| There 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. |
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| 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.
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.
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. |
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| 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. |
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Offshore Resources Gallery
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| 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.
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. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| 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. |
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