Santiago to Isla Contadora, Panama

21 - 24 Dec 2005

Keith and Marion's charming bed and breakfast

On our return to Santiago airstrip, we were relieved to see that the place is normally well guarded by the local police and Honey-Mooney was waiting for us intact. After paying a small landing fee to the friendly man in the tower and a contribution to the police's Christmas party for the local children, we took off for Isla Contadora, an hour's flight away.
Isla Contadora is a small island of only 1.2-sq-km to the southeast of Panama City. Before leaving Geneva, we had booked a room for 3 nights at the Contadora Island Inn, a b&b owned by Marion and Keith who had moved there only a few years ago from the US. Fortunately for us, they had made a mistake in the booking and only had us down for 2 nights. The b&b was fully booked on our 3rd night, so they invited us to stay at their own house as their guests. Marion and Keith have had extremely interesting and varied lives so it was a great pleasure to swap stories with them over dinner and breakfast, while enjoying the fabulous view to the sea from their house.
The island is too small to warrant renting a car, so we got about on push bikes - hot work puffing up the hill in the midday heat! There are some good beaches and the snorkelling ad diving was OK, but not as good as Isla de Coiba (which, admittedly, would be hard to beat).