Considering that we've already visited Portobello twice since we transited the Canal, a photo essay is overdue.
Portobello is located about 20 miles from Colon/Shelter Bay Marina, so depending upon when you exit the Panama Canal, you could go straight to Portobello and start your Caribbean cruise at once. The mostly-jungle-covered bay has a wide-ish, deep-ish approach. The only obstructions are on the periphery, no big deal. You can anchor anywhere in the bay you like the depth, but most boats prefer anchoring either in front of Portobello town or a half mile across the bay along the north shore in the shadow of a very well preserved Spanish fort. Howler monkeys bellow near there.
Portobello town has the usual cruier amenities: bus-to-Colon-access; dinghy dock (aim for the church, look for other dinghies, pay $1); garbage drop (will offend Western middle-class sensibilities); Captain Jack's (VHF72 at 0900 local time for local cruiser net), can arrange jerry cans of diesel & gas, plus propane, laundry, etc.); markets, church, museum, cafes. Nice town.
There are ruins of Spanish forts, cannon batteries and sentry points in at least three locations around Portobello Bay, and you can dinghy up to all of them. The north fort is the best preserved, and we hear that if you get there early enough in the morning you might see a toucan or two. I discovered that many of the gray weathered "stones" the Spanish used to build these forts, were hewn from coral reefs - I'm guessing that a few centuries ago everyone thought there was plenty of it to go around. Here's a close-up of the brain-like ancient coralline goodness down below, on the left:
All the restored fort sites have cannon barrels mounted in each portal of each battery. It's a lot of cannons. The fun thing about each battery is that it overlooks its assigned portion of the bay, and the cannons have been placed to aim directly at one or more cruising yachts. Because we all come in to the bay wanting the nicest spot, which everyone else has been doing for the past 500 years, and the portals were built so the cannons could aim at the nicest spots. O the amusement at trying to discover if the nice spot you found for your own boat is in the line of fire. Zombie 17th-century Spaniards loading the cannons for battle? It's more likely than you think.
I'm not sure where all these cannon barrels came from (The jungle? The bay? Other towns?), but the best one is on display in front of Portobello town's museum. It not only has the Spanish royal seal (see right), but it's decorated with two dolphins, one on top of the barrel and one in the rear at the breech (see left). I prefer to think of them as Dolphins of War. Because I also prefer to think that whoever commissioned this cannon, misread Shakespeare: "Cry havoc! And let slip the Dolphins of War!"
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