The houses

An upscale house in Villa Mercedes, one of David’s most sought-after neighbourhoods, a mile from the Pan-American Highway and close to downtown, the malls and every hospital. High walls and a wrought-iron fence enclose two parking spaces, three bedrooms with their own air conditioners and semi-orthopedic mattresses, a living room with a 55-inch smart TV and a massage chair, a kitchen with a six-burner gas range, and a desk in the foyer. Out back: a pool with a rock waterfall, a hot tub, and a covered bar with a grill, a dining table and string lights.

The most striking of the three, and the one guests compare to Frank Lloyd Wright: a long, low house of concrete and glass under flat, deep-eaved roofs, on a bluff above the Chiriquí Nuevo River, about thirty-five minutes from both Boquete and David. A veranda runs the length of the house; the spring-fed pool and four-person hot tub look over the coffee and the valley. Inside: an open kitchen with an island and a wet bar, a wall of books, two bedrooms (one with a sleeping loft) and a king bed at the back of the living room, facing the best view in the house. The 84 acres run down to two kilometres of river frontage, with trails, waterfalls and swimming holes. Everything runs on solar power.

A white villa with a terracotta roof and arched porch in the gated Playa Barqueta community, about half an hour from David’s airport and an hour and a half from Boquete. Three bedrooms, among them the master suite, are in the main house and a fourth is in the guesthouse above the wet bar and grill; there is a big kitchen with a pantry, a dining table for eight and a covered patio round a pool with its own waterfall. The sand starts at the pool deck, past a fire pit for driftwood fires and an outdoor shower. Tom, the house manager, lives nearby.