Looking
At Property On Contadora Island
Exploring
The History And Landscape Of An Island ~ By Matthew Atlee
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are many jolts when you arrive on the island of Contadora; the first of
which is the landing on the island’s small airport. Elias Canetti once
wrote, “man’s hands have been his destiny”; and as you land on Contadora
watch the hands of the pilots and think about Canetti, the most elegant
of writers. Contadora is located about 25 min. from Marcos A. Gelabert
Airport in Panama City and is surrounded by the other islands that make
up the Pearl Chain. We landed on a Friday and I was initially in a bad
state-of-mind when we arrived to the airport for the early morning flight:
I had lost my Bankcard by accident and was worried that someone was cleaning
out my account, though there was a slim chance of this, the idea burned
a hole in me the whole day through, but Greg, Mike and Carlos from International
Living were great company. Greg was very intelligent and we liked each
other’s sense of humor. Mike and Carlos were gentleman and the afternoon
passed well, though I was worried about my money and the Bankcard..
We landed and
after an explanation of the project, we walked around the grounds of Villas
Contadora, which I liked, private and affordable. After about an hour
we headed out from the project and started to walk around the island. We
were walking away from Villas Contadora and the island’s airstrip towards
the northern side of the island, when I saw something unexpected: A small
clump of woods that looked like woods from southern Pennsylvania or northern
Maryland during late autumn. But I was on a Pacific island off Panama.
I learned later that the original developer of Contadora had breed deer,
a baby elephant, peacocks and storks, in this small forest. |
| This shot
is from the balcony of one of the villas looking down towards the small
beach. |
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Apparently
these animals were taken off the island because they chased and bit people
and sometimes they would wander across the runway of the airport. Imagine
leaving the bar at night and getting bit by the baby elephant in the woods.
While taking this in and looking at the soccer field off to my right, Carlos
told me that Michael Bolton’s, the singer, father lived on the island.
And the plot stirred and gears turned and I thought about Gabi who was
laughing and smiling and having fun with Greg, Mike and Carlos.
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| There are
nice walkways that connect the villas to one another. |
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I
learned by accident that the person that people think is Michael Bolton’s
father is in fact the father of a student of mine whose last name is Bolton.
Paola told me her father was one of the first people to arrive on the island
before it was developed in the 1960s. What follows are his words as tranmitted
to me via e-mail. Michael told me he liked to spearfish in the waters around
Contadora in the early 1960s. At that time only Saboga, Pedro Gonzalez
and San Miguel (Isla Del Rey) had inhabitants – most of the inhabitants
of these islands were descendants of Pearl Divers. At that time Contadora
was a place to drop anchor; it had a nice protective beach to anchor a
boat in, but there were no inhabitants on the island. Michael returned
to Panama in 1968 after serving in the Air Force and it was then that he
met Omar Torrijos, who introduced him to Samuel Lewis Galindo. Galindo
owned much of the island and wanted to make Contadora into an island where
the international jet set and locals would be able to go and enjoy themselves
in private. Galindo asked Michael to help him in developing a diving and
fishing resort. The initial earth moving was done by MOP (Ministry of Public
Works) and after the jungle was cleared an airport was built. There were
workers on the island; many were trustee prisoners and the prisoners provided
free labor for the development of the island; most lived in trailer homes
that were brought to Contadora on large barges from the mainland; the trailer
homes were acquired when the Caribbean Olympic Games were held in Panama
in 1970. Landowners also lived in these small trailers for the first few
years of Contadora’s development. Where Villas Contadora now stands is
where most of these trailers were located. Galleon Bar and Restaurant at
Playa Galleon were the first places to offer food and drinks. |
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In 1975 the
Melia Chain from Spain bought a section of the island and built Hotel
Contadora on a nice white-sand beach. It was then that such people
as John Wayne, Mickey Rooney, Julio Inglesia and Joe DiMaggio, there is
a beach named after him, and other famous people arrived on the island.
During the Carter years the island was the host of the Contadora Peace
Talks, which later became a forum for easing tensions in Latin America.
It was after the death of Torrijos in the summer of 1981 that the island
began to sink into memory: Noriega’s government tried to run the hotel;
after two years of mismanagement the Japanese company Aoiki Corporation
bought the hotel, but sold it in 1992 to a Colombian operator. And then
the island became a weekend retreat for Panamanians.
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I like the
island; it’s quiet, but doesn’t need to stay that way. Remember that in
Panama you have great privacy and you feel that on this island. No one
is going to bother you. No cops on the road; no unwelcome tensions to broadside
you. The houses in Villas Contadora were built by an Argentinean and their
size is perfect for a hideout. The kitchens are fully equipped. Water can
be a problem on the island but filters and water barges keep the island
wet. Bring bottled-water; no money machines on the island so bring money.
We had a nice
lunch: there was an affable German who I think owned the restaurant where
we had lunch; his restaurant was near the forest and the soccer field and
he was building a miniature golf course and smiling about it all. We walked
around the airstrip and drank beer and watched the families arrive from
Panama City to Contadora; they came in on helicopters and small private
planes. Our plane arrived late: as our plane landed we noticed a
wing-light was burned out and Greg mentioned this to me and I thought about
it. The pilot turned off the engine before fully stopping the plane and
there were others on the plane: the camaraderie on the plane between the
passengers was tight; as I boarded the plane, I thought about a story I
had read in the epilogue of Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of Bruce Chatwin
about a German girl who 1971 was traveling on a plane in Peru that Werner
Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the film director and actor of Aguirre, the
Wrath Of God, were supposed to have been on. The plane exploded in
mid-air and the German girl was thrown from the plane; she said that during
her fall, while still strapped in her seat, the trees of the Amazon jungle
looked like giant cauliflowers. She survived the crash and the Amazon jungle
and made her way to safety after many days.
The plane took
off and I could see the beauty of the white-sand beaches of Contadora and
Saboga; after 15 minutes the skyline of Panama City came into view and
5 minutes later we landed safely and softly in Marcos A. Gelabert Airport. |
| You feel
like you are up among the palms when you step out onto your second floor
terrace. |
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