Panama Viejo

The city of Panama, founded in 1519, was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Ocean.  Today, however, the site of this settlement is just a collection of stone ruins, with the modern-day Panama City a few kilometres to the west.  I started feeling guilty this morning about just faffing around at home so decided to play the tourist for the day and take a look around the old ruins.

As with most other colonial cities in this part of the world, the damage was done by a British pirate, in this case the Welshman Henry Morgan, who sacked the old city in 1671.  It seems that everywhere I go in the region either his name or that of Francis Drake is raised as the culprit for burning and looting the old Spanish cities, with no amount of fortification seeming to be too much for them.  Both of these men were knighted - and are generally referred to in British literature as 'privateers' rather than pirates.  Of course Britain (England) was at war with the Spanish at this time so I suppose such behaviour was excusable.  Indeed I overheard someone's guide at the ruins today speaking quite admiringly about Henry Morgan, telling the tourist that he was a very clever man - it seems there are no hard feelings today.

A significant amount of restoration has been done to these ruins since I last visited them in 1996, apparently partly funded by Spain.  Perhaps it would have been a nice gesture for Britain to have found the money for this!