Castillo de San Felipe

 The boat dock for the fort is located one half mile from the marina of Tortugal. The Castillo is a National Park. The Spanish built the fort in order to protect the access to Lago Izabal from pirates who wanted to steal the indigo, cacao and minerals the Spanish exploited from the indigenous peoples. mostly Kiche Mayans in this area. The Rio Dulce was the gateway to the Caribbean for the Spanish and the point where the Rio entered the Lago was a natural bottleneck to stop the pirates.

 The park had broad avenues and gardens where visitors could BBQ or lay about.

 View from one of the ramparts.

 Tortugal and Le Chat Beaute are visible in far middle.

 The cannon below was made of bronze. A superior weapon for the day. The maker put the royal crest and his name on the barrels.This was an English cannon, apparently captured from a battle else where or maybe from a pirate ship. Most of the cannons at the fort were iron and most likely original. The bronze cannon likely was a ship board eight pounder. There were three of them in the fort which held about twenty cannons.