Panama Day 3

Today we left the hotel around 8:30 in the morning to start our long journey to the opposite side of the country to visit the Colon Free Trade Zone and the old ruins of Portobelo.  It took about an hour and a half to get to Colon, but it was worth it.  A free trade zone is where many stores can buy land and then buy and sell them with no taxes or tariffs or any other type of extra fee.  It was amazing to see how cheap the goods actually were.  One store sold 36 volleyballs for a little over 5 dollars.  It was interesting to learn how the free trade zone and the Panama Canal both use each other to create more business.  Colon was much bigger than expected.  It was close to 2,000 acres and I learned that it is the second largest free trade zone in the world, Hong Kong is the biggest.  We were there for about 3 hours and had a great guide named Julio who is a Bryant Alumni.  We got a rare chance to go inside the port and actually see the barge ships unloading their crates.  It was pretty astonishing at how fast they can use the cranes to lift the huge containers.  Our guide said that they can unload around 55 containers per hour.
After the tour ended, we drove to Portobello. Along the the ride, we stoped for lunch at a bar and resturant  overlooking a beautiful cove.  It was nice to experience a traditional panamanian restaraunt and food.  I had baby shrimp, rice and fried plantains.  It was all delicious.  From the resturaunt we traveled to Portobello. Portobello has rich culture and friendly locals. We visited the church of Cristo Negro, it is one of the few that the world has to offer. About a block or two away from the church were ruins of the old Spanish fortress of Portobelo.  This is where the Spaniards would keep all of the gold that they had mined out of South and Central America.  Consequently, this city is where many pirates came to try and steal all of the gold.  Our tourguide for the trip, Esteban, told me that the city of Portobelo has been destroyed many times throughout history.  As I walked down the old road made of cobblestone towards the fotress I couldn´t help but to try and imagine myself in the 1500´s looking out at the sea and imagining a pirate ship heading towards me.  It was truly a sensation that I had never felt before.  Today was a great day and tomorrow we get to see the Panama Canal and we are all looking forward to that.

Matt Brown and Mike O´Neil