Portobelo, Panama | Monday Jul 25, 2011
On this trip I went to not one, but three different UNESCO World Heritage sites. For someone who loves history like me that is a wonderful thing. This is the fortifications at the Caribbean port city of Portobelo. The city was founded in 1597 and become one of the main ports in the Spanish treasure fleets. To protect the treasure house and the city the Spanish built fortifications all along the bay, but that didn't stop the city from being under constant attack from pirates, privateers and even the British. When I was up on the fort looking out at the bay, the blue waters and the tree lined hills rising up it was incredibly easy to imagine what this city looked like all those years ago and to imagine the great sailing ships coming in and out of port. There are no billboards or high rises to intrude on my imagination and the cannons are exactly where the Spanish left them when Panama declared its independence in 1821.
Tags: architecture bay caribbean history panama portobelo unesco water
- Canon
- Canon EOS 50D
- F9
- 1/400 sec
- 17.0 mm
- 100
- 0
- Normal program
- Flash did not fire, auto
- Center weighted average
