At the tip-end of the city is the old fortress of Chiriqui and the Bovedas,—now used as a prison but still reminiscent of buccaneer days,—a rambling structure partly above and partly under ground, with low, broad walls and outstanding sentry-boxes, mellow with age and unchanged from [[336]]the day when it was built for the purpose of keeping the dreaded and hated pirates from this treasure-house of Spain.
Along Avenue A, at the corner of Ninth Street, is the Herera Plaza, now a children’s playground, the spot where the creek came into the city which at high water let in barks. And a few steps up the hill on Ninth Street, at the corner of Avenida Central, is the Piza Piza store, which was once the Hotel Aspinwall, and which, not so long ago, was at the waterfront of the same creek which Ringrose mentioned. Farther along Avenue A, fragments of that massive wall “round about the city with two gates” may be seen half concealed by houses and shops and partly in ruins but still frowning and grim wherever it stands, while on Eleventh Street it borders one side of the thoroughfare for nearly an entire block. This, in the days of Ringrose, was the limit of the city to the west, for Panama was by no means as large as he thought, but as it has grown it has overflowed the old walls and has left them isolated in the heart of the town like forgotten tombstones.
PANAMA
The ruins of the cathedral, and bit of wall, Old Panama
PANAMA
All that is left of the ancient fort, Old Panama
PANAMA