Page 115 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

Portobelo The Panama Canal and CenTral isThmus 113
Fuerte San Fernando
aCCOmmOdaTiOn eaTinG POrTOBelO
Casa Blanca Portobelo 4 1 3 2 Las Anclas 6 5 4 1 2 3 N
& (both 1.3km), (1.9km), (2km), Sabanitas (37km) & Colón (49km) metres Fuerte Jetty Bahía de Por tobelo immigration Fuerte museo del (5.6km), Isla Grande (15km) & 2
El Castillo
Casa Congo
Don Quijote
El Castillo
El Palenque
La Morada de la Bruja Portobelo
Panadería Nazareño
0
200
Restaurante Arith
San Jerónimo
Jetty
Casa real
Cristo negro
de la aduana
de Portobelo
BARRIO DE
iglesia de San Felipe
TRIANA
PLAZA
Buses to Colón
CENTRAL
Santiago
Fortaleza Santiago
Nombre de Dios
de la Gloria
and Cuango
mirador ruins of Buses to La Guaira, Nombre de Dios (15km)
el Perú
the afternoon to enjoy a nearby beach, a spot of snorkelling or diving, a kayaking
session or a boat trip around the bay (see box, p.116).
Portobelo gets busy during two famous festivals (see box, p.115): the Festival del
Nazareño in October and the hugely enjoyable Afro-Colonial Festival de los Diablos y
Congos, held biannually in March. Smaller annual celebrations take place along the
coast in the weeks leading up to Carnaval.
Note there is no bank or ATM in Portobelo or in any of the villages further along the
coast, nor any reliable place to get petrol. The last ATM and petrol station are by the
supermarket in Sabanitas (see p.115).
Brief history
It is said that Christopher Columbus, believing himself to be on the verge of death after
days on a storm-tossed sea, spotted a beautiful sheltered bay surrounded by forested
hills and gratefully exclaimed, “Che porto bello”. While the name stuck, the strategic
importance of the natural harbour was not truly appreciated until 1585, when it
became clear that Nombre de Dios – then the principal Spanish port on the Panama’s
Caribbean coast – was too exposed and should be relocated to Portobelo. As if to
reinforce the point, Sir Francis Drake destroyed Nombre de Dios in 1595 before dying
of dysentery – his coffin supposedly lies at the bottom of the ocean at the entrance to
the bay, near an islet which bears his name.
In 1597 San Felipe de Portobelo was officially founded, prompting further
fortification and providing a new target for spoil-hungry pirates and privateers,
including notorious buccaneer Henry Morgan, who pounced at night in 1668, and
squeezed one hundred thousand pesos from the Spanish authorities in exchange for not
levelling the place. British naval commander Sir Edward Vernon, attacking seventy years
later, made no such concession and destroyed the two fortresses. Though new forts
were built in the mid-eighteenth century – those still visible today – they were smaller,
since Portobelo’s commercial importance was already waning as the Spanish had
rerouted their ships round Cape Horn. When the Spanish garrison finally abandoned
the town in 1821, its 150 years of strategic significance came to an end.
Fuerte Santiago and around
Main road • Open access • Free
Fuerte Santiago is the first fort you encounter from the west before entering the town
proper, built in the mid-eighteenth century following the destruction of the original

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