On the Way to El Valle

Probably like many of you, I’ve been receiving International Living via email for some time. One of the locations that they waxed very enthusiastic over is Sora. Sora is located in the mountains about 45 minutes from Panama City. The climb on our little car was intense as the mountains are quite steep but the roads leading up into the mountains around there were overall pretty good quality. The overall initial impression is one of great beauty. Beautiful bougainvillea abound and you can definitely see that one side of the mountains are drier than the other, so you see deep green interspersed with dry mountainsides. The feeling is one of remoteness. This area might appeal to independent homebody types who value views and privacy over the company of other expats.

Once we got to Sora, we were pretty underwhelmed. I think we expected too much from the IL postcards. The locations is spectacular, no doubt about it. The air was drier than Panama City and a little cooler, but not yet cool and refreshing, as Sora has been described.

One of the first places we visited was a new development called Alta Bavaria. (A reference to the mountains in Germany.) There was a “guard” of sorts at the gate, but we made clear that we just wanted to look over the area.

The infrastructure was in place with paved streets and generators for electricity. The views were absolutely stunning. At some point it is probably going to be a delightful community but at this point there is simply no community.

Nor is there much at all in the village of Sora. We saw a newish shopping center which boasted a hotel, a hardware store, a building supply store and a small Chinese restaurant. And BTW, what’s with the Chinese style trim of the strip center? I think a lot of Chinese business people are investing in Panama’s infrastructure.

What we did NOT see were a grocery store, bakery, etc. Down the road were some stalls operated by locals, but you get my drift. You would be a pioneer up here, with no entertainment and very few neighbors.

I imagine Sora will grow a lot over the next couple of years. It’s proximity to Panama City almost guarantees it. It might be worth checking back in a year or 18 months.

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