Recognized as a privileged location from the beginning of human settlement, Isla Palenque was the home of an ancient, pre-Columbian community during the years 500-1400AD, and may have been occupied as long ago as 5,000BC. Its beauty and mystery made it a sacred site for the most holy of ceremonies, and tribes from all over the region came here to worship. While here, important tribal chiefs visited, negotiated and traded with each other, making this the region's prime center of culture and commerce. By Colonial times this ancient community had disappeared, leaving only enough clues about their lives to awaken curiosity and provide a sense of the island's ancient history.

A Palenque originally referred to a sanctuary for escaped slaves. During Panama's Spanish Colonial period, indigenous Indians were indentured to work in the Spanish mines. Those who escaped sought refuge in places they fortified with palisades, or palenques. Isla Palenque has been called by that name for as long as maps can ascertain, and so may have harbored escapees during the Colonial period. Perhaps Isla Palenque's standing as a slave sanctuary was what made Chiriqui province Abraham Lincoln's choice for a colony of freed American slaves. Although those plans were never realized, the island's reputation as a secluded refuge has remained.

Over the last several hundred years, Isla Palenque let the modern world pass it by and has remained a secluded preserve for rare primary forest and hundreds of species of plants, flowers, animals and birds. A pristine oasis of natural beauty, Isla Palenque is now a sanctuary for those who welcome escape from the cares of modern existence.