Panama
Colón
Colón: Atlantic Gateway to the Panama Canal and Portobelo
- Port traffic
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What Cruise Travelers Should Know
Ships call at Colón, Panama's second city, on the Manzanillo peninsula at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal. Colón is a city to see with a driver rather than on foot, so plan your day around a tour or a car booked in advance to the canal locks or the Spanish forts.
- Panama uses the US dollar, which Panamanians often call the balboa.
- You must carry ID, such as your passport; police will usually accept a printed copy.
- If you need cash, use an ATM inside a bank or shopping center, as people have been robbed after using street machines.
Colón on Your Own
An independent day from Colón means a car rather than a walk: the canal, Fort San Lorenzo and Portobelo are all outside the city. Book transport through a ride-hailing app or a hotel rather than hailing a street taxi, and leave a wide margin for traffic on the way back.
- The city itself: Take particular care against mugging in Colón, do not wander the city on foot, and keep clear of protests, which can be large.
- Fort San Lorenzo: The ruins stand about 13 km west of Colón on a cliff above the mouth of the Chagres River.
- Portobelo: The old Spanish port and its forts are about 32 km northeast of Colón along the coast.
- The railway: Check whether the Panama Canal Railway is running passenger trains before planning around it.
- Getting back on time: All-aboard is usually about 30 minutes before sailing, and your ship posts the exact time. A ship will not wait for passengers touring on their own.
- Watch the clock: Panama keeps Eastern Standard Time all year, so from March to November it is an hour behind US Eastern Daylight Time. Check whether your ship is keeping local time.
Getting Around from Colón
Roads are the only practical way out of Colón for a cruise visitor. The Transístmica highway runs about 79 km to Panama City, and the Atlantic Bridge, the third bridge over the canal, links Colón with the rest of the country.
- Many taxis are in poor condition and accidents are common, so use a ride-hailing app or transport arranged by a hotel.
- Avoid the Madden Dam area off the main Panama City to Colón road, where muggings have been reported.
- Avoid walking alone at night, and stay out of poorly lit areas.
- Allow plenty of time for any trip to Panama City and back, as it is a long round trip for a port day.
What to Eat Near Colón
Panamanian cooking mixes Spanish, Indigenous and African traditions, built on corn, rice, plantains, yuca, meat and seafood.
- Arroz con camarones y coco is rice with shrimp and coconut milk.
- Carimañolas are fritters of yuca dough stuffed with beef.
- Ceviche is usually made with corvina or tilapia.
- Hojaldres are a fried bread, and almojábanos are S-shaped corn fritters.
- Bollos are corn dough wrapped in leaves or husks and boiled.
Culture and Sights Near Colón
Colón grew up as a railroad and canal town, and many of its people are of West Indian descent, which gives the city an Afro-Antillean character unlike Panama City's. It is also a trading city, home to the Colón Free Trade Zone.
- The Colón Free Trade Zone, opened in 1948, is the largest free port in the Americas. It mostly re-exports goods to Latin America and the Caribbean, and its main area is walled off from the city.
- Colón is home to the basketball club Correcaminos Colón, which plays at the Arena Teófilo "Panamá" Al Brown, named for the boxer from Colón who was the first Hispanic world champion.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew is from Colón, and the West Indies cricketer George Headley was born there.
- The original name of the city was disputed for decades: Americans called it Aspinwall, while the government and local people called it Colón, after Columbus, until the name Colón was settled in 1890.
History of Colón and Portobelo
This coast has been a crossing point between the oceans for five centuries. Spain shipped Peruvian silver through Portobelo, the railroad founded Colón in 1850, and the canal, opened in 1914, made it the Caribbean entrance to one of the world's key waterways.
- Columbus, 1502: On his fourth and last voyage, Columbus reached the mouth of the Chagres River.
- The silver ports: Portobelo was founded in 1597 for its deep natural harbor, and Spanish treasure from Peru crossed the isthmus to be shipped from there to Spain.
- Forts and raids: Spain built Fort San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres from 1598. Henry Morgan left it in ruins in 1670, and the Spanish rebuilt it in the 1680s on a cliff 80 feet above the water. A British squadron captured Portobelo on 21 November 1739.
- The railroad town, 1850: Colón was founded in 1850 on swampy Manzanillo Island as the Atlantic terminal of the Panama Railroad, and formally named on 27 February 1852.
- Fires: Much of the city burned during the Colombian civil war of 1885 and again in 1915, and a fire on 13–14 April 1940 destroyed a third of it.
- The canal, 1914: The Panama Canal opened on 15 August 1914, and Colón grew from about 3,000 people in 1900 to more than 31,000 by 1920.
- A city inside the Canal Zone: From 1914 Colón was a Panamanian enclave surrounded by the US-run Canal Zone. Panama took full control of the canal at noon on 31 December 1999.
- World Heritage: The forts of Portobelo and San Lorenzo became a World Heritage Site in 1980 and were placed on the list of sites in danger in 2012.
- New locks, 2016: A third lane of larger locks opened to commercial traffic on 26 June 2016, with new locks on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides.
Family Experiences Near Colón
With children, the canal is the main sight, and its locks lift ships 85 feet. Older children and teenagers will also enjoy a fort on a cliff, and families should travel by booked transport rather than on foot.
- Younger children: Keep the day short, with a single stop at the canal and plenty of water and shade.
- School age: At Gatún, a triple flight of locks lifts or lowers ships 85 feet, and a lock chamber can be filled in as little as ten minutes.
- Teenagers: Fort San Lorenzo, rebuilt in the 1680s on a cliff above the Chagres River, had a dry moat and a drawbridge on its landward side.
- In the water: Caribbean beaches in Panama can have strong currents and undertows with few warning signs, so keep swimming to supervised spots.
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