Panama City

It seems the famous Canal isn't all Panama City has to offer! We stayed in the city for 3 days and had a really good time exploring the sights. We stayed in the old part called Casco Viejo, the historic center of Panama City. The narrow bricked streets and the colourful buildings here make this part of town absolutely beautiful- really old colonial style houses with wrought-iron balconies spilling over with bright tropical plants, many lovely old churches and ruins of the past. It was so nice to wonder around and learn about the history of Panama through the buildings and see the presidents house too!

One morning we visited the Parque Natural Metropolitano, a 265-hectare tropical forest, just minutes from the city. Most of the park is dry lowland Pacific forest, now rare in Central America because of deforestation, and it’s home to about 45 species of mammals, 36 species of reptiles, and 14 species of amphibians. Of course we saw very little of this! We went on a short 2 hour hike and saw a family of little turtles and a raccoon. Oh and LOTS of mosquito's. We walked up to a mirador with amazing views over the city and the canal.

The city has so many different parts to it, there is the old part with it's beautiful colonial buildings then there is the shiny new banking district consisting of huge sky scrapers- it has a dense skyline, including mostly apartment buildings, but office complexes and hotels as well. There is also the Amador Causeway, which is a roadway and walking path that stretches from the mainland to four small islands in the Panama Bay. It was actually constructed from rock that was removed from the construction of the Panama Canal and overlooks the entrance to the canal so you can watch the ships enter. The roadway is lined with palm trees and ends up the at Balboa Yacht Club where the rich of Panama come and play. We walked along the Causeway and watched the sun go down over the city skyline and spotted lots of huge pelicans fishing for their supper!