TABLE OF CONTENTS
That three-humped, tree-covered island you see in the distance is our Boca Chica project. Now that’s remote and off-the-charts stunning.
I think it’s about time I confessed something to you. It’s about why we do what we do in Central America.
Think of it as our philosophy of life and work.
And we think if you’ve read this far you’ll probably not only appreciate our philosophy…but you may even agree with it…
If that’s the case, then there’s a good chance we could work together, which would give you the opportunity to experience some of the rugged pleasure that comes with investing in Central America.
If that interests you, then keep reading. I’ve got some great stories to share.
Driving a Rover through the Impenetrable Jungles of Panama
In October 16, 1959, Richard Bevir and Terrence Whitfield left Toronto, Canada, in a light, but rugged Range Rover.
Their mission: drive to South America.
Driving through the U.S. was a breeze. Their progress, however, came to a screeching halt when they reached the Darien Gap, a road-less stretch of jungle.
Little did they know they were in for hell.
Twentieth century pioneers Richard Bevir and Terrence Whitfield slog their the way through the dense Panamanian jungle.
At one time, the Darién Gap was one of the last wild places—the Everest of backpacking. In fact, it’s a no-man’s land full of criminals, rebels, snakes, wasps and thorns. You name it, everything that could kill you is there.
At one point Whitfield drove the Rover across a skeleton bridge made out of palms. It didn’t take him long to realize it wouldn’t hold.
The bridge eventually sagged and spilled the Rover onto its side. Whitfield climbed out unscathed. But it wouldn’t be the last time he flipped the Rover.
Near the Columbian border, while climbing a steep ridge with the winch, a pulley pin snapped. This sent the Rover onto its back. It then rolled side-to-side 70 feet down the hill, coming to a rest at the bottom. It took a few minutes, but Terry eventually climbed out of the Rover.
The expedition finally reached a river where they built a raft out of balsa logs and floated to Bogota, Columbia their destination.
And at the end of that 310 mile 134-day trip (they averaged only 3 miles a day) across Panama, Bevir and Whitfield were heroes.
In all, the expedition crossed 180 rivers and creeks, built 125 palm log bridges and 3 rafts and endured 90 tire punctures, malaria, jungle exhaustion and dysentery.
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Their diet during the trip? Rice, banana, monkeys and lizards. That’s right. Monkeys.
But more importantly, their work helped with the eventual building of the Pan American highway that crosses the Central America isthmus today.
Now, I’ve never eaten monkey before. But I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’ve encountered the exact same terrain that Bevir and Whitfield encountered. And it usually occurs when we get a tip that the Panamanian government is about to put in a new road.
The “Southern Route” was one such road.
Exploring the Southern Route on “Over-grown Dogs””
Boquete is a beautiful little town in Panama that sits in a huge crevasse on a mountain called Volcan Buru. Boquete is known for its mild weather year round.
On the other side of the mountain there’s another little town called Volcan. It’s arguably even more beautiful than Boquete…
And it’s in between these two beautiful towns that the government planned on putting in a road. Park and I immediately went to stake out some property.
First, we found out exactly where they planned on building the road. Once we got the logistics, we hired a guide and two horses to explore this land.
The route between the two towns—called the Southern Route—was 20 miles long. Park and I figured it should take us about 10 hours on horses. We were hoping to cover AT LEAST 2 miles an hour.
We should’ve known better.
The thing you need to know about most Panamanian horses is that they are small. Like over-grown-dog small. Park, who is tall and skinny, looked ridiculous. His legs nearly drug on the ground.
In three hours we traveled about 5-6 miles—up and down steep crevasses and crossed hundreds of rivers—but if you calculated it by how the crow flies, we only went one mile. And we had nineteen more to go.
At the end of the day we were sore, bruised and exhausted and only 3 miles and two canyons into our 20-mile journey. But you know what? We wouldn’t want it any other way.
Our Philosophy behind Life and Work
There are two things about that story I want to expand upon. One, it shows you to what length we will go to find a screaming good deal on raw land in Central America.
Fortunately, not all property is as raw and untamed as what lie along the Southern Route, which allows us to scrutinize a potential piece of property.
Lagoons are everywhere in Latin America.
For instance, when we visit a large farm, Park and I will walk the land ourselves. We’ll investigate every square meter of that property, identifying how much of it is actually usable and sellable.
We’ll also evaluate the beach and determine the different grades (not all beaches are created the same). And it’s this meticulous hand-picking that’s the secret to finding those picturesque properties at rock bottom prices.
But the other thing you need to know is that going to new places and discovering trophy property is what we live for.
Sure, we love the screaming good deal. But we also love the hunt behind finding those good deals.
The Thing We Enjoy Most about Our Jobs
Early on in our careers in the U.S. real estate market we found it harder and harder to get excited about what we were doing.
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We found it hard to get excited about a single-family home. We found it hard to get out of bed to evaluate an apartment building.
Yeah, we could probably find beautiful property along either coast in America. But the painful part of doing that is you have to buy it at 20 to 30 times the cost of what you can buy it here in Central America.
But that’s not all.
In Central America we get to bushwhack through the dense jungle like Bevir and Whitfield, scouting out raw land—toucans and howler monkeys in the trees.
We get to turn corners in our trek to stand before towering, dramatic waterfalls.
We get to come over the horizon and come through a stand of palms to discover a stunning, sandy beach stretching out before us.
We get to see whales surfacing out in the ocean.
We get to get to jump on our boards to go surfing, dive into the waves to go spear fishing and hop into a boat to catch rooster fish.
The Intoxicating Effects of Investing in Central America Raw Land
The beauty of doing what we do for a living is that we get to explore paradise and experience unheard of things.
Remember the story I told you about when we tried to drive down the beach to see Playa Burica? And remember when I said we failed our first day?
Well, we would have taken another shot at the beach when the tide went out in the evening, but we’d accidentally got stinkin’ drunk.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t an accident. But when a local offers you a glass of whiskey, you drink it.
This local lived off of the beach in a block house. His name was Milan and our scout knew him. As soon as we entered his house he disappeared up the stairs and returned with an unopened bottle of whiskey.
He poured us a glass, we all drank…and then he poured another one. We didn’t stop drinking until the bottle was gone. And then one of Milan’s worker’s had caught a red snapper from the shore, and so Milan naturally invited us to dinner.
Of course it’s rude to decline an invitation like that.
You have to admit, you can’t really pull that off in the States. And that’s why we love what we do here.
We Will Never Tire of Doing This
Listen, way back when Park and I were discussing how we were going to make our model work in Central America, we knew we had to get the investment side down perfectly.
But here’s the cool part: because we are in the jungle along a gorgeous, virgin coast, our scouting trips are always sheer adventures.
To be honest, I don’t think we’ll ever tire of this.
And as long as there is beachfront property to scout—which there is hundreds of miles of it in Central America—then we’ll be busy for at least the next decade.
That’s also why I’d like to invite you to give me a call. There’s huge opportunity here for the right investor right now. Just dial 888-436-7198 and ask for Josh.
Granted, we are hyper-selective with who we work with…but it doesn’t hurt to call. You never know unless you try, right? Looking forward to hearing from you.
Until then, I’m heading out to look at properties,
Josh Linnes
Co-Founder
Emerging Terrains
888-436-7198
P.S. In the next email I want to tell you about one other investing philosophy we hold. This one deals with what you can do with your investment property…and it’s another example of the superior advantage investing in Central America raw land holds over U.S. property investing. See you then.
