Qualla: Portobelo https://qualla.com/portobelo en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Portobelo https://qualla.com/portobelo Portobelo: Introduction https://qualla.com/portobelo/ Photo credit Lombana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere in the waters of Portobelo Bay, inside a lead coffin, lies Sir Francis Drake. He died of dysentery aboard his ship in January 1596, and his crew buried him at sea near the entrance to this harbor. They are still looking for him. Divers have searched for decades without success, and the coffin remains one of the Caribbean's great unfound relics. The bay that keeps Drake's secret was, for two centuries, one of the most important harbors in the Western Hemisphere -- a terminus for Peruvian silver, a target for pirates and admirals, and a city whose wealth was legendary even by the standards of the Spanish Empire. Today, Portobelo holds around 4,500 people and a quiet that belies everything that happened here.

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Image: Lombana | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/d1xq-portobelo-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Portobelo: Silver Road's End https://qualla.com/portobelo/ Photo credit Lombana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado founded Portobelo in 1597, one year after Drake's burial nearby. The location was chosen to replace Nombre de Dios, an earlier Caribbean terminal that had proven vulnerable to both raiders and weather. Portobelo offered a deep natural ...

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Image: Lombana | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/d1xq-portobelo-silver-roads-end.mp3 0:06 2 full Portobelo: Plunder, Bombardment, and the War of Jenkins' Ear https://qualla.com/portobelo/ Photo credit Lombana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Portobelo's wealth made it irresistible to raiders. In 1668, Captain Henry Morgan led 470 privateers against the town, capturing its fortifications through a combination of tactical cunning and brutal force -- including the use of captured civilians as human shields. Morgan plund...

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Image: Lombana | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/d1xq-portobelo-plunder-bombardment-and-the-war-of-jenkins-ear.mp3 0:06 3 full Portobelo: Forts, Faith, and Festival https://qualla.com/portobelo/ Photo credit Lombana, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1980, Portobelo's fortification ruins, along with nearby Fort San Lorenzo on the Chagres River, were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The forts range from medieval Spanish designs by Antonelli to 18th-century neoclassical batteries, their spiked cannons still angled towa...

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Image: Lombana | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/d1xq-portobelo-forts-faith-and-festival.mp3 0:06 4 full Portobelo: A Harbor That Outlasted Its Empire https://qualla.com/portobelo/ Photo credit Lombana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Modern Portobelo is compact enough to walk in an hour. One road runs parallel to the water and forks at the village square. The western fort ruins sit at one end of town, a watchtower staircase offers panoramic views of the bay, and the church and customs house museum anchor the ...

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Image: Lombana | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/1/x/q/portobelo-wk/d1xq-portobelo-a-harbor-that-outlasted-its-empire.mp3 0:06 5 full