The magic of Isla Palenque seemed to be the gift of the intangible, though Benjamin and his team fight hard to preserve the ecological tangibles.
PHOTO Isla PalenqueThe rain was thrashing down as we pulled up to a provincial farm house near the pier in Boca Chica, situated in the south western part of Panama just outside of David district. Our team had been driving for hours, embarking on a five-hour road trip through hills of emerald forests and glistening tropical landscapes. Upon reaching Boca Chica, where we were instructed to leave our car, the rain gods abruptly roared. This was mid-December, the start of high tourist season in Panama, so there should’ve been relatively little rain. When we travel, however, the mood swings of meteorology do not listen and we don’t call the shots.
Soaked with forced attempts to remain positive, we waited at the sopping pier and then finally witnessed a beacon of hope in the form of two kind gentlemen arriving on an ivory boat. Aris and Rodolfo greeted us with beaming smiles as dusk came calling. Like two dripping chickens finding shelter, we were warmly whisked away on a twenty-minute boat ride into the mystery of Caribbean twilight.
There was something tranquil about the sound of rain pounding against oceanic surface, accompanied by the hum of our luxurious motorboat. Clearly, Lena felt the same as she quietly stared into curtains of rain drops layered upon a velvet of navy sky. Pure peace.
Soon after Aris and Rodolfo handed us bottles of water, we arrived on an island where a car was already waiting for us. With our luggage in tow, we were transported through the darkness of misty forest only to arrive at the romance of the Resort at Isla Palenque – what would be a mesmerizing and unforgettable sanctuary.
We would meet Benjamin Loomis, President of Amble Resorts, at dinnertime, and I was looking forward to it. Today’s Isla Palenque is a 400-acre private island, and a previously long-forgotten one. The now eco-resort resides and thrives to preserve the natural and cultural elements of this palenque, meaning sanctuary. With five miles of coast and over a mile and a half of volcanic beaches, Isla Palenque used to hub indigenous tribes who used it as a place for sacred traditions.
PHOTO Isla PalenqueAfter checking into our room which felt like a modernized, luxurious tree house, Lena and I found ourselves pampered with a delectable seven-course meal, each dish served with a luscious wine pairing. The menu came with our names printed on it, and our palates were soon presented with a dance that kicked off with a beef carpaccio topped with cream cheese (paired with a Pegu Club cocktail from Burma), couscous salad (with Hallelujah cocktail from Colon, Panama), cream of potato soup (with Torrantes wine from Chile), Greek-style shrimp served with sautéed yucca, garlic, and cilantro (with Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand), chicken filet rolls stuffed with prosciutto and sage leaf served on top of old corn risotto (with Carmenero wine from Chile), shrimp served with garlic butter (paired with Rivas cocktail from Nicaragua) and lastly, a rice pudding (with Boqueteno Blanco drinkito from Isla Palenque).
Nothing about its symphony of flavors was a surprise and every bite devoured was unexpectedly exciting. In midst of the solitude of ocean waves and the aroma of jungle haze, I was ready for fresh ingredients but apathetic gusto. But we traveled with each dish that arrived before our eyes with perspective and a mission to inspire. Everything we ate was grown on the island, paired with drinks that highlighted various countries. It’s the fusion of local and international, but in an ecologically sensitive approach.
“The things we think are most important to our costumers are food, adventure, and exploration.” Benjamin explained, “That’s what you see, that is what our packages include. We try to get people to take more tours. You can come here and do nothing for a week, it’s easy, you’re on vacation, the first few days you don’t want to do anything, just relax. Before you know it, the week is gone and you didn’t really do anything but sit on the beach. Whereas, if you’ve prepaid, you know we’ve got five tours. People hike for 2-3 hours and then relax during the rest of the day. They still get a nice vacation, but when they get home they’ve got so much more to share.”
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The resort on Isla Palenque offers intensity-free but eco-infused tours: Monkey Sanctuary & Waterfall Hike, Coffee Farms & Cloud Forests Tour, Ngöbe–Buglé & Waterfall Hike, Island-Hopping in Gulf of Chiriqui, Kayak Islas Ventanas, Linartes, Iglesias, Sportfishing, Secrets of the Island Hikes…just to name a few. The next morning, Lena and I geared up for our guided hike which began with Rodolfo then ended with Benjamin.
Isla Palenque is full of gems, it’s biodiverse with incredible aquatic ecotones. Rodolfo blanketed us with bug spray then led us to the magnificence of relic jungle and concave beach that is home to countless hermit crabs making art on the sand. We strolled by mangroves that defend the island from the sea and we stood still to hear monkeys chitter-chatter and dangle from branch to branch as if they knew what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was all about.
For the first time in a long time, I was captivated by the rapport between nature and my on-the-go self. When I asked Benjamin what attracted him to this island in the first place, he said, “We spent a lot of time in Central American, Caribbean markets, trying to find the right piece of land. This is way bigger than what we were expecting, we mostly looked at smaller pieces of land, a nice place to put a high-end, luxury hotel. Islands definitely have a great charm to them. It’s basically like having your own park, we are preserving a lot of it. When we build everything here, the total amount will be 5% of the land.”
PHOTO Isla PalenqueThe start of an eco-resort in the middle of nowhere is no easy task. The first few months of constructing the resort required simply cutting trails. “We bought the island in the end of ’08, did a lot of planning work, started getting construction guys out here in the Spring of 2010.” He continued, “We started the hotel that you stayed in the end of 2010, opened in the middle to the end of 2011.”
Two years from now, the resort will have more hotel rooms on the bluff, and vacation homes are currently being built with one to three bedrooms. These homes will carry a different private island experience with the same amenities. Expect vaulted ceilings, floor to ceiling doors and glass windows, and hardwood floors throughout.
With more than 10,000 followers on Facebook, Isla Palenque is not only making a name for itself, it’s also a designated escape for families with children and honeymooners ready for new adventures as newlyweds. “There’s a growing small niche of people who want culturally authentic, ecologically sensitive experiences while traveling, but they also want a luxury experience. Ten to fifteen years ago, you were going to have to stay in a hostel to get the kind of experience of getting this close to a culture. But the person who is going and spending the money we charge are often having to go through some kind of chain, walled off from everything. You can go to Mexico and feel like you never really saw Mexico. That was the original idea.”
PHOTO Isla PalenqueBy the time we left Isla Palenque, the sun was shining bright making it harder for us to leave this wondrous tropical paradise. As the motorboat drove away from the resort’s dock, it was Aris and Rodolfo with us once again. We revved by smaller indigenous islands under a clear sky just as aqua as the ocean water that lifted us the night before. The magic of Isla Palenque seemed to be the gift of the intangible, though Benjamin and his team fight hard to preserve the ecological tangibles. The night before, Lena and I swam in the resort’s infinity pool, underneath the Panamanian sapphire sky. The rain had stopped, there was no one else around, making our silly giggles even more nonsensical. But we had our silences, retrospectively gazing into the dark Gulf of Chiriqui, allowing such moments to takeover.
That’s still what I think of when I remember Isla Palenque. When the rain stopped, there was a sapphire sky.
