Valle Escondido Resort: Callous Stupidity?

I had decided to continue digging in the mud . . . but to move on with blog subjects, until yesterday . . .

One can seriously question why Valle Escondido and it’s developer, Sam Taliaferro, carved lots out of the side of a mountain in a rain forest and sold them to expats who saw only the promised “paradise” and not the prospects of disaster. [Most of the lots in Valle Escondido are fine, but there are a few that are certainly "questionable"] One can question why Boquete town officials approved building on these lots and issued building permits given the fact that the Junta Technica, the “supreme” building and engineering department of the province of Chiriqui, had already expressed disapproval. One can question the wisdom of the folks who bought and built on these lots even after locals had expressed reservations. There can be . . . and probably will be . . . no end to these discussions . . . and probably a lot of business for lawyers and judges.

If Panama’s new President Ricardo Martinelli is serious about attracting foreign investors and enabling expats to invest in Panama with confidence, and creating a transparent government that cannot be bought, he will immediately lauch an investigation. If the Ambassadors of the United States and Taiwan are concerned about the welfare or their citizens who are investing in projects in Panama, they will put pressure on the Panamanian government to investigate.

Most of the properties in Valle Escondido are fine . . . and Valle Escondido continues to be a wonderful place to live, but in order to keep it that way there needs to be an investigation and thorough understanding of what went wrong.

Valle Escondido at one time was a coffee finca owned by Sitton, then it was purchased by Sam Taliaferro. Who is Sam Taliaferro? If you go to one of his Web sites . . . www.valleescondido.biz  . . . you will see that he fancies himself to be a modern John Galt. Galt was the hero of Ayn Rand’s mega-novel ATLAS SHRUGGED.

Hi, my name is John Galt. If you have found this website you are probably not looking for an ordinary residential community, you are seeking something more. If you will spend the next ten minutes reading this first page, it may well be the start of something that will change the course of your life forever. It could be that what you will learn right here on this page will intrigue you to look deeper into my story, and if you do, you may end up taking a path that thousands of other have already taken . . .

Now I can come out of the closet and share my story without sounding like a madman and offer you an opportunity to share in my vision and foresight to create a safe haven in a very stormy sea. Take a look at our special community and see the incredible opportunity of lots, new homes, condominiums and resale properties. Find out why over 130 families have already made the decision to move to Valle Escondido and why you should too. And if you want to come for a few days or a month and just visit we have special rates in our resort to accommodate you. If you want to rent a home or apartment for a time to be sure that this is the right place for you, we have them available too . . . Sam Taliaferro AKA John Galt

Many of the folks who bought from Sam and actually live in Valle Escondido jokingly refer to him as “King Sam” not “John Galt”, which may be because of his château at the end of the Valley with its high Louis  XIV Versailles-type fence. [Fences like that are not permitted in Valle Escondido . . . except for Sam.]

So who is this modern-day “John Galt.” Again, in Sam’s own words . . .

An inventor by profession Sam has developed and patented numerous technologies used by fortune 100 companies throughout the world. He has built a number of manufacturing operations to build these technologies, the last one in Costa Rica in 1995.

In 2000 he had an idea to create Valle Escondido, a residential resort community in the mountain highlands of Panama that would appeal to those looking for an exotic yet first world lifestyle. The small village where the project is located has become known throughout the world as a retirement/tourist hot spot due to his marketing efforts and the success of the development. It was rated the number one foreign retirement destination in the western hemisphere by the AARP in 2002 and one of the top five best lifestyle values in the world by Fortune Magazine in 2005. The success of the project lit the fuse that started the real estate boom (and bust) in Panama.

In 2005 Sam began writing the Panama Investor Blog which focuses on the country from an investors prospective and reaches people interested in Panama from all over the world. Current subscription is about 7000.

Sam and his wife Thalia also operate the Valle Escondido resort Golf & Spa located in the center of the residential project. The resort employs about 80 full time Panamanians and is one of the areas largest employers.

Sam writes an excellent blog which I enjoy and is a superb marketing genius who more than anyone else “put Boquete on the map” and to a large extent put Panama on the map as a retirement destination. There are many developments in various stages of development . . . a lot of which are still developer’s dreams on pretty architectural drawings that may, or may not actually come to fruition. Valle Escondido was the first development of its kind and it is a reality and not a pipe dream, which is one of the reasons to buy in Valle Escondido. And, yes, I still have a beautiful house for sale, in a safe spot, overlooking the Valley and the golf course. I’ve pulled it off the market, temporarily, because it is now being used as a storage place for furniture salvaged from the collapsed home of our friends Brad & Jackie.

So you have two things going on in Valle Escondido . . . or “The Valley”. You have private, custom homes ranging in price from $365,000 to several million dollars. You have two types of “Villas” . . . a fancy name for duplexes, and condominiums. All of these homeowners are part of the homeowner association to which dues are paid (Ours are about $1000 per year) and the homeowner’s provide security, road maintenance, trash removal, and maintenance of common areas.

You also have the Valle Escondido Resort  which includes a small hotel, and Quebrada Grande Country Club which includes a 9-hole executive golf course, swimming pool, gym and spa, and both of these operations are owned by the Taliaferros.

. . . Just so you get the total picture . . . Now we cut to the devastation at Brad & Jackie’s home . . .  built on one of these Valle Escondido lots carved out of the mountainside in a tropical rain forest.

As you might imagine retros, or backhoes have been at a premium with all the mud slides in Valle Escondido and elsewhere.  Jackie finally found a contractor who had sufficient trucks available to begin digging out and hauling away mud and debris and arranged for the backhoe to start work yesterday morning at 7AM.

By 7:45AM there was still no backhoe . . . and Jackie got a call from the backhoe which was outside the gate at Valle Escondido where the guards were refusing to let it in.

The homeowners have a permanent right to pass through the Valle Escondido Resort and the road access and guard service is jointly maintained by the homeowner’s and Valle Escondido Resort, with another of Sam’s many companies providing the guard service.

Jackie when down to the gate to unscramble the mess . . . here we are sitting with tons of debris to be removed and the guards won’t let the backhoe through! . . . and he is told that the backhoe cannot come in until 9AM because it would disturb guests at the hotel!  Here we are in a disaster area, and the backhoe cannot get in because it will disturb guests at the hotel . . .

Frankly, whether there were guests in the hotel or not, is hardly the point!  Surely if there were guests they would understand that Valle Escondido was a disaster area since all they had to do was look outside their door.

So, after getting nowhere with the guards [and these folks all live in fear of being fired if they deviate one iota from what "Sam says"] Jackie went at 8AM to one of the Valle Escondido Resort managers, Analia, and patiently explained that he had lost his entire house, and this was a disaster area, and if there were no guests in the hotel, and it was all of 4 minutes to drive a backhoe past the hotel to the other end of the Valley, why couldn’t he bring in a retro at 8AM.  Analia promised to check with Thalia.

Bottom line . . . no go . . . the retro sat there and wait at the gate for two hours!  In my humble opinion this was both incredibly stupid and callous .  Am I wrong?  For all his marketing genius, Sam sometimes shoots himself in the foot when it comes to public relations.  So memorable it has now become a Valley legend is the time the Valle Escondido Resort insisted on charging mourners $2 a head to attend a funeral service being held in the little chapel at Valle Escondido. [It has never been clarified if the corpse was charged $2 to enter.]  These kinds of things are quickly blamed on the guards for not using their heads, but . . . then again, the guards know they could be fired for thinking something is incredibly stupid and callous, thinking for themselves, realizing the Valley is a disaster zone, and making an exception.

Update as of 8:10AM November 14th . . .

Since the retro was left on the property . . . where in the back yard the mud is still 4 feet deep! . . . it can fire up, but they aren’t letting the trucks in until 9AM lest the non-existent “hotel guests” be disturbed!  And they’ve had 24-hours to get a clue!  Nice neighbors!  And what really pisses me off about this is that when Sam and Thalia were building their hotel, rushing to get it finished before the holidays, in the Valley right beneath my bedroom window, they had workers yelling, backhoes, screaming tile saws, cement mixers and trucks working 7 days a week starting at 7AM!  Of course that was Sam’s project.