Costa Rica Tour and Panama Cruise with CruiseWest
The Spanish City of Portobelo * Text and Photos by Jack Yeazel
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GENERAL:
Panama is the region with the most historic events involving pirates and the shipment of gold to Spain.  The famous Nuestra Senora de Atocha gold-laden ship, found by Mel Fisher, departed from Portobelo.  Due to its strategic geographical position, this country soon evolved into one of Spain's most important trade routes during the time of the conquest.  Two fortresses where built on the Atlantic coast by the Spanish Crown to protect transatlantic trade from the constant threat of pirates.  They are magnificent examples of 17th and 18th century military architecture.

Portobelo,  (or Porto Bello as the Americans spelled it) is a town in central Panama on the Caribbean Sea. The site, an excellent harbor, was discovered by Columbus in 1502. The town itself was founded in 1597. A thriving colonial city, it was connected by a stone highway with Panama City; both ports were the  points of transshipment for riches from the Spanish Pacific domains.  Believed impregnable, Portobelo was, nevertheless, sacked by English buccaneers (William Parker in 1601, Sir Henry Morgan in 1688, and Edward Vernon in 1739).  The destruction is clearly visible on the sea side of the old Customs House.   History is alive here and you can almost feel the presence of the conquistadores' ghosts.

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 Map of Portobelo and a zodiac tour of a mangrove river.  (Black track, is leaving for the San Blas Islands)
 

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Now on to see the Kuna People.