Saturday, November 7, 2009

Portobelo, Panama


















From Porvenir we needed to stop over at Isla Linton then completing the trip to Portobelo the next morning. Portobelo is a sleepy little town with a lot of history. This and Colon were the two main ports for trade on the Atlantic side of panama from the 16th to the 18th century. In 1668 Captain Henry Morgan captured and plundered the city. The fort ruins were fascinating to wander around. Panama has a great bus system and is very cheep. We took the bus to the outskirts of Colon to a great grocery store. We were due for a good stocking up so in the end we had to take a cab back to the boats with the cab filled with bags on every ones laps. We took a road trip across to Panama city to see the Miraflores locks. This was a very interesting tour and we also got to see how the new locks are going to look when completed. The bus ride across Panama was $4.00 each. Our cab through the city was more than that. We were able to cross both ways do the tour and be back to the boat by 5:00. Portobelo had the Panama Independence celebrations while we were here. People from all around come the this little town and it was packed. They had a parade of school kids from very young to collage age and the schools would all compete to be the best in dance and music. Water is never a problem for us in this country as it rains all the time. The lightning makes us nervous but we have not seen many ground strikes.






Isla Linton 44NM motor sailed, Portobelo 10NM motored.

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