El Real

     El Real had a population of 500 Mestizos, or fewer, and it sits directly in the center of the Province, about a half mile inland from the mouth of the two major Darien rivers, the Tuira and the Chucunaque (called the 'Boca' - translation: mouth). The city is less than an hour walk to the base of Mount Pirre.
I have seen it written that the first permanent settlement in the New World was Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien. It was established in 1510; only 18 scant years after Columbus first discovered the Americas. I believe that this settlement may have been El Real. The true name of the city is El Real de Santa Maria Del Darien, named after the patron saint of the city. Its central location made it an ideal spot to create a first settlement.
     The crumbling brick foundation remains of an old Spanish fort can be seen near the dock where you tie up your dugout. El Real was a Spanish stronghold in the 1500's and 1600's, used as a holding location for gold coming from the mines at Cana. When they had amassed a sufficient quantity, they would then take the gold by boat to Panama City for eventual transport to Spain.
     El Real has one general store: “Rico's Place” where we could get the bare necessities, one restaurant which we affectionately named “Mama's Place,” and one hotel, a vacant old wooden house where, for a small fee, they would let us crash on the floor for the night. Mama's Place was just what you would expect, one large table that seated about ten people in the front room of Mama's house. Whatever Mama cooked was what you were eating that day; there was no such thing as a menu. The food was palatable only because one of the table staples was hot sauce (picante). Once you acquired a taste for the hot sauce you could either disguise, or add flavor to, almost any kind of food.
      The village had been formed in the old Spanish style with a central courtyard in front of the old block traditional Spanish church. In the middle of the grassy courtyard was a Spanish cannon, a memorial to the ghosts of the conquistadors who once controlled this region. The houses were of wooden construction. About half the roofs were made of tin and about half were thatched using palm fronds. This style of construction was typical to all three Mestizo cities; El Real, La Palma and Yaviza.