The Pearl Islands produced pearls of remarkable variety -- different colors, different sizes -- and the Spanish built a system around them. Native divers harvested oysters from the waters surrounding the archipelago's larger islands, then converged on Contadora to count, sort, and sell their catch to Spanish buyers. The island's name became its function: la contadora, the counter. The pearl trade sustained the islands for centuries, connecting this remote Pacific archipelago to the luxury markets of Europe. Then, early in the twentieth century, an underwater epidemic devastated the pearl oyster population. Production collapsed to almost nothing. The pearls that had given the archipelago its name and its economy essentially vanished, leaving the islands to find a new identity.

In 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the deposed Shah of Iran, arrived on Contadora. Driven from his country by revolution, rejected by nation after nation as a political liability, the shah found temporary refuge on this small island far from the upheavals reshaping the Middle East. His stay was brief but consequential for the island: he reportedly spent heavily on property, and some of the homes he acquired are still rented to tourists today. Contadora had already attracted wealthy Panamanians as a retreat, but the shah's presence cemented its reputation as a place where the powerful and the exiled could disappear for a while. The island's population remains tiny -- around 115 permanent residents -- though summer homes belonging to multimillionaires dot the hillsides alongside more modest local dwellings.

The island's most consequential chapter came in the 1980s, when Central America was tearing itself apart. Civil wars raged in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. The governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama formed what became known as the Contadora Group, and they chose this island as the site for peace negotiations. The resulting Contadora Peace Accords laid the groundwork for the eventual resolution of Central America's conflicts -- a diplomatic achievement that gave the island's name a meaning far removed from pearl counting. The Contadora Group took its name directly from the island, and the accords negotiated here influenced the peace processes that would eventually end decades of warfare in the region.

Contadora is the eleventh largest island in the Pearl Islands archipelago but ranks third in population. Its beaches -- Playa Larga, Playa Galeon, Playa Cacique, and half a dozen more -- feature white sand and water clear enough that snorkelers can spot clownfish, angelfish, parrotfish, stingrays, and nurse sharks among the coral formations. The island has no mountains, just gentle hills that make for steep roads on the northeast side. Rainforest covers most of the interior, sheltering iguanas, geckos, monkeys, and non-indigenous deer. Humpback whales visit the Pearl Islands from June through October. A small airstrip with the IATA code OTD connects the island to Panama City by regular flights, and the main boulevard alongside the runway serves as the island's commercial strip, offering local jewelry, souvenirs, and golf cart rentals for exploring an island small enough to circumnavigate in an afternoon.