Central and South American garden real estate

Brazil, Panama, Caribbean

Central and South America are too large and too varied for any generalization to be valid - but prospective buyers of vacation property should bear the following in mind:

• prices are a fraction of North American levels
• some regions are quiet and safe; others are dangerous and crowded
• the climate ranges between tropical jungle, high sierra, prairie, hot desert and cold desert
• English is not widely spoken: property buyers would do well to learn Spanish or Portuguese

The art of garden design was one of the arts taken to South America by the European colonists and the early gardens were strongly influenced by Spanish and Portuguese precendents. In Brazil, Burle Marx led the way in using native plants and it is now recognized that South America has a fantastic pallete of plant material for use in garden design.