CARIBBEAN SIDE OF PANAMA CANAL—Easter Sunday

CARIBBEAN SIDE OF PANAMA CANAL—Easter Sunday

This was fabulous value for $30 and an Aussie tour guide to boot!! Adam is through the South American leg of a motorbike trip and taking a break in Panama and really knew his stuff including how to drive a van through the traffic here. We drove across the Gatun locks twice to get to the San Lorenzo Fort. The Spanish had it to guard the entrance of the Rio Chagres. Great to see this in such good condition and you could almost see the way it was in those days of the English pirates like Drake and Henry Morgan. Funny how the British were pirates –from the Spanish perspective-and heroes from the British. Saw a big ship transit the Gatun Lock that raise and lower ships nearly 30 metres and then drove into the infamous city of Colon where we saw a couple of shipwrecks, one of which contained several tons of cocaine.

The coast road to the south was along the shore all the way and we got into Portobelo just in time for a great musical parade of a statue of Christ being taken into the church after a swing around the streets. The drums and trumpets were almost hypnotic and everyone swayed to the Caribbean beat. The sound in the church while they played was amazing and it was in here that I saw the famous Black Christ statue. The Spanish ‘counting house’ where all the gold and silver was tallied before shipment to Spain is like new and a couple forts either side of town complete a fabulous place to visit.

But wait there’s more—At the end of the road past Portobelo we came to Isla Grande and we took a water taxi over to it and had a great walk out to the lighthouse that you can climb, and hang on at the top, till you are over the ‘giddies’ Fabulous views over the many islands here and some possibilities for surfing for sure. Saw the sunset over one of the forts back at Portobelo and then the long drive back to Panama City. Great day!!