Tiki Temple

A mere 50 kilometres from Panama City lies the Pearl Islands, a collection of over 200 islands and islets, most of which are surprisingly rustic and tourist-free considering their proximity to Central America’s most prosperous capital city. The centerpiece of the archipelago is Contadora Island, with its white sand beaches and perfect aqua water. On the largest beach of the island lies the huge, abandoned Hotel Contadora Resort. The beautiful resort was built in the 1960s and quickly became a playground for the rich and famous, attracting the likes of Sofia Loren, the Kennedy family and Elizabeth Taylor.

Despite the high society pull of its heyday, by the early 2000s the once sophisticated Hotel Contadora Resort was suffering from a notable decrease in quality and amenities. By then the resort was owned by associates of a Colombian drug lord and was mainly being treated as a drug cover. In 2009, after one of the owners died in a suspicious plane crash, leaving the property in considerable debt, the Hotel Contadora Resort closed its doors.

This was the resort's lobby. Inspired by a tiki aesthetic and combined with vine overgrowth, it feels more like something out of Indiana Jones than a hotel.