HISTORICAL TOUR OF PORTOBELLO

Coral Lodge can organize a historical tours of Portobello, which was Spain 's first outpost on the continent, for you either while you are at the lodge or through our reservations office in Panama City. Most of our guests take the Portobello Tour on their way out from the Lodge back to Panama City.

Portobello is a town that is probably more important than New York or Washington when it comes to the history of the Americas. Christopher Columbus stopped in the Bay of Portobello on his fourth journey to the New World in the year 1502. There had been a terrible storm out at sea and he entered the bay of Portobello whilst seekign refuge. When he entered the bay he named it "Portobello" which when translated means "beautilful port".

Columbus was only able to continue on to Nombre de Dios, which is roughly twenty miles to the east of Portobello but he would have immediately seen that Bay of Portobello might be valuable to the Spanish as a trading and shipping center. Portobello did not become important until the Spanish set up a permanent presence in Panama at which point it became the most important city in the Spanish Empire of the 16th century. Portobello became the Spanish administrative center for all of the wealth that was being taken out of the silver and gold mines of Peru and Bolivia.

All of the gold and silver of South America that came up the Pacific Coast of South America was unloaded in Panama City and then taken by mule train across the Panamanian Isthmus to the town of Nombre de Dios. After the Spanish realized that the bay in Nombre de Dios was not as easily defended as the bay in Portobello they started to fortify Portobello and to bring all the gold and silver from South America to Portobello rather than to Nombre de Dios. Part of these fortifications can still be seen at Portobello along with some of the old cannons.

The ruins of Fort Santiago are located on the mainland and on the road as you enter the town of Portobello from Colon and Fort San Fernando is located across the Bay of Portobello on Drake Island. Both of the forts were built to protect the entrance into the Bay of Portobello from pirates and both forts are built in a beautiful green tropical setting. The forts, especially San Fernando, are built on a number of different altitudes.

The parts of the forts that lie at lower altitudes are where the Spanish kept their canons; as you move up in altitudes you encounter small forts known as "casamatas". "Casamatas" are where the Spanish stored their gunpowder and arms and are located on incredibly beautiful remote hillsides and it was quite an effort to climb up the wet grass to get a look inside the small forts, but the view from high up is impressive as you can see far out to sea. As you stand there looking out you realize how effective these hilltop forts were in spotting approaching ships.

You can include a tour of the Panama Canal and its locks after your stop in Portobello.