There are a couple of tourist transportation alternatives going to Isla Contadora, the faster, but slightly higher cost of the morning flight out and evening flight back is only the first choice of many. Air Panama and Aeroperlas have several fifteen minute (or so) flights each day, from Panama City’s Albrook area airport for about $60 roundtrip. With the longer day that would give you at the beach, you could plan a day trip, enjoy the beaches, scuba a couple of hours, and still be back for Happy Hour in Panama City. How relaxing would that be?
There is also regularly scheduled hydrofoil ferry service from the docks in Balboa to Contadora Island. That trip requires 2-3 hours or so each way, but is only about $4.00 more economical than the air flights. You can chose to go by ferry out in the morning, spend the day at Contadora Island’s Beaches, snorkel awhile, and explore the azure blue of the undersea world and then take the evening ferry back to the mainland.
Whichever means of transportation you choose, don’t miss seeing the astonishing variety of sea life surrounding this tropical paradise island. But do remember, that one person’s dream can be another person’s nightmare; so be sure to bring the entertainment everyone in your party will want, whether it’s books, music, movies or games…because you won’t be able to buy it on Contadora Island. In fact, you won’t be able to get cash there either, since there isn’t an ATM or bank, so carry what you’ll need.
Perhaps you and your guests will look forward to having a longer time to relax on the white beach sands, in the Contadora sunshine and feel the warm, beach breezes; even to investigate the lodging alternatives so you can plan to spend the night, or perhaps the month exploring the in the coral fields surrounding this 1.2 sq. km. Pacific Isle.
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Searches for the mostly unrecorded truths about the prehistoric residents of Archipelagos de las Perlas, help to reconstruct the social, political, ideological and natural world of the native peoples; but will we ever truly grasp the contextual nature the ethno-historical sources offer about pearls in the pre-colonial eras? Exploring the context of the sociopolitical and supernatural worlds of the southern Central American Natives, before they ever met a European; how the pearls they collected were used in daily activities and how they functioned as symbols of identity, wisdom, and knowledge are part of understandings gleaned from those truths.
Based on archeological evidence, it is now possible to divide objects forming part of the daily lives of South Central American Natives into three categories: sacred object, “monetary” objects and objects of value. The inhabitants of the isthmus had many means of distinguishing themselves from one another, among which ornaments, clothing, language and bodily ornamentation all played complementary roles. Pearls were a large part of the ornamentation used in all three categories.
In those pre-historic times, jewelry given by Native peoples was believed to have magical-religious powers. Pearls were guarded by the basket in the chiefs’ houses…they were even recorded being taken from the Pearl Islands and transported to the Caribbean where the Chief of Comogre received them. Moreover, on some occasions natives are recorded as having given Spaniards pearls in designs together with gold, as a sign of their hopes and plans for peace.
Yet, even allegedly pearl-free, the Archipelagos of La Perlas continues to enchant each of us to visit again, with amazing sea life in azure seas, and bright skies decorated with beams of sunlight and rays of moonlight. We are privileged to sit on the sea’s shore just as did the pre-historic men, women and children…and admire them.
The history of the pearls from the Archipelago de Las Perlas has been of interest to archaeologists, and other historians as well as the general public for a long time. Some of the pearls gathered in these islands are not in national and foreign museums; instead they are in private collections and in the hands of individuals…and have been discovered more as a result of the manner of the Spanish plundering and their adversities at sea, rather than of archaeological investigation.
In Pre-Columbian times, Las Perlas Islands were ruled by an Indian king whose main focus was pearl-diving. Pearls were then used as ornament and to trade with. Most of the pearls in the world were collected in these waters. First settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, pearls were found in the waters around Contadora, including the astonishing 31 carat, over 400 year old Pelegrina pearl owned now by Elizabeth Taylor. This is pearl jewelry with a renowned history, since its owners have included a Queen of Spain, a French Emperor and an English Queen.
Contadora Island was the destination of the Spanish fleet for all the pearls collected to be counted, in route to the Spanish Court. The Pearl Islands stimulated the greed of many Spanish conquistadors. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, who discovered and gave name to the Pacific Ocean from a point less than 90 kilometers from San Jose Island, was attracted by its wealth in gold and pearls. Later on, the Archipelagos de las Perlas sheltered infamous pirates of many different nationalities, who for several centuries looted the wealthy Spanish settlements and fleet.
