Early start today - get to the Parque Natural Metropolitano by 7:00am in time to see the abundant wildlife when it's still yawning and stretching! A Downtown Rainforest of 265 hectacres on a hill in the midst of Panama City! Not a Zoo - not even a 'Sanctuary' - a Natural Forest complete with wild animals and a few Park Rangers to keep the Humans under control!!
Spent three hours walking the Trails and weren't disappointed! Sloths, Basilisk Lizards, Tiny Orange Frogs, Tanager Birds, Agouti, Coati Negro and Mono Titi (Squirrel Monkeys), and lots of Leaf Cutter Ant Colonies marching through the Jungle - all ticked off in our I-Spy book of Rainforest Creatures!
On to the FEDPA Offices to buy SOAT Seguro (Car Insurance) for Pablo - he can't clear Aduana without it! Followed by a stroll along Panama City's Promenade - past Trump Tower Hotel - Ostentatious and Vulgar!!
Along the Prom we reached the Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) - a walled town built in the 1670's to protect 'new' Panama City following an attack by Captain Henry Morgan and 1,200 Pirates who took the original Panama Viejo in an invasion from the land side and destroyed the city!
Casco Viejo now thrives with many restored historic buildings, lots of construction sites and a fair few wrecked shells awaiting gentrification. And it's crawling with heavily armed SPI Policia in dark camouflage uniforms toting sub-machine guns stopping pedestrians and vehicles entering many of the narrow streets!
We discover from our waiter, Jorge, at the waterside bar we stop at for a late lunch, that Panama's President lives and works in this neighbourhood - so that's 50% of the streets and buildings sealed off to the Public and Tourists then!! And the remaining half clogged with badly parked cars and a constant traffic jam!!! Not quite the stylish historic Old Town we've enjoyed at many other cities on our travels.
Still - we savour the draft Panama Lager Jorge serves us and a delicious lunch sitting at our pavement table watching the world (and mucho traffico) go by!!
Planned to walk on from Casco Viejo and grab a Taxi from the top of the Causeway we visited a couple of days ago - but within yards of leaving the main drag the streets become 'edgy' and we're coming in for some heavy eyeballing and passing comments! Intuition says "No!" So we grab a cab early and head back to Panama Pacifico and our lovely fully Air-Con Apartment!!
