In 2008, Kathleen Peddicord and her husband Lief Simon set out in search of a legacy-level investment play in Panama. They targeted the frontier western coast of the Azuero Peninsula, in the country’s Veraguas Province. The finca known as Los Islotes was its jewel. Pulling the trigger on its purchase was a bolder move than the couple realized. The decision set them on a course that brought them face to face with the real Panama—the good, the bad, and the sometimes very ugly—while connecting them with a lost world where the way of life was little changed from its centuries-old indigenous roots. Kathleen and Lief’s plan to reinvent that reality would lead to both the biggest challenges and the greatest rewards of their lives.