Isla Palenque Attractions & Activities - The Best Holiday Destinations for 2020
Isla Palenque is an island in the Gulf of Chiriquí in the Pacific West of Panama.
A Palenque originally referred to a refuge for escaped slaves. During Central America’s colonial period, indigenous Indians were indentured to work in the Spanish mines. Those who escaped sought sanctuary in places they fortified with palisades, or palenques. Isla Palenque has been called by that name for as long as maps can determine, and so may have been used to harbor escapees during the colonial period.
Over the last several hundred years, Isla Palenque let the modern world pass by and has remained a secluded preserve for rare primary forest and hundreds of species of plants, flowers, animals and birds.
According to archeologist Olga F. Linares in her book ADAPTIVE RADIATIONS IN PREHISTORIC PANAMA, Isla Palenque has been a privileged location from the start of human settlement, and was the home of an ancient, pre-Columbian farming community some time during the years 500-1400AD. It may even have been occupied as long ago as 5,000BC. Due to the beauty and mystery of the island, it became a sacred site for the most holy of ceremonies, and tribes from all over the province came here to worship. Important tribal chiefs were known to negotiate and trade with each other, making this the province’s prime center of culture and commerce. By Colonial times this ancient community had vanished, leaving only enough clues about their lives to awaken curiosity and provide a sense of the island's ancient history.
Recently, the island was purchased for development of a new, low-density eco-resort.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Isla Palenque
