A bit of background on Contadora:
"Isla Contadora (Contadora
Island in English) is a Panamanian island in the Pearl Islands archipelago (Archipielago
de las Perlas) in the Gulf of Panama and is made up of
over 200 islands and islets. Discovered in 1513 by Spaniard Vasco Nunez de
Balboa, Contadora is a small island about 1 mile by
1.5 miles which makes it the 11th largest island of the archipelago. With a
population of around 253, it ranks third, after Isla del Rey and Isla
Taboga. It lies about 30 miles off the Pacific
coast of Panama.
Contadora was the island where the Spanish
counted the pearls that were harvested from the other islands in the
archipelago, hence the name of the island, which means "the one that
counts" in Spanish. The islands produced pearls of many colors and sizes,
and during the many years when pearls were harvested from the waters around the
islands, the natives would converge to Contadora to count their pearls and sell
them to the Spaniards. Early last century there was an underwater epidemic
which killed most of the pearl oysters."
Sunday August 3 we drove
to Parque Natural
Metropolitano and hiked a couple of trails. We saw a couple different Mono Titi families, but none were in a
great spot for photos. We saw quite a few turtles at the pond, lots of
butterflies, lots of birds and of course the great city view from the top.
Yellow Orb Spider
Spiral Ginger flower
Mono Titi
Greg on trail
city skyline
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
Slaty-tailed Trogon
female White-shouldered Tanager
Agouti
spider
We went for a late lunch at Albrook
Mall at Pollo Tropical. (same chain as in the States) Then, drove around the
Amador Causeway area until it was time to check in at the Country Inn &
Suites Amador. http://www.countryinns.com/panama-city-hotel-pa-8001/pancanal
They said we could park our
car there for the 3 days while we were on Contadora Island. We walked along the
waterfront and found out where to catch the ferry the next morning. The hotel
was “OK”, but not great. We wanted to shower and go to dinner when I realized
there was only 1 bath towel in the bathroom. (no hand towels, no wash cloths
and only 1 bath towel). I called and they said they would send housekeeping. I
went ahead and showered and still no housekeeping. After waiting an hour Greg
called again. He went in to take his shower and they still didn’t come, so he
uses my wet towel. Finally, they came and gave us 1 hand towel and 1 more bath
towel. We were tired and instead of driving back to the plethora of restaurants
on the causeway, we opted to eat at the TGI Fridays right at the hotel. We must
have ordered poorly as it was not very good. We left still hungry for some good
food. Ah well.
We were up early as we
needed to meet the Sea Las Perlas ferry at 7:00 for a 7:30 departure. It leaves daily from the Balboa Yacht club on the Amador
causeway. https://www.sealasperlas.com/
Marina
Bridge of the Americas
back of ferry
back of ferry and smaller boats going to shore
It was walking distance from
the hotel, so that was great! We saved $40.00 on the fare with our pensionado
discount. It takes about 2 hours to get there and it’s a pretty ride. There is
no dock on Contadora, so to get off they grab your luggage and put it on a
smaller boat and then you get on. They then take you closer to shore where you
get off and wade the rest of the way. They carry your luggage to shore and in
our case we were within walking distance to our hotel so they carried it there
for us. Those staying elsewhere on the island were met by staff and taken by
golf carts to their lodging.
What a beautiful island! We
stayed at The Point Hotel. http://hotelthepoint.com/ We got a really great Jubilado discount of
$69.00 per night. Even though it wasn’t even 10:00 they showed us to our room.
We knew from reviews not to expect “much”. It was basic, but clean. I said it
reminded me of a prison cell. The bed was hard as a rock and the pillow like a
bag of cement. Lovely view of the ocean though. We unpacked a bit and went for
a walk. We saw quite a few Agouti
running about. Water is not drinkable from the tap on the island, so we
stopped to get some bottled water at a small market. The water is kind of a
yellow, brown color. So it always looked like the commode needed to be flushed
and it stains the towels etc. Even for brushing teeth you need to remember to
use the bottled water. Water & ice are OK in the restaurants as they filter
it.
fountain in front of Point Hotel
our "cell"
It’s a small island and we
found the 1 gas pump (while there are a few vehicles, it’s mostly golf carts
and ATVs), 4 small stores (if they don’t have it, you don’t need it), the air
strip, a police station and a small medical clinic. We found Rincon Hot Stone
where we decided to have lunch. We just had sandwiches of ham & cheese for
me and fresh fish for Greg. After lunch we checked at the whale watch “office”
and confirmed our plan for the next day to do the full day whale watch tour with
http://www.whalewatchingpanama.com/
It’s the same company that we did the Embera’ Indian tour with when Dad was
here. Heidi and her husband do the tours on the island from The Point Hotel.
lunch at Rincon Hot Stone
We walked around the island before and after lunch. Here are some of the sites:
medical center
Air Panama office
hostel
police station
White Tailed Deer
Then we grabbed our snorkel
gear and headed for the beach. Water was warm and we saw quite a few pretty
fish. Then we hung out on the beach until it was time to shower and go to
dinner. For dinner we went to Gerald’s and a deer came up to the restaurant
looking for food. I think it’s a “pet” named Mimi. There are wild White tailed
deer on the island. Greg had a wonderful fresh snapper with garlic butter and I
had a shrimp curry with pineapple and rice. We walked back to our hotel and
uploaded our pictures from the last 2 days. It was a good test to see how well
it works uploading them to my iPad and it was very easy and we are trying to
get a handle on how many pictures we can put on it.
The Point Hotel
Gerald's Restaurant
Mimi, the pet deer
Our tour today was to start
at 10:00 and we went for breakfast at the hotel. No menu, but they said they
had scrambled eggs or omelets (in Spanish). Greg got scrambled and I got the
omelet. Both came with warm bread (supposed to be toast). Greg saw something
brown on my plate and asked what that was and I said it was my omelet. It was crispy!
We had heard the food wasn’t great and we didn’t eat there again. While we were
waiting to pay the bill Heidi came and asked if we would be interested in going
up in a plane and seeing the islands and whales from up there. We were
wondering what the catch was, but she says…it’s free, they just like to go up
for fun. The pilots were eating at one of the nearby tables and said they’d be
ready in about 10 minutes. We walked across the street to the air strip and we
were off! AMAZING! The plane was a 4
seater Cessna 172 Skyhawk. The islands are beautiful from up there (about 500
feet) and the water was so beautiful and clear. We did see a few dolphins and a
couple of large pods of whales. They had us back in time for our tour. It was a
highlight of the trip.
Cessna 172 Skyhawk
Whales from the plane
We were the only people on
the Whale Tour so instead of the sailboat we had hoped for we got a local
fishing boat with just the boat captain and Heidi. Since it was a faster boat
we were able to take the time to do some bird watching. They have a large
population of Blue Footed Boobies, Brown Boobies and Frigate birds. It wasn’t
mating or nesting season, but we did see a lot of them. When we were in the
Galapagos Islands a few years ago we got to see the Blue Footed Boobies do
their mating dance and the Frigates with their red pouches inflated to attract
their mates. We circled the island and then we stopped to snorkel at Isla Mogo
Mogo. We did see a lot of beautiful fish, but the really cool thing is that we
could hear the whales singing under the water. Amazing!
We found a mother and baby
whale and followed them for quite a while. We got pretty close! We had a
sandwich and some chips on the boat and then snorkeled at Isla Chapera. It was
actually 3 different sites that we snorkeled. Lots of great fish here. We saw
several Yellow Puffer Fish, Eagle Rays with the prettiest pattern we had ever
seen, lots of Trigger Fish, King Angels, Wrasses, an octopus & more!
Blue Footed Boobies
Frigates over statue of Mary
Blue Footed Boobies & 1 Brown Boobie
Humpback whale mother & baby
Spotted Eagle Ray
Yellow Puffer
Stonefish
Octopus
White Spotted Puffer
Guineafowl Puffer
Our only complaint with our
tour was that Heidi seemed to be doing a snorkel race instead of a nice
relaxing snorkel. She stayed barely in sight and Greg had a problem with a toe
rubbed raw and so he was really struggling. She came back to me several times
to see if I was OK and then took off almost out of sight again. She never went
back to see how he was doing. I said there must be something wrong or he would
be way ahead of me. We were fighting the current the whole way and if we had
started where we ended we could have had an easier snorkel going with the
current.
On our way back to shore we
saw some more whales. They were in the distance, but it was a bunch of males
breaching out of the water. They did that for quite a long time. I had
binoculars so I got a pretty good look at them flying out of the water. What a
great day on the water! Unfortunately, we both burned to a crisp! We normally wear
wetsuits and don’t worry about sunburned backs, but the water was so warm we
went “bareback”. OUCH!
We went to the room in hopes
of showering for dinner. The maid had not been there to clean or leave fresh
linens. So, we went to the front desk and he phoned housekeeping and she met us
at the room with some towels. We told her not to worry about cleaning the room
(despite wishing we could sweep the sand off the floor tracked in from when
they carried our luggage in from the beach.)
We went to Rincon for dinner and had one of their “feasts” for 2. It came with garlic bread, a large platter of broiled fish, shrimp in 2 sizes and langostinos. On the side were potatoes with onions, vegetables, rice, patacones and various sauces for dipping the shrimp & fish. The resident cat got quite a bit of shrimp too. We walked back to the hotel and went through all of the photos from the day. We saw new parrots today. We followed the loud squawking and then saw tons of them in the trees at the hotel. They are Yellow-headed Parrots.
Today was Greg’s birthday and we walked to a local fonda called Bienvenidos Restaurante Clarita and had a very good breakfast. A man walked up to our table and just stood there waiting for us to order. (no menu) Finally, Greg asks que tiene? He lists the choices for the day. Eggs and or tortillas. We both had huevos revueltos and it came with tortillas. Best scrambled eggs EVER and the tortillas were like Indian Fry bread (like in the Southwest). All this for $5.00 total. Our plan today was to rent a golf cart and see the rest of the island. We also had wanted to snorkel some more, but we both got fried on the boat the day before and Greg’s toe was raw. We found all the beaches and checked out some of the B&B’s on the island and went to find Casa Tortuga where we wanted to have dinner. It wasn’t open for lunch (we hoped to get pizza and make reservations for that evening). We stopped at another fonda, Delicias Dezaybet for lunch and had a very good lunch. Greg had fresh fish and I had grilled chicken that was soooo tasty. The place had lots of cats! So cute. We got out and walked around looking for birds and saw a beautiful hawk with a young one, found some cute Griebs on a small pond. We went back to the room to hang out when we spotted another mom and baby whale from our patio. It had started to rain, but we ventured out to see them closer. We called the restaurant and made reservations for 7:30 at Casa Tortuga.
Clarita's Fonda
Clarita's
Greg renting the golf cart
Least Grebe
lunch
Greater Yellow-legs
Iguana
White Ibis
Common Black Hawk adult
Common Black Hawk juvenile
School
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Casa Tortuga was fantastic. The owner, Piero is from a place between Bologna and Venice and the restaurant is an extension of his home. We walked through his house to get to the back where he has created a wonderful environment. The atmosphere is relaxed and excellent music was playing. The menu is different every night and is a set 3 course meal. If the menu does not appeal to you they always have pizza. We had a starter of Dorado (Mahi) marinated with olive oil, spices and slivered onions with a side of pizza dough flat bread with sauce and spices. The main course was pasta with Dorado chunks and the flavors were amazing. Many depths of flavor. For the finale he brought out lemon sorbet. (like frozen limoncello) There was another couple there from Las Vegas celebrating their 30th anniversary. Another table had a couple of guys and there was the owner’s dog and a neighbor’s dog walking around. After the meal he hands everyone a marker to sign one of the walls of his house. What a great evening and the host was so warm and friendly. His son came out around 10:00 to say Cio Papa as he was going to bed. The owner had him say goodnight to all of us in the restaurant in our native languages. (English, Italian and Spanish) He also said he is opening up a Casa Tortuga in El Valle and would be open this weekend. We’ll have to check it out. Can’t wait to try his pizza.
We remarked that we had dined with a deer, cats, dogs, a parrot in a cage, cane toads and of course the ever present gecko’s.
It was late and we headed for bed. Next morning we got up and went back to Clarita’s in hopes of some of those yummy eggs, but today’s menu was sausages and their delightful tortillas. (only $4.00 total today) It was a rainy day. It rained pretty hard most of the day interspersed with bouts of not so hard rain. We had to return the golf cart by 9:00 and after that we went for a walk. (yes, in the rain) We walked to Playa Larga and passed what used to be a 5* hotel and is now waiting to be torn down. (closed down for running drugs) The Parrots were really loud, but hard to see today. We saw a lot of deer today. We wandered this trail until we came to the only nude beach on the island. We watched the crabs on the beach for a while and kept walking until we came out where we had been the day before at the pond.
defunct hotel
pretty floor tiles of defunct resort
defunct ferry
nude beach sign
Playa Suecas (nude beach)
pretty blue rocks on beach
crab parts
Garden Emerald Hummingbird
We walked back to the hotel to pack up and the hotel said we could check out at 2:00 instead of 11:00 so that made it easy. We showered and walked to lunch at Gerald’s and had a great pizza and watched the hummingbirds. Then we grabbed our luggage and went to hang out until we needed to check into the ferry that left at 3:30.
people wading to get to the boat to the ferry
This time there weren’t a lot of people to help get back on the little boat to take us to the ferry, so we waded in the water carrying our luggage. We saw several whales on the return trip home. One was right next to the ferry.
We arrived and retrieved our car and went to the Causeway for dinner. They had a Leños Y Carbon Gourmet there. We like the ones in the mall, but the sit down restaurant that’s right at the marina with a beautiful view of the city skyline was quite nice. The food was also better. Almost double the portion of steak and came with a baked potato instead of rice. Yum! Before we drove home we shopped at PriceSmart and it was almost 11:00 when we got home that night. Phew!
It was a fun get away. It was great to snorkel again and see some new birds. Just some random thoughts for anyone visiting the islands, food is expensive (except at the fondas) and the lodging is not luxurious, but go with the right expectations and you’ll be fine. Everything is casual on the island and be prepared to wade to shore when you arrive and the same in reverse for going back. There are 4 small mercados, a Welcome center, a dive/snorkel shop, an air strip and a small Air Panama office, 2 hotels and a few B&B’s. Only a handful of restaurants. As in all of Panama the people are warm and friendly. Casa Tortuga was amazing and really worth the price. Beaches are beautiful and uncrowded. The TV show Survivor shot quite a few seasons on the islands and the guides will point out the various islands they used. It’s worth doing more than a day trip and is a great place to relax.
I added several new albums on Picasa of the trip.
I added several new albums on Picasa of the trip.
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