There are plenty of real estate hustlers out there offering to sell the beaches to foreigners who don't know any better. Yes, some people live right on the beach, and technically it's illegal. The beaches, up to 100 feet in from the high water line, are public property. Though in places like the Bocas Islands and La Palma there is an established practice of building over the water, and though wealthy developers make a sport of usurping public beaches, if you buy from somebody who says that your new property goes right down to the water, you will probably have problems about this sooner or later.

That said, a lot of people live on the beaches, mostly those who eke out a living fishing from cayucos. Moreover, some of the people who own the adjacent property like the idea of having a squatter living on the beach, because that discourages strangers from wandering onto their property.

If you buy beachfront property in Panama and have a squatter living on your land, or on the public beach in front of your land, you can get yourself into problems with the community and with the law if you decide to remove the squatter in an unwise way. Basically, if you really do want a squatter to move you should pay that person to leave. If the person is on your land rather than the public beach, squatter's rights may mean that it isn't really YOUR land and the price of buying the occupant out will generally be higher. Photos by Eric Jackson