Spanish Colonial Forts

When I was a child, I was always building forts -- snow forts, sand forts, tree forts, cardboard-box forts, you name it. I don’ know what this obsession stemmed from. Perhaps it had something to do with wanting to feel safe. Or maybe I had just seen too many pirate movies and Westerns. Whatever the reason, my love of forts followed me into adulthood, and it persists to this day. 

Not surprisingly, during my travels in Latin America, I have sought out and photographed forts of all kinds. The Spanish built dozens of them along the coasts of Mexico and Central America, as well as in the Caribbean. These imposing structures helped protect Spain’s colonies in the New World from foreign navies and raids by the likes of English and Dutch pirates. 

Below is a slide-show of forts in Latin America that I have explored. Each has a distinct personality. Some like the San Juan de Ulua fortress in Veracruz, Mexico, are forbidding and dungeon-like. Others are airy and even inviting like Acapulco’s Fuerte San Diego, whose sunlit interior has been painted bright yellow. However, all of these historical buildings have something in common: behind their high stone walls surmounted by rusty cannon lie stories begging to be told.

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Spanish Colonial Forts - Images by John Mitchell

Twilight of Panama City's Diablos Rojos

It won't be long before the infamous Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) will start disappearing from the congested streets of Panama City. These brightly -- some would say garishly -- painted recycled American school buses have been Panama City's main form of public transportation for several decades.

To foreign travelers, the Diablos Rojos are a novelty. With their exteriors plastered in figures from Panama's history, religious and folkloric scenes, and even cartoon characters, the buses provide splashes of color and imagination in an otherwise drab urban landscape. But for people who have to commute in them every day, the Diablo Rojos are a curse. They tend to be rolling sardine cans, hellishly hot, and unreliable. These environmentally unfriendly beasts also belch countless tons of noxious fumes into the humid tropical air.



However, the days of the Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) are apparently numbered. Panama City is planning to replace its freelance bus system with a fleet of air-conditioned, state-of-the-art coaches. The new Metro Bus system will be similar to ones found in Mexico City and several other Latin American metropolises. There is also talk of building a metro railway line that will probably be even more effective in reducing Panama City's legendary traffic chaos. For the time being, though, visitors to Panama City will still be able to fork over $0.25 and ride the Diablos Rojos to just about anywhere in town.