Historic Panama

Shelter Bay Marina, on the Caribbean side, is on the site of the old US Army base Fort Sherman, once the home of the US Jungle Training School. A huge base (now national park), the place is a study in contrasts with some of the larger buildings being used by the Panamanian Aeronaval forces for training but most of the former housing is just rotting away. The marina occupies a small area, has a nice hotel, restaurant and pool yet nearby there are a bunch of ships just offshore that have been run aground and left to rust. Lots of monkeys and dense jungle with trees that occasionally fall across the only road in/out. When John and his folks were here in the early 90’s they had a small zoo to teach soldiers about all of the fun critters of the jungle, one of which was a massive anaconda snake, well over 20′ long! We took a walk with friends and their dog, found the old artillery batteries from WWI as well as the likely site of the old zoo and discovered that the Capuchin monkeys really don’t like dogs…

We rented a car again as the marina is near absolutely nothing and drove to Portobello, the real one – not the Pirates of the Caribbean place but just as cool. Portobello was established by the Spanish in the 1500’s to stockpile the looted treasure from South America. Because pirates were so successful in their raids on shipping, it was thought safer to accumulate it, wait for hurricane season to end, and then send convoys of up to a hundred galleons and warships back to Spain all at once. As Sir Francis Drake (1596) and Henry Morgan (1668) proved, the huge stockpiles of treasure were enough that pirates occasionally got together and stormed Portobello. As a result, the Spanish built FIVE fortresses to protect Portobello. It still wasn’t enough as Edward (Old Grog) Vernon took it yet again in 1739 and then again in 1741. These forts have been destroyed and rebuilt/reinforced many times.

The fort above was one of four guarding the entrance to the bay. Below is the big fort in town.

The city itself is not much today but the old church is the home of the “Black Christ” statue. It was commissioned in 1640 by the town of Taboga and arrived in Panama in 1658. The ship that brought it was unable to leave Portobello bay five times due to storms so the crew decided it was cursed and threw it overboard. It was later found by slaves and brought to town during a cholera epidemic. As the epidemic immediately ended, the Black Christ is considered very sacred with a pilgrimage every October that borders on absurdity. The Catholic Church has tried to stop the goings on and does not sanction it but apparently the faithful continue to venerate it.

A few days later we went to Fort San Lorenzo, built by the Spanish to guard the entrance to the Chagres River, the main way across the northern half of the isthmus. (It is still the way across as the canal uses the now dammed river to create Lake Gatun.) This fort has been partially restored to show how it looked in its heyday.

Finally, we toured the original Panama City, back on the Pacific side. It thrived for about 150 years until Henry Morgan looted the place and burned it down in 1671. The Spanish then rebuilt the city in a more defensible place, now known as Casco Viejo (see July 30 post).

It was fun having both of our parents and James along for the crossing and sightseeing adventures.