El Real de Santa María is a

corregimiento ''Corregimiento'' (; , ) is a Spanish term used for country subdivisions for royal administrative purposes, ensuring districts were under crown control as opposed to local elites. A ''corregimiento'' was usually headed by a '' corregidor''. The ...

Pinogana District Pinogana District () is a district (''distrito'') of Darién Province in Panama. The population according to the 2000 census was 12,823; the latest estimate (for 2019) is 26,160.Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, Panama. The district co ...

Darién Province Darién (, ; ) is a Provinces of Panama, province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma, Darién, La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country and bordered to the north by the province of Panamá Province, Panam ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

with a population of 1,183 as of 2010. It is the seat of Pinogana District. Its population as of 1990 was 1,201; its population as of 2000 was 1,185. The town of El Real is on the Pirre River, a small tributary of the

Tuira River The Tuira River is located in the Darién Province of eastern Panama. It flows into the Bay of San Miguel, Panama, Bay of San Miguel at the province capital of La Palma, Panama, La Palma. It is the largest river in Panama, and one of its tribu ...

. It is by boat to the town of

Yaviza Yaviza is a town and corregimiento in Pinogana District, Darién Province, Panama with a population of 4,441 as of 2010. Location The town marks the southeastern end of the northern half of the Pan-American Highway, at the north end of the D ...

, the terminus of the

Pan American Highway The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...

. The town was founded by the Spanish as a fort in 1665 to protect their gold mining interests in the area.The history of mining and mineral exploration in Panama: From Pre-Columbian gold mining to modern copper mining
Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana, vol. 72, no. 3, 00012, 2020 (" The deposits were first worked by the Spaniards in about 1665 when the fort and mining town of El Real de Santa Maria was founded on the Río Tuira") The English Buccaneer

Bartholomew Sharp Bartholomew Sharp (c. 1650 – 29 October 1702) was an English buccaneer and privateer. His career of piracy lasted seven years (1675–1682). In the Caribbean he took several ships, and raided the Gulf of Honduras and Portobelo. He took comman ...

took over the town and fort in 1680, but found the Spanish had removed most of the gold they hoped to seize, and left after a few days.A Biographical Sketch of Captain Dampier
''The United States Services Journal'', p. 316 (1837)

El Real Airport El Real de Santa María Airport is an airstrip serving the small town of El Real de Santa María, in the Darién Province of Panama. El Real is southwest of Yaviza Yaviza is a town and corregimiento in Pinogana District, Darién Province, ...

is an

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

serving the area.

References

Corregimientos of Darién Province Populated places in Darién Province Populated places established in 1665 {{Darién-geo-stub