This is the entrance to 'Fuerte San Jeronimo', and the date on the arch is 1758, probably when it was finished. These cultural ruins are open, without control or cost, to the public. This is a wonderful thing; and the locals use them probably more than the tourists. When we entered, there were a couple of kids practicing their soccer in the main enclosure, it being a lovely, flat grassy field.

The risk, of course, is that this open and free atmosphere will lead to vandalism and eventual destruction of the beauty and history of these monuments to the history of Panama.