Columbus anchored in this bay in 1502 and called it the beautiful port, which was generous of him, because the bay is lovely and the climate is a wet, steamy furnace. Portobelo is now a sleepy village of fewer than fifteen hundred people on Panama's Caribbean coast, with the jungle pressing down from the hills and a string of grey stone forts along the shore. It is hard to believe that for a couple of centuries this was one of the richest places on earth.
Spain made it the Atlantic end of its treasure route. Silver and gold from Peru were carried by ship to Panama City, hauled across the isthmus by mule along the Camino Real and the river-and-paved Camino de Cruces, and loaded here onto the fleet bound for Seville. When the galleons arrived, merchants from all over the Americas converged for a trade fair, and the sleepy village swelled into a roaring, disease-ridden market. Pirates were drawn to it like flies. Francis Drake died of dysentery on his ship just off the coast in 1596, and English sailors under Edward Vernon sacked the town in 1739. The surviving forts, with their cannon still facing the sea, and the old customs house, are part of a UNESCO listing shared with San Lorenzo.
Portobelo is also the home of the Black Christ, a dark wooden statue in the church that draws pilgrims in purple robes every October, some of them walking for days. Beyond the history, the coast is green and wild, with dive sites on the reefs and the sort of rain that falls in sheets.
For a rider the road from Colón is a pleasant surprise: smooth and gently winding, running through forest and past fishing hamlets, with the sea appearing between the trees. Traffic is modest outside holidays, but heavy rain can strike without warning and slicken the tarmac, and there are potholes, stray dogs and slow trucks. Mornings are the best time, before the heat builds and the afternoon showers arrive.
Fuel is the thing to plan. The village is small, and the better stations lie back towards Puerto Pilón, about twenty-six kilometres away, and Colón. Fill up there, and bring water, repellent and a rain jacket. The dry season, roughly January to April, is kindest.
Eat fresh fish in the village and walk the fort at Santiago de la Gloria while the light is low. It is a very quiet end for such a noisy past.