In the year 1998, Joaquin Jose Vallarino III, who comes from a family of successful entrepreneurs, arrives to the Caribbean coast of Panama and sets ship in this privileged yet hardly visited lands. Once he landed in this paradise, it did not take him long to dream of a project that he knew with effort, sacrifice and the hard work of a multidisciplinary group of professionals, would make Turtle Cay come true.
Turtle Cay is located in the province of Colon, Santa Isabel Town, Nombre de Dios district; city founded by Diego de Nicuesa in 1510 as a Spaniard colony, being one of the first European settlements in the Isthmus of Panama.
This is the oldest town still habited in Panama and the rest of Continental America. In the beginning it was the most important port in the whole American continent between 1540 and 1580; and a really important port for the Spaniard treasure fleet.
Its importance decreased after June 1572, when Sir Francis Drake ambushed and looted the mule caravan on site, which had a fortune of precious metals that arrived from South America crossing the Isthmus of Panama from the Pacific Ocean.
In 1850, the construction of the Panama railway started, which would join the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and was named the Inter Oceanic Railway. The workers of the railway came mostly from the Antilles, including African slaves that emigrated to Nombre de Dios and the Caribbean coast during its construction. Here they lived from their coconut crops and fishing.
Through the years, and with its cultural flavor, the zone turned into a town full of color and joy, surrounded by an amazing flora and fauna bathed by the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean Sea, giving more than enough reason to keep Mr. Joaquin Vallarino´s dream alive and finally conceive a paradisiacal place of rest and marine sports' lifestyle.
