Portobelo Panama

The Panama railroad was completed in 1855, and served as the first transcontinental railroad until the US transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. It was at one time the most expensive stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and cost more per mile to build than any other railroad in the world. Passengers would take boats down to the east side of the canal and then catch a quick 2 hour train ride to the other side where boats would wisk them away to the pacific. This was the case until the US trancontinental railroad was completed, taking all the passengers and bankrupting the company. Although in disrepair for many years, when the panamanians took control of the canal in 1999 and started charging outrageous prices, a US company invested in and rebuilt the railroad to it former glory.

I left Panama early in the morning at 7:15am bound for Colon, in a refurbished passenger train on the old Panama railway. Colon served as the northern port for both the Canal and the train and would be my next stop after leaving Panama.

Colon would only be a short stop however as you will see why. Colon was the boom town during the construction of the Panama Canal, but when the canal was finished there was no longer any work or money for the tens of thousands of imported workers. With a larg population and no industry or outlet of employment, the town sank into a deep deep depression of poverty and violence. Colon would remain this way for the next 100 years, a seth pool of crime and poor people. I was skeptical of this view until I spent 30 minutes in the train station after a short taxi while waiting for a bus. Believe me 30 minutes was enough as I stood there like an island of vulternability amidst a dirty sea of potential theives, and I knew that a majority of what was written about Colon is true. For these reasons I decided that Colon would not be my final stop after debarking the train, and instead I hopped a school bus (not kidding) up the road to the old colonial town of Portobelo.

Portobelo was actually the first spanish fort in Panama and constructed on the Carribean side. It, like Panama Viejo mentioned earlier, was designed to facilite the massive gold robbery from the Incas in peru. Massive quatities of gold would make their way by boat from Lima, up the coast to Panama city and then be transported by land and canoe to Portobelo, where they would lie and wait for ships to come and take them back to Spain. Portobelo, like Panama Viejo, served as a glorious target for english pirates lurking around the Carribean, and as such it was sacked on numerious occasions.

A large portion of these ruins still stand today and so I ventured east along the coast to Portobelo from Colon. (By the way, the Panama Canal and Railroad run from south to north in case you didnt know) This was my first taste of the Carribean and the first real taste of the sea since leaving Lima a month ago. And Maaaan was it nice to breath in the salty air, smell the laidback vibes floating along the gentle breezes, as they wound their way through the mangroves that hugged the shore. Our multicolored school bus made its way down the road along the beach, picking up and dropping off random things like refrigerators, until we arrived a short 2 hours later. Portobelo is a small but unique town that makes you feel like you have lived here for years. While it was once a massive 10,000 person city, it now consists of 5 or 6 roads squished between the hills and carribean bay below. The population is significantly darker, and talk with an island twang that lilts like the brightly painted houses dotting dirt streets. Although it is a small town in Panama, and has all the things that implies such as poverty and lack of development, it retains a unique and persevering tone. I had a set lunch of pulpo, which I later found out was octopus as I exmanined the tiny round suckered flesh sitting ontop of my rice.

You cant help but avoid the massive colonial building sitting right in the middle of town where a square, church, or courthouse should be. The former purpose of this two story, 100m long 50m wide, tile roofed mansion, highlights the real significance to the spanish empire of Portobelo. The building is where all of the "king's" stolen gold was counted before it was returned to spain to prevent any theft during the long journey.

Across from the "kings gold counting building" and stretching out into the bay is one of three forts guarding the town from pirates invading through the narrow inlet that forms the back of Portobelo bay. Here in this bastion of stone sit 25 10-inch cannons, in the exact same position that the spanish left them when they pulled out of Portobelo in the 1700's. I peered down them, and agree that they would have had an excellent shot on any incoming vessel from the bay. The problem is that when Portobelo has been sacked (like 4 times) it has always been from the land where they sit undefended, by pirates who beached a few miles outside the bay. You'd think they would learn...