunder during the daily afternoon downpour.

We have already contracted the law firm De Sanctis/Bufete to register a business for us. Next week, Tanager Tourism Corp will be a reality and our wallets will be about U$ 1100 thinner. So be it, at least it can be done in less time than the Mozambicans needed just to check whether the name you wanted was not already taken by another company.

Today and tomorrow we will be building some social capital. The last time we were here, the director of the Summit Gardens (http://www.summitpanama.org), the local zoo and botanical gardens, told us he had difficulties finding funds to improve the housing for the monkeys. In Holland we got into contact with the Apenheul Primate Park (http://www.apenheul.nl/) and they are willing to provide some funds and knowledge to the Summit Gardens. If all goes well, this should result in a long term collaboration. And there may also be something in it for Tanager Tourism in the longer run…

Why Panama?

In late 2003, we started the process to establish a private game reserve in Mozambique with joint ventures for services with the nearby community that included possibilities for education, research and promotion of responsible tourism with fair trade. The first few steps went smoothly, but then we ran into a wall. Somehow, things didn’t move anymore, or, if they moved, they went the wrong way. In January 2005 we decided against our further investment in this Mozambican project due to bureaucracy, lack of legal protection for our foreign investment and (increasing?) corruption.
We reconsidered our steps, studied the internet and other sources to identify another tropical and magical country where we could invest relatively safely and securely in eco-tourism. Amongst some other possible countries, Panamá was often indicated.

In September 2005 Loes made a two-week reconnaissance visit to verify in person the investment possibilities in Panama. The visit focused on our areas of interest and expertise:
· nature research, conservation and sustainable exploration
· sustainable rural development and fair trade to benefit communities living nearby
· responsible eco-tourism
In January and Februari 2006 both Kees and Loes spent time in Panama. This time the focus was on:
· laws and lawyer(s) for how to set up a business and acquire a residence visa
· land to verify where we could settle and how property is transferred
· finance to find a local trustworthy bank and the requirements to open an account
· more contacts to find out and verify as much as possible on all of the above…

And now the adventure really begins. Is it going to be Panamagic or Panamadness?
It is now July 2006 and we arrived only a few days ago and must think and work hard to make it all happen. Lots of friends back in Mozambique and elsewhere in the world said they would like to hear how we are doing n Mozambique and some claimed they might follow us if all goes well. This weblog seems the easiest way to keep them and other interested people informed.

In the mean time, we still have a beach house for sale in Mozambique (see picture) If you are interested, or know someone who is interested, visit us www.viviun.com/Real_Estate/Mozambique.

You are all welcome to post your comments and ask (relevant) questions, but be patient with us because we are only just starting!

Hi everybody

Here we are (Loes at the right)