Portobelo?

Has anyone been? Impressions? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance :)

Good Day!

I have been to Portobello a few time while in Panama with the military. To get there from the lake, one passes through the rural areas of the country. The countryside is beautiful. Portobello is a very small village but has a strong history. The remains of the counting house and the fort used by the Spanish are there; however, they are mostly remnants. While standing on the upper level of the fort, one can turn one way and overlook the bay and turn around and see the rain forest at the edge of the town. In the town square, which looks like a set from a Clint Eastwood western, is an old church with a large statue of a black Christ. I thoroughly enjoy the town and plan to take my wife there when we cruise next month. The tour to Portobello allows one to see the country's real natural beauty.

Hope this helped!

Captain Ronn

Thank you for letting me know of your experience. It really helps to hear others impressions of a new place.

I went to Portabello to Kayak with a private tour guide. The town is pretty much like the previous poster said. We were able to Kayak across the bay to 1 of the 3 forts this 1 is you can only get to by water. Great view we hiked up to the top and overlooked the town and bay. The town church has the statute of the Black Christ which has being taken to another location but the ship wrecked and it washed up in Portabello where it was loaded again on another ship but fell overboard during a storm and washed up in Portabello again. The guide said it happened 3 times washing back up there. So they decided it was ment to be there and many people make pilgrimage there to pray. Nice little town has a museum there also. It was the place the spanish took all there gold to be shipped back to spain from. Lots of history

Does anyone have any experience going there without being on a tour? I would love to go there and just spend the day wandering around and maybe hanging on a beach.

There is no beach located within the town. The town is at the end of a bay. But there might be beaches close by. Also the town is not very big you could do or see almost everything in a few hours unless you took a tour over to the other side of the bay by boat to see 1 of the Forts. There are people there who will provide that service.

Thanks AllenF,

Would it be reasonably safe / cheap to take a cab there from Colon?

It was a little over a 1 hr drive. I dont know about just grabbing a cab or how safe it would be. The cabbies are very pushy but there are plenty of them. Most of them were right inside the port area. They had ID's so if you wanted to do that I am sure you could. You could contact the people I used and see if they could arrange a tour to suit your needs or try and arrange it once you arrive with a cabbie.The Kayak tour we did was 75$ per person plus we walked around the town. There were only 6 of us 8 was the max they would take.

http://panamagoldcoasttravels.homestead.com/GOLDCOAST.html

I-m-ed

I recommend you stop in Grupo Marin restaurant, they are located 3 min. before Portobelo town and they have a pretty beach beside the restaurant.

Hire a rasonable and safety cab cost around $50-$75 from Colon downtown to Portobelo, some driver speak fluid english.

Good luck,

wapanda10

other option is share the cost, you can joining a small group in http://myfriendmario.com/forum/index.php?c=2 .

Good luck

Hi all,

We are just off the legend 1/30/2005 sailing. The itinerary was reversed for our sailing and Colon was our first port of call last Wednesday.

My wife and three of her brothers (our ages ranged from 37 to 52) decided to hire a cab for the day and see the sights. We had an excellent experience and were very glad we decided to do our own trip at our own pace.

We hired a driver with a Chrysler mini-van in good condition that looked only a year or two old. He spoke excellent English and his air-conditioning was cold. He took us to Gatun locks where we stayed about an hour until we were ready to leave. From Gatun we drove to Portobello which took about 45 minutes. We stayed there for about 1.5 hours before heading back to Colon. We then spent an hour touring the City.

For this tour the driver asked $30.00 per person. We could have probably negotiated a lower price but this seemed fair to us. We paid him $150.00 plus a tip of $10.00.

The drive to Portobello is beautiful once you are out of Colon and its suburbs. The road hugs the coastline most of the way. We passed several beaches along the way. I am sure a beach trip is doable but I would pay the driver to stay with you as getting a cab back would be quite difficult to arrange.

Our driver’s name was Enrique Wilson. He is in his late 30’s though looked younger. We found him to be very professional and personable and do highly recommend him. In chatting he told us he lived in the USA for a while which explains his excellent English. He also told us he owns two other cabs which he pays others to drive. This was no surprise either as his professionalism was readily apparent. He seems to be doing quite well with his business.

I asked if he had an e-mail address. He doesn’t but he gave me his business card with land and cell numbers. Here are the details from his card:

Team Wilson Car Service

Enrique or Yelena Wilson

Tel: 500-9316

Cel: 612-6924

Colon, Rep. Of Panama

You can call him from home of course but if you know you are going to book your own tour from the pier I would just call him on his cell phone when you arrive. Pay-phones are at the pier.

If you have any questions I would be happy to try to answer them if I can.

yst