Panama: Fort San Lorenzo

This UNESCO World Heritage site of Fort San Lorenzo is dramatically sitting on a an isthmus overlooking the mouth of the Chagres River and the Caribbean Sea. Built in the later 16th century, it served as the primary defensive bastion for the Spanish Empire’s treasure route used to transport Incan gold and silver from the Pacific to the Atlantic for shipment to Spain. Because of its strategic importance, it was a constant target for pirates and the British – it was captured by Francis Drake 1596 and later nearly destroyed by the privateer Henry Morgan in 1671. Then location is quite amazing – very is isolated and surrounded by true jungle. The fort has been quite meticulously restored in recent years, dramatically so when compared to what I saw when I first visited it back in 2010.