Portobelo

From staggering mountains bursting with vegetation to coconut and palm trees along sandy beaches, our drive to Portobelo - not to be confused with the mushroom - was one with breathtaking views. We arrived in a culture immersed in traditions and history and saw the first fort built in the Americas still standing several hundred years later... Or what's left of it.

El Castillo de San Jerónimo was built by the Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado in 1597 (don't worry, if you can't pronounce his name, we can't either). This fort along with the town of Portobelo became important parts of the transportation of silver and gold from Peru to Spain. 

Mules would make the trip from Peru to Panama bringing with them gold and silver for the Spanish government. It was then accounted for at the embassy in Portobelo and boarded onto ships headed for Spain through the Caribbean Sea.

With the heavy traffic of silver and gold through San Jerónimo, pirate attacks became common. Pirate ships - maybe even the Black Pearl - would wait in the Caribbean until the Spanish vessels were away from the harbor and plunder their silver and gold. 

One famous island, Bocas del Toro, was known for harboring pirates and was a place of conflict for a number of years. For all of you movie fans, Bocas del Toro was the inspiration for the island of Tortuga in the movie, "The Pirates of the Caribbean." 

More than El Castillo de San Jerónimo, Portobelo also marks the place of the Miracle of the Black Christ. This important symbol to the indigenous population of Panama, commemorates the "colonization of the soul" as it is called by some. 

 

As the story goes, the statue of Jesus in the local church was white in skin color when Spanish settlers arrived in Panama; however, one day the statue had miraculously changed and was black - as it is today. Thus, the natives saw this as a sign of Christ and began to accept Catholicism as their religion. Today, Catholicism remains the most heavily practiced and most prominent religion in Central America.

Essentially we met very interesting people and learned valuable things from our trip to Portobelo:

1. Don't pet the stray dogs - they have flees.

2. The locals are better than you at soccer - better known as fútbol - but they are happy to include you in the game anyway
3. It is truly a small world, you never know when walking down the street you will see someone that you know - or for that matter a Bryant alumni. 
4. Pee before you leave - or don't drink too much water. The result: a car accident that blocks the road causing a 30 minute delay followed by walking up and down the road until being forced to ask a couple to pee in their house because that's better than going in the tropical rain forest... Not that I would know from experience. 

  Contributed by Kaitlyn Koumarianos