The walls
Vaulted rooms.
Garcia.dennis — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Nicolas Loo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Editorpana — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Veronica507 — CC BY-SA 4.0
A Spanish fort on a high rocky cliff above the mouth of the Chagres River on the Caribbean, built in the late sixteenth century to guard the river, then the route by which treasure travelled by boat towards the Pacific. Henry Morgan destroyed it in 1671 on his way to attack the first Panama City, and it was rebuilt in the eighteenth century. Visitors walk the grassy courtyards between stone walls, moats, vaulted rooms and powder stores, with iron cannons still aimed at the sea. From the cliff edge comes a superb view of the wide river mouth meeting the sea and the dense rainforest around the fort. The fort lies inside the San Lorenzo protected area in forest that was once a US military base, and the road there passes through forest rich in birds and monkeys, crossing the canal on the modern Atlantic Bridge near the Agua Clara Locks. It has been on UNESCO's World Heritage list with the Portobelo forts since 1980. Colón city itself has street crime, so do not wander there; go straight to the sites by car or tour.
Vaulted rooms.
Cliff views.
On the way.
Mouth of the Chagres River, west of Colón, about an hour and a half from Portobelo
By car or tour over the Atlantic Bridge near the Agua Clara Locks, then a forest road of about 45 minutes.