I'm on Contadora island. It is one of the Pearl islands and the have done a few series of survivor here. I rmember Survivor Pearl Island, and they did anAllstars here and at least one other one. There have also been a couple of other ones like Survivor South Africa and Survivor Bulgaria have done series here. In the shows the survivors are on Mogo Mogo island and the crew take over Contadora. I of course will not be going to Mogo Mogo cause ther is nothing there.
They used to collect pearls here but the got a disease in t.he early 1990s and died off so now tourism is the big industry. There are two stories about how the name came about. The pearlers used to come to this island to trade pearls and after would all count their stocks, or the Pirates used to regroup here after pillaging the coast to count the booty. Either one makes this " counting island".
The weather this morning was great, a little overcast but fine. As soon as we left the dock a big cloud came over. It was a pretty rough crossing, it is about 40 miles off the coast, and everyone on the back deck got soaked. I managed to keep breakfast down. Just after we got here the cloud lifted and it has been sunny all arvo. There is no dock here so we all had to transfer into smaller boats to get ashore. When we did there was a guy standing here with a Gerald's shirt on so I asked him and he bought me up here. It is a nice place, resort style, but very expensive. $100 per night and meals are mostly over $25. It is a bit of a shock when I am used to paying $20 for room and $5 for meals. It is like Rottnest, it cost an arm and a leg to get here and gonna cost the other one to stay here.
The beaches are nice. If one is a bit rough just go around the corner and there is a nice calm one. The water is pretty clear and there are a few fish to look at. It is very different to the Caribbean, the water is colder, but still pretty good. I have hired some snorkel gear and going again tomorrow, weather permitting.
The airport here is very close to everything. You won't believe how close till I show you. I am going to try to do a video there tomorrow? We will see what happens?
I just put up pics and they reminded me. There is a resort here just falling apart and abandoned. It used to be owned by a columbian drug lord and the US caught him and locked him up. So now the place sits idle, cos it was only ever used by him and his mates. He also had his own ferry and that is abandoned on the beach and just rusting away.

This morning when I got up it was very overcast. By 9 it was chucking down rain. I thought great my day is stuffed,but true to form here by 9.30 the sun was shiningand the rain was going the other way. It was hot and humid as hell. Tie to hit the beach. The hardest part of swimming or snorkelling here is getting in or out. The beaches are soo rocky you gotta get over the rocks. There are not really reefs here more rocks,like home. The fish arn't as colourful as they are in Belize but there are still lots of them. To me it is a lot like snorkelling at home, similar fish and the water is cold. Well here it is coldish, not as cold as home but not as warm as the Caribbean.
This arvo I walked around the island. There is a lot of resorts, and very expensive homes. The mega rich of Panama have holiday homes here and some are hard to tell if it is home or resort? The beaches are hard to get to. The law here says there are no private beaches so I can go on Amy beach I want and the resorts can't stop me. They make it hard cos the only way to the beach is through their property or by boat. The best beaches I have found so far are very close to my hotel so no big deal, and every time I have been to the beach I have had it to myself.
This arvo is looking like rain, but if I wait for a while it will be sunny again.
This arvo I went to the beach again. I can tell you the difference between high and low tide is about 10ft. The reefs I was swimming this morning were too deep this arvo. I will try to show you the difference in photos. While I was there a couple of whales were showing off in the water. They were breaching and tail slapping, with a local boat hot on their heels. I took 45 pics and almost got one breaching, I did get some tail slaps. I have deleted all the ocean shots and splashes an you only going to see a few. I have just been sitting upstairs at my hotel loading the pics and the girls in the boat are here as well so they emailed my pics from my iPad to their email. ( I dunno how to do it). The last 5 pics are from the girls.
I keep adding to this. The last 6 pics are high and low tide.
My last day on Contadora and the weather is perfect this morning. I hit the beach at 8.30 but had to be back to shower and check out by 11. Looks like it is going to rain this arvo. The barge was in from the mainland this morning. They park it on the beach on an outgoing tide then they have 6 hr to unload it.
This arvo I am on the ferry back to Panama City and staying at San Remo again.