PANAMA, Portobelo

Portobelo is a small town with a population of either "less than 3,000" or 7,964, depending on which authority you use. It appears to be a sleepy little town with no downtown, really no commercial district at all except for the dusty parking lot we used which is adjacent to a church and an open building that housed street vendors. (There is apparently a town center of commercial businesses somewhere. I have recently read a little about it but we didn't see it.)

The place was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 and by the late 1500's it was the center of Spain's Caribbean operations. Between about 1570 and 1700, over a billion pesos worth of silver, gold, and other stuff was shipped from San Felipe de Portobelo to Spain, mainly Seville. For much of that time, Spain hauled trade goods to Portobelo and large gatherings were held at Portobelo (called Fairs) where gold and silver from as far away as Lima, Peru were traded for whatever was available from Spain. "Treasures" from the Orient were landed at Panama City and carried to Portobelo for further shipment to Spain.

Sir Francis Drake died at Portobelo in 1596 and is said to be buried in a lead coffin just a short distance off shore near Drake Island. The pirate Henry Morgan and his men trudged clear across Panama to sack Portobelo, and other bad guys were able to overcome the fortifications so that the ruins we see today are the result of several rebuildings, the last in about 1750. As you will see in the extra photos, there is restoration work besides clearing out the mud going on even now.

But even before we got to the parking lot, we passed the first Spanish fort to be seen from the road. It, at first, looked like a real ruin. At second glance, you could easily tell that it had been inundated by mud and stuff from upslope.
Once we realized that there had been a recent severe storm and mud slide, it was clear that we had also seen storm damage as we entered the town. The extra photos on Facebook show how, what must have been fast moving water had scoured around buildings and taken away much of the soil and whatever vegetation might have been adjacent to the buildings.

There were several people working to clear the debris from the fort, and from another view, you could tell that it was a pretty impressive example of what must have been a substantial fortress.

Within another quarter of a mile or so, we parked and walked a short block to what is left of San Jeronimo Fort and Battery. Just a few feet away from the entrance to the fort there were these real dugout canoe type boats, looking to be in good repair and just waiting for their owners to arrive to go fishing.

The next photograph looks back towards the entrance to the fort from well within the grounds. the large stone building is the customs house, built in 1630 and rebuilt at least two times, once from damage from an earthquake. It is now being restored again. I presume that the canons have been moved into place at their firing stations but it looks like they might have been there for 3 or 400 years and that their wood carriages finally disintegrated and they settled where they are seen. There are 18 canons in a row along this wall and there are six more behind me in the radiused out place you can see in the next photo.

This photo is looking back on the 18 canons and toward the six more. I haven't been able to find anything that gives an idea of what the structure over the canons might have looked like, or if there was a structure. If you look at the upper right corner, you can see the opposite side of the fort, just beyond the blue tarp where four restorers were either working or resting, I couldn't tell which. That wall has rifle ports every few feet looking behind the bay. There is a photo or two of that wall section also with the extras.

The next photograph shows the deck behind the radiused portion of the fort where the six canon positions are located. The round masonry structure in the middle is, I think, the remains of a water well. Behind the camera there is an opening in the deck that must have had at least one staircase that lead down to handsomely made vaults that housed the magazine or something else that needed extra protection. They are now used as the latrine by locals and visitors alike. (Photos in the extras)

Portobelo is considered a world historical site by UNESCO. there are other forts along the bay and there are also fortifications above the town. Today, the area is known for its scuba diving interest. The water is apparently not as clear as other Caribbean waters but there are at least 16 major dive sites nearby, including ships and at least one airplane.

JCE