2019/04 Panama trip - San Lorenzo castle |
|||||
Igua told us about his career and family. He used to be an independent guide, but had signed on with the Canopy group as they pay him even in the green season when tourists are less plentiful. His family were back on the island, so he only sees them for a few days at a time. His three kids go to school on a boat rather than a school bus.
He drove us to another area on the Caribbean coast. We came to a strange abandoned town, another part of the Canal Zone. In places like 
Gamboa we had seen how some of the American buildings had been recycled or repurposed but here this military housing
had been abandoned back in 2000 when the Canal Zone reverted to Panama. Igua seemed embarrassed by the derelict houses, but if there were no jobs in the area we couldn’t see how anyone could afford to live there.
We came to the castle at San Lorenzo at lunch time. It was extremely hot and we could feel the reasons for taking a siesta. But we were tourists and had to be out and touristing!
The castle overlooks and guards the mouth of the Chagres River. Long before the canal, this was the most important waterway in the 
Americas. Ships could carry soldiers up the Chagres to where they could march to the Pacific coast where another ship would take them south to pillage Ecuador and Peru; Inca gold would come back though Panama on its way to Spain.
 |
San Lorenzo fort (1.24) |
 |
|---|
The castle’s at the top of sheer cliffs, and was successfully defended against Francis Drake’s ships, but it was attacked 
from the land side and destroyed by pirate Henry Morgan, and subsequently rebuilt by the Spaniards. The Dutch and the French had a go at it too. Today there are large bronze cannons, a few walls and some extensive cellars. 
There we found our first and only mammals of the trip, a dozen chestnut sac-winged bats. Overhanging the cliffs was this balsa tree, raw material for model airplanes.
We had a picnic lunch there under the trees, with enough food for a party of 8, much more than we could eat. The trees were festooned with hanging oropendula nests, and underneath were plovers and iguanas. We saw one oropendula (with 
the yellow tail). Above, vultures were circling.
On our way out we were almost hit by a large bird. Igua was excited as it was a rare bird for the area, a crested guan. To his surprise we knew the species from our stay in the Corcovado last year. We’d surprised one back then and it had fallen from the top of a shrub into its branches, a really clumsy bird.
We were given the option of taking the train back from Colon, but the train would take us to Panama City and they’d have to send a driver to collect us from there. As we already had a night walk scheduled for after dinner it was hard to see how we’d have enough time, so we opted to return with Igua. On our way we saw cars being driven slowly and erratically. Igua thought the drivers were looking for blue crabs at the side of the road and sure enough he spotted one and caught it for us. Most end up in the pot, but this one was lucky.
The locks were now in use, so we had to return on the ferry, which operates alongside the new bridge. The canal itself was
busy with freighters and the ferry has to give way to them. It felt like we were waiting at a stop sign looking for a gap in main road traffic.
We stopped on our way back up the hill to the Tower; the howlers were on the move high above us in the canopy.