Contadora is an island approximately 30 miles off Panama City. It is the get away community for the richest of people. The Shah of Iran had his house here, Jimmy Carter, the Donald (as in Trump), Panamanian Ambassador and vice president, Oprah, now . . . Karen and David. Well, ok, maybe just a room. This has also been home to 39 seasons of Survivor. 3 American, but also the other countries of the world send people to deal with the elements and each other. Our host is the mayor of the island and we heard story after story. One island for filming day to day tribal stuff, a second island set up for the challenges. His job is to help producers find “stuff” and our little house is where the producers come and go.

The island has maybe 30 monster mansions really incredible places with staffs who sweep the beaches and sweep leaves off the grass and the roads. There are very few cars, just golf carts or small gas powered mules, but each road is perfectly paved, striped and cared for meticulously.

There is one small hotel and a couple of bed and breakfasts. Very very quiet over all, mostly family time for those people, we didn’t see anyone famous to our eyes, but the families we did see looked normal and friendly. The beaches were lovely and warm, snorkeling at each and every one, and was just a perfect get away. Now if we had a few million we were not planning to use.