After big planes, tiny planes, driving through villages of colorful houses with thatched roofs, climbing onto the nose of a small boat, and shifting through a mist of clouds (a mountain cumulus poetically referred to by locals as the “cloud forest”), we reached the Archipelago de Islas Secas. We were barefoot by the time we arrived at the smattering of eight isolated residences, so artfully simplistic and made with such natural materials they seem almost an extension of the main island, Isla Cavada, itself.
While this elegantly spare private reserve and lodge might be a mere 20 miles from the coast, it’s as close as we've come to fulfilling a castaway fantasy. Surrounded by 13 uninhabited isles, all there for you alone to explore, the word “luxury” becomes uncharacteristically jungly, natural, and raw—less St. Barths and more Gilligan’s Island. That’s exactly the way visitors are meant to feel, as philanthropist Louis Bacon originally brought Islas Secas Reserve & Lodge into being as a conservation project and marine sanctuary. He committed only to gently build upon a tiny fragment of the largest island while leaving the others fully unsettled.
The property’s low-impact structures including the casitas and the indoor-outdoor restaurant and bar all use recycled water, solar panel energy, and reclaimed tropical woods and other local materials—a sustainability feat that seems to straddle both the impossible and obvious. It helps to foster feeling of sheer, astonished gratitude as you stand agog from your private deck over the sparkling turquoise waters and look out into the seemingly endless archipelago. Your archipelago.
While the property has ample amenities including a beautiful jungle spa—with multiple on-site masseuses, soulful yoga instructors, and highly skilled spa technicians—the purest indulgence of Islas Secas is the rare and wonderful chance to suffuse directly into unspoiled nature while you’re there. Venturing out among the islands to see migrating humpback whales, soaring seabirds, and shoals of brightly colored fish is largely the point, which is why the resort’s activities focus on traversing the waters on a range of available sea craft, as elaborate as sport fishing boats and catamarans and as simple as pairs of flippers and snorkels. In most cases, you’ll be the only guests you see wherever you go.
If sheltered jungle walks, cliff-top lookouts, and a feeling of being utterly marooned (in a good way) sounds like your kind of island travel, then this may be the hideaway for you.
Islas Secas
The route? You’ll take an hour and a half plane ride from Panama City to a town called David. From there, the resort will pick you up and take you on a drive through modest but brightly colored local houses, corner shops, and women walking around with umbrellas beneath the Panama sun. It’s about a 30-minute ride till you reach the Gold of Chiriquí, and the rest of the travel is by boat.
Ours was operated by a man named Rob Jameson who is the property’s recreation specialist, but feels also like an archaeologist and adventure guide. His stories about the island and how he arrived on it to stay make the approximately 40-minute ride disappear. From the mangrove-swallowed port, you’ll head out through an estuary toward the main island, Islas Cavada, on which the lodge is set. If you’re lucky, the occasional long local fishing boat will pass by, with colonies of prehistoric looking birds surveying overhead before pivoting and slashing through the water into fish prey.
The scene? Your boat docks as the water moves from dramatic navy to turquoise shallows. From here sea turtles and rays glide and fish school. The resort greets you with gathered nuts and fresh fruits from the property and cold beers. The ‘lobby’ might have a beautiful, arched bamboo canopy but there are no plush lounges underneath; instead kayaks, scuba gear, sailing boats, paddle boards and fishing rods decorate the walls. You immediately get the sense that you have come here to play. From here, a tunnel tangled with beautiful subtropical vegetation and ground corral leads you eventually to the bamboo structures that house the restaurant, spa, and pool. On the way you pass an outdoor cinema with adirondack chairs and a screen made from a stretched out sail. To the right is a hill that leads up to the casitas where visitors stay.
