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Thurston
Get Blog Posts As EmailsFor those of you might be wondering, it’s pronounced EEZ-lah Pah-LEN-kay. One of our minor marketing challenges is that our name is foreign and unfamiliar sounding to Americans (who will make up our primary customer base). In our early planning, we thought a lot about changing it to something more comfortable, mainstream and, well, American. Here’s why we didn’t:
Authenticity: Part of the inspiration for this project came from the personal frustration we experienced when traveling to Thailand a couple of years ago. My husband (Amble President Ben Loomis) and I found it difficult to find comfortable lodgings that weren’t Westernized (homogenized of any cultural authenticity until they have all the local color of a Holiday Inn). Oh, there was plenty of authenticity to be found in hostels and guest houses, but as we approach middle-age we are no longer game for the backpacker experience. (Personally, I need a bit of A/C and a good mattress or it’s not a vacation.) We decided the world needs comfortable, dare I say it, even luxurious travel experiences that retain the feel of the place and the people we’re visiting. So, if we want to retain an authentic sense of place…shouldn’t we retain the authentic name of the place? The answer was yes. To do otherwise felt like adopting a ten year old boy from a foreign country and telling him his name is now Steve.
Story: This name in particular has mysterious traces of story attached to it. The most literal definition of the word Palenque is palisade, see Webster’s HERE. In Central America’s Colonial period, native people sometimes escaped indentured slavery in the Spanish mines and formed small island sanctuaries. They defended themselves from the colonial forces by surrounding the coast of the islands with palisades: a fence of sharpened stakes. These islands became known as Palenques. No one knows when or how Isla Palenque got its name, but we like to think that it was one such sanctuary.
History: Isla Palenque may have even played a small part in American history. It is a fact that Panama’s Chiriqui province was Abraham Lincoln’s choice as the place to relocate freed slaves (before he realized that relocation was not an option). Since Palenque means slave sanctuary, and Isla Palenque is the only place in Chiriqui Province with that name…dare we suggest that our island was the exact site of this proposed relocation? It’s possible.
After doing the research and learning all this, the name began to take on a sense of romance and history to us. We’d like to pass this feeling on to you. Perhaps everyone won’t remember the name Isla Palenque, and certainly everyone won’t take the time to learn how to pronounce it, but for the traveler looking to be a part of something more than just a beautiful beach, something greater, something unique, it’ll be worth learning to pronounce it.
Let’s practice. All together now, EEZ-lah Pah-LEN-kay!
I just happened to stumble on to your website by way of Craigslist. Your resort is a very interesting concept.It is apparent by browsing through your website that a lot of thought has been put into reducing the impact of development. While there certainly is an argument to having zero impact by not developing virgin land at all. There is a very compelling argument in that if you are successful, you could very well change the way resorts are developed and remodeled.I hope that you are able to stay true to your vision. Good luck!
P.S. It would be great if you could take this one step further and follow “The Nature Conservancy”. They purchase eco-sensitive land and sell off small portions to developers that agree to sustainable standards of construction. This clever business idea allows them to preserve large swarths of land. The profits from selling small portions of their land are used to buy and preserve more land in the same manner. I think your business model is well suited to such an idea.
Thank you, Barton. We plan to raise the bar and be an excellent example for resorts everywhere. Thanks for your faith in us, and we’ll work hard to be true!
The right kind of development can actually sustain the land, not deplete it. Our environmental experts told us that our land will actually get healthier now than it was previously. Small farmers cutting old growth trees, eating endangered animals, and raising pigs and cows that erode the soil can do more damage than you’d think! That’s why working to educate and train local workers is an essential part of a sustainability effort like ours. See Dave’s blog posts on the subject
here: http://islapalenque.com/blog/2009/10/sustainable-forestry-solutions/
and here: http://islapalenque.com/blog/2009/09/deforestation/
The Nature Conservancy does a lot of great work in Panama and we hope to connect with them in the future to see how we can collaborate to protect and sustain our beautiful little part of the world.
Thank you again for your comments. Keep letting us know what you think!
Frances
I just wanted to thank you very much for this illuminating article. I have already bookmarked your site, when I have more free time I am going to have to do some further reading. Well back to my dreaming of Panama or back to the books – I wonder which one is going to win out.
A well researched site, I’ll link to it from my site thanks
Hey! I was wondering if you offer a feed to your posts.
I hope that’s a good thing, Lee!
Yes, we do offer a feed to our blog. Click on the link on the top left of the page that says: Subscribe To Our RSS Feed.
Thanks for your comments.
Wow, Isla Palenque looks like an exciting project. I am looking forward to hearing more about the project and your company tomorrow by phone. I am interviewing for the Director of Finance Position.
Best Regards
Scott Sandler