Parque Metropolitano

A woman who coordinates Fulbright gatherings at the U. of Panama told me about an embassy guy named Juan.  Juan apparently organizes informal adventure trips for people somehow connected to the Embassy (like me, because I'm a U.S. citizen supported by a branch of the Embassy that does public outreach).  As I'm a big fan of random adventure trips, I was excited to connect with him; he's super energetic (as in, kinda hyper energetic).  

And so when Sunday, he asked if I wanted to go hiking in the Parque Metropolitano on Monday, I pushed my math projects aside and said "yes!!"  (Technically, I said, "Me encantaría eso.")

The Parque Metropolitano (link, here) is a green space in Panama City.  Said even more accurately, it's a green stretch that the city wraps itself around --- kind of like the Mediterranean Sea wraps around Italy. I've tried in the past to go hiking there with friends, but every time we tried, it rained.  (Panama, amirite?!)

So, it was no surprise to me that Monday morning as I waited for the Uber, the cloudy skies got cloudier and started spitting.

Me: Caminamos en el llueve??  Y si puedo, si el agua no te molesta.

Juan: No tengo problema con eso. Dime tú

Me: Estoy en uber, te veo pronto. Tengo capote.

I showed up at the Visitor's Center, a well-labeled green building with a gravel parking lot. I had my poncho ("capote") under my arm, and was immediately greeted by a friendly person in a park ranger uniform.  The building has hiking maps on the wall, a shelf full of taxidermied animals, a large clean bathroom (with a shower!), and a small gift shop.  It also had a lot of soggy people who'd been drenched in the storm.

I whatsapped Juan with a description of my clothes so he could recognize me; he whatsapped me with his picture (Visitors Center in the background).  Because (oh, yeah) we live in a world with cameras in our phones. Right.

Did I mention he's an adventure guy?  
He really looks ready for action.

We paid our entrance fees ($1 for him, because he's Panamanian; $4 for me, because I'm not).  We peeked at the map to figure out which trails, if any, we might check out that day.  The whole park has maybe a grand total of about 5k worth of trails, and while he was trying to suss out which of those I might be up for, I assured him that back home I often run 10k, so he gamely decided we'd hike the whole thing. Awesome.

The trails are well marked.  There aren't blazes on the trees because you don't need them: the trails themselves are wide gravel paths in some places, or paved pathways wide enough for a car in others. (Once again, this is an area formerly controlled by the U.S.; during WWII part of this area was used as testing ground for airplane manufacturing, and there's still evidence of that former use here and there in the park). 

The paths can be very hilly, but they're easy to follow.

Juan told me that this is an example of "dry forest", in contrast to "rain forest".  When I expressed some amusement at the term (I was wearing my poncho still as he told me this), he explained that the trees in this area will lose their leaves in the dry season, January-April, unlike the trees in the rainforests in nearby Gamboa.

This sign informs us the park functions as the lungs of the city; 
it encompasses 232 ha. +1159.43 square meters;
it contains both dry tropical and rainforest tropical forests;
it has 633 species of flora and 418 kinds of animals and vertebrates.

The paths are hilly and fun to hike, and the view from the top is worth climbing to see. You can see all around this city from the hilltop -- like being able to see both sides of the Mediterranean from single hill in Italy.  

The sky scrapers of Panama city, near the Pacific Ocean.

The Social Security Office,
close to where my current AirBnB is located.

The MiraFlores locks of the canal.  

I wasn't the only one enjoying the top of this hill; a bunch of other human climbers were there, as was this gato solo (coati mundi).  This is the closest I've gotten to one.

The gato solo was munching on stuff on the ground, but something else had munched on this gato solo; on the other side of its body there's a big hunk bitten out.  I'm not going to share that photo, though.

Juan loves the outdoors. When we were looking at a view that showed the skyscrapers and also the forest nearby, he remarked to me that those were two kinds of jungles, and he much prefers the natural jungle to the skyscraper jungle.  He railed against his fellow citizens who pay $25 to sit in an oxygen chamber, but who won't spend a dollar or make the effort to get out into nature. I kind of love being with somebody who is even more extreme than I am on this subject.

Juan was a great tour guide; he often stopped to show me particular trees. I also got to see him using the app Merlin that I've heard so much about; he could hold it up in the air, and would identify a bird from its song. That was sweet.

The entire hike took us a little less than two hours. After the first 15 minutes or so, it stopped raining and the cloud cover meant that the forest was (by Panama standards) relatively cool.  We met occasional hikers but mostly got to do an active version of "forest bathing".  I've heard so much about this place, and I was glad to get a chance to hike through it . . . probably my first of several times, because it really is a delightful and easy place to visit.