May 28, 2010
Dracula made plans to take us on a taxi sightseeing tour of Panama. Our first stop was the Colon Free trade zone (C.F.Z.) The C.F.Z. is a gigantic entity at the Atlantic gateway to the Panama Canal. It is dedicated to re-export an enormous variety of merchandise to Latin America and the Caribbean.
The C.F.Z. has over 2,500 companies operating within its boundaries. Is the world's biggest free zone after Hong Kong. The Free Zone handles more than $16 billion in imports and re-exports each year. My contribution to the commerce there was the purchase of a waterproof camera.

Following this we took a tour of the city of Colon. Panama has two classes of people, those with money and those without. Their city code for electrical seems a bit loose.

After our city tour we all agreed we wanted to see more of Rural Panama so we headed up the coast to Portobello.

We enjoyed the rural aspects of Panama better than the City life and even enjoyed a lunch at a roadside restaurant on the side of the road.
Portobello was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado. For two centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets.
The city was a victim of one of Captain Henry Morgan's notorious adventures. In 1668, Morgan led a fleet of privateers and 450 men against Portobelo, which, in spite of its good fortifications, he captured and plundered for 14 days, stripping it of nearly all its wealth.
Today, Portobelo is a sleepy little town with a population of fewer than 3,000. It has a deep natural harbor. In 1980 the ruins of the fortification, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo, were declared a World Heritage Site.
After our tour we hit the grocery store. Purchased $500.00 of groceries and filled the two taxis with our ships stores. By the time we arrived back at the marina everybody was pretty much toast. Dracula informed us our passage through the canal as delayed by a few hours and we would not have to leave until 2:00 tomorrow. So we decided tomorrow would be a pool day.