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Blanca & Ian's Travels Panama Photo Report 1996 & 1997
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Isla Contadora
One of the islands that make up the Perlas Archipelago in the Bay of Panama which is on the south side of the Panamanian peninsula. South east of the Panama Canal & near the equator seemed to guarantee warm weather in February. This very small island also boasts 13 sandy beaches. You reach it from Panama City via 20-seater Twin Otters. For more island lore see Looking At Property On Contadora Island.
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Contadora Pearl
Island
aka Contadora Resort
The
Contadora Website
3 Star going on 1. We went in Feb 1996 because we needed guaranteed sun & heat. We got it. But by 1997 - our 2nd year, decay was setting in. For more recent trip reports see Debbie's It's pretty dismal. And a shame since the island is so unique. That beautiful beach picture we took shows the beach at high tide. At low tide the water recedes about 300m exposing some rocks & dead coral. |
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The 3 story units of the Contadora Resort. Pretty basic stuff but our ground-floor walkout was nice. Their desalination plant quit while we were there in 1997 & we only had salt water showers for most of the week. Entertainment was non-existent our 2nd year too. Rumour has it that 3 of the TV show 'Survivors' were filmed in the Perlas & that the film crew stayed here. I guess they are used to roughing it. | ||
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The grounds. Burnt grass. Burnt golf course. A tennis court nobody used. But we didn't care, we were there for sun & beach. There was also 2 pools, one with a swim up bar. Meals were normal (bad) buffet with 2 'theme' restaurants which you had to book the instant you arrived or you didn't get in. We didn't get in. | ||
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A view of the sea from our unit at dusk.
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The beach at dusk. It was lovely.
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Walking the roads of the small island. With typical island look & feel & many beautiful deserted beaches. We saw most of them. On one expedition to find an elusive beach, I came face to face with a wicked spider by nearly walking into it's web. That & a suspicious human forest dweller on the same trail were enough to kill that adventure. | ||
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One of the villas on Playa Cacique. Private villas dotted the shore outside of the resort. Rich Colombians & exiled Shahs etc. Probably a drug lord or two. All of the locals worked at the resort, local restaurants, one of the few stores, as maids & handymen at the villas etc. But they lived in houses in the middle of the island. | ||
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Panama's only legal clothing-optional beach - Playa de las Suecas. Very peaceful place. Now, stop laughing at me. | ||
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Playa Ejectiva - a semi-private beach catering to the villa crowd. It was always empty. Except for us. | ||
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The deserted island off of Contadora. Robinson Caruso fantasy anyone? |
A closer view of this mystery. |
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After a $35 boat drop off we were marooned
for 4 hours on this island - by choice. I will say no more. When the boatman came to
pick us up - in a crumbling dugout canoe with an outboard motor & a
dead fish - the sea had swells of 5 - 6 feet. He pointed at a
plastic bucket & pointed at all of the water in the bottom of the
boat that washed in when he beached it to pick us up.
"Agua", he said. I bailed. B hung on for dear life wearing the only lifejacket. Pretty hairy stuff. The boatman was very, very tense. But he got us back. |
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Panama City |
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The view from Casco Viejo to the business centre of Panama City. We hopped to Panama City to see the sights. We hired George, a cab driver/tour guide to ferry us around. Our first stop was an attempt to cash a traveler's check. After being refused in the heavily guarded Chase Manhattan Bank (soldiers with machine guns), we ended up in a local bank. They grudgingly cashed it after a 1/2 hour lineup with lots of resentful stares & many line-jumpers. | ||
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The market in Casco Viejo. George, insisted that we roll up the windows & lock the doors for this drive. We did. People pounded on the hood & trunk as we drove through this part. Not a nice place. |
Fruit & vegetables for sale in the market. |
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Street scenes. We stopped at a store for a Coke & they pointedly ignored us until we left. |
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Shades of their past splendor. This is the El Arco Chato, a former convent. It was instrumental in the decision to built the canal in Panama rather than Nicaragua. The 50' arch in the courtyard had survived the lack of earthquakes for 200 years. In 2003, fireworks brought down the by-then 300+ year old arch. | ||
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Ex-dictator's Noriega's pad. The US famously blasted rock music to get him to leave during their 'invasion' of Panama. That's George our taxi driver/guide on the left. | ||
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A very nice house across the street from Noriega's pad. I wonder if the music bothered them? | ||
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San Blas Archipelago |
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An excursion to the San Blas Archipelago was a hop over Panama's spine to the Caribbean in a 20-seater twin-prop Twin Otter aka the ferry of the tropics. Kwadule Island - our first stop - is a tiny resort with only 6 huts on stilts over the ocean - that we visited. We wanted to stay. It was truly idyllic. Except the food was really, really bad. | ||
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Do you see why we wanted to stay? | ||
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We visited a Kuna Indian village via more motorized dugouts. No electricity or running water. Only one payphone on the island. | ||
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A village scene. One room huts with dirt floors & a fire pit in the middle were their homes. We toured the school & it was the same. It was eye-opening to see. | ||
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Kuna's selling their specialty |
An Indian girl waits. |
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Our steed to take us to our 'home away from home' waits at the El Porvenir airport - a bumpy grass runway. | ||
