Parque Natural Metropolitano

I am really terrible at sitting down to blog while Andy is home, hence another week in between posts. I was excited to sit down today and write about our third full day in Panama. The final day of the trip should be up tomorrow...or Saturday.

We left the hotel around 7:45am and caught a cab quickly to the Metropolitan Natural Park, which is a piece of protected tropical forest in Panama City. It was a 5 minute cab ride from our hotel ($3). The entry fee to get into the park is $2 per person. For the first hour we only saw two other people on the trail and after that ran across two or three small groups. We were absolutely fascinated with the leaf cutter ants (sadly there are no good pictures). They were huge, and they were everywhere carrying leaves in an orderly and amazing fashion. We also heard what seemed like thousands of birds and monkeys throughout our walk. It was such a beautiful hike!

The trail through the Metropolitan Natural Park

Andy standing in front of the same tree pictured to the left

Looking up at a very large tree

We took the trail up to an amazing lookout where there is almost a 360 degree view. We saw the canal and the skyline as well as miles and miles of lush, green forest. It was a wonderful way to start the day. We hiked for about two hours and by 10 am it was starting to get very hot, so we finished the loop and got in a cab and headed back to the hotel. A morning hike through this park is a must-do while in Panama City.

A view of Centennial Bridge and the canal from the lookout

Another great view from the top of the trail in Metropolitan Natural Park

After being dropped off near our hotel we went to Manolos, the place we’d eaten the first day. It was nice to relax and eat a hot breakfast after a long hike. We went to the pool at the hotel for an hour after breakfast before getting ready for the day. We had learned from our few days in Panama City that American football is popular in the city. College football was on televisions everywhere in restaurants and bars. Even the channels the hotel carried were showing many football games. The Bears were playing the Seahawks on this Sunday (I am a Bears fan, my husband is a Seahawks fan). We originally hadn’t thought we would bother to find the game while in Panama City, but seeing that it would be relatively easy to do, we decided it might be fun. Unfortunately the closest place that we were sure would have the game was Hooters, about a half mile away. We walked over there and got to Hooters about half time. The game was on a few TVs and the place was packed with NFL fans. It was fun to watch some of the game (the Seahawks won). The food was gross and the beers were expensive, but we enjoyed the hour and half or so watching football. 

We took an afternoon walk to get a closer picture of this building- Revolution Tower.

We planned on having dinner at the Istmo Brew Pub because we could see it from our hotel room and read that it was the first place to serve microbrews in Panama City. We thought it would be really fun to try the beers even though we’d read that the food was bar food type food and overpriced. We found a table on the patio. The waiter did not speak any English but eventually we understood he was trying to explain that they were not serving any of their own brews that day at all. He offered only a handful of beer choices available in bottles, none of which were Panama beers. We decided, just for the ambiance since it was a nice patio, to have a Bud Light, and then we would leave. We drank our Bud Light, and then the waiter tried to charge us a dollar more each for the beer than what the menu indicated, which was already a lot compared to what we’d been paying for local Panama beer. We ended up paying the price on the menu, but we were glad we spent such a short time there.

Unfortunately we weren't able to try any of the micro brews at Istmo Brew Pub.

We did not feel like walking a long distance to find dinner, and we ended up at Caffe Pomodoro again. We really enjoyed it on the first night and loved the patio so it was worth going again. We enjoyed our meals even more the second time. Andy had chicken lasagna, and I had some vegetable pasta and was impressed. The vegetables were plentiful and not overcooked. There was some confusion with the check this time. The waitress brought the wrong amount of change (short about $10). She didn’t speak a word of English and we were having trouble coming up with enough Spanish words to figure out her confusion. Eventually the correct change was brought to our table. She was nice about it, so I don’t think she was trying to just rip us off, but we still don’t know where her confusion started.  It could have been a scene from a movie though. I am sure at least a handful of the other restaurant patrons within earshot spoke both English and Spanish, and it must have been hilarious to overhear our confusing bilingual conversation. 

It was another great day.