Day nine — Hato Pintado on foot, a hardware store that made Kent very happy, and a lesson in how not to travel

Kent’s dispatch — Hato Pintado, Cochez, and Carrasquilla

I took the Metro back up to the 12th of October station — the same one I’ve been using as a base for neighborhood explorations — and this time headed east into Hato Pintado. The name translates literally as “painted ranch,” which is both charming and completely unhelpful as a description of what you’ll find there.

I walked south-east on Avenida 12 de Octubre, starting through an industrial stretch that gave way to residential after a couple of blocks and then climbed a significant hill. At the first street I could see was genuinely lined with single-family homes, I turned south-west. What I found was encouraging.

Hato Pintado residential streets — smaller than what we saw in San Francisco, but well-kept, clearly cared for, and full of people out on a Saturday morning maintaining their homes and gardens.

Smaller, well-kept one-story homes. Saturday morning energy — residents out cleaning, gardening, maintaining things. The kind of neighborhood that signals people have been there long enough to care about it. Good sign. One caveat that became apparent quickly: the rear neighbors on several of these streets are condo towers. You’d be buying a house with a high-rise looking over your back garden. It is what it is in a city building upward at Panama City’s pace, but worth knowing before you fall in love with a listing.

I kept walking south, and something useful became clear: the terrain was flattening. The hills I’ve been navigating all week were getting smaller as I moved toward downtown. And as the terrain flattened, the lots got larger and the houses got bigger. This is a pattern worth filing away for house hunting — elevation decreases, lot size increases, proximity to downtown increases. The sweet spot for what we’re looking for probably lives somewhere in that gradient.

Further south in Hato Pintado — flatter terrain, larger lots, bigger homes. The pattern held consistently: as the hills diminish, the properties improve.

One practical observation worth flagging: no crosswalks in this area. At the through-streets, crossing on foot during busy periods requires patience and nerve. It’s not dangerous exactly, but it’s another item to think about if you’re considering this neighborhood for daily life on foot. The main through-streets also have only stop signs rather than traffic signals — which means no pedestrian crossing signals either.

I saw several homes for sale that genuinely interested me. A few with pools. The area has real potential — especially the southern end where the terrain levels out.

Then I found myself at an office building for Nestlé’s Central American corporate headquarters. Not something you typically find embedded in a residential neighborhood. I had unknowingly walked to within one small block of Avenida Central España, and the residential character had given way to commercial almost without me noticing. The transition in Panama City neighborhoods can be abrupt.

Cochez — the hardware store Kent didn’t know he needed

The commercial area revealed a discovery that made the whole walk worthwhile: Cochez. Most of the Panama expat Facebook groups, when hardware stores come up, mention Novey — Novey for home improvement, hardware, home décor. What they don’t always mention is that Novey and Cochez are sister companies, and that Cochez is where you go when you actually need to build or renovate something. Construction materials, heavy hardware, finishing materials. This is the contractor’s store.

Left: the toilet section alone had 25 models plus two urinals — versus the six options at Do-It Center. Right: Kent in the paint section. This is what genuine contentment looks like.

The selection throughout was substantially deeper than anything I’d seen at Do-It or Hopsa. Twenty-five toilet options plus two urinals on display — versus six at the Do-It Center. Prices consistently better. And something I hadn’t found at any other Panama hardware store: PEX plumbing supplies. PEX is the flexible plastic tubing that has largely replaced copper in modern plumbing — more durable, easier to install, more resistant to both freezing and corrosion. I converted to it while we were living in Europe and haven’t looked back. Finding it available here changes the renovation calculus considerably.

I spent a genuinely enjoyable amount of time in the plumbing and electrical aisles. The air conditioning was excellent. I was in no hurry to leave.

Carrasquilla — an honest assessment

After Cochez, I continued south into Carrasquilla, zig-zagging through the streets looking for what I’d found in Hato Pintado but closer to downtown and flatter. The Oxford International School appeared early, which suggested an expat presence — reasonable assumption for house hunting purposes.

What I found instead was a neighborhood of significant contrasts. A beautifully renovated home for sale on one side of the street. Directly across, an auto repair yard occupying half a block. Further on, the housing quality dropped noticeably. Then further still, noticeably more. The trajectory was consistently downward as I continued south.

The southern stretch of Carrasquilla — older apartment buildings in significant need of attention. A neighborhood with clear economic stratification from north to south.

By the time I reached the southern end of my route, I was in the kind of area that wouldn’t make any list of expat neighborhoods — buildings in serious disrepair, heavy graffiti coverage, the general feeling of a community that has been underserved for a long time. Worth noting clearly: the people there were entirely unbothered by a very obviously out-of-place foreigner walking through their streets. No hostility, no attention, no concern for my safety at any point. Panama City’s economic inequality is visible; it is not, in our experience, expressed in aggression toward visitors.

And then it started to rain. Thirty seconds of rain, precisely. I chose to interpret this as a sign about Carrasquilla’s suitability for our purposes and continued walking toward Via España.

The final stretch to the Via Argentina Metro station ran through a dense concentration of auto supply and motorcycle repair shops — a full commercial zone — before depositing me back on Via España and into the air conditioning of the hotel.