We arrived in Panama City at 5:30am after a long overnight bus ride. Christina slept a bit, was cheerful, and exited the bus saying, "That was great. I'd do
that again"! Greg, Monica and Matt immediately gave me a dirty look and said, "No way..." They didn't sleep so well and arrived quite tired. We headed to a restaurant in the bus terminal to grab a bite to eat and kill some time since we weren't able to check into our rented apartment for a few hours. After an hour, we decided to drop our bags with the attendant at the apartment, change clothes, and head for Parque Natural Metropolitano - an incredible park just minutes outside of busy Panama City. We hiked for 2 1/2 hours and saw various birds, spiders, an interesting venomous caterpillar, a huge toad, a few pacas, and turtles. We were hoping to see monkeys, but it didn't happen. Oh well... The park was beautiful, lush, green, and well-maintained. Since we arrived at the park early in the morning, shortly after they opened, we were the only people there. What a treat to explore a national park with just our family - a pleasant surprise as we were expecting this well-known park to be crowded. Traveling midweek certainly has its benefits!
Later in the week we visited Centro Natural Punta Culebra (Punta Culebra Nature Center). Unlike our zoos at home where all of the animals are enclosed , this is a small open air museum at the end of the Panama City Causeway, with nice walking trails and a few marine touch tanks. We saw some interesting iguanas, and the kids loved the sea life in the touch tanks. Given that Matt loves science, animals, and marine life, this was one of his favorite Panama City experiences.
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| A view of downtown Panama City from Parque Natural Metropolitano. |
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| We saw several of these interesting spiders - about 4 inches in diameter. |
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| Greg spotted this venomous caterpillar. |
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| A brilliantly colored heliconia |
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| We spotted 3 different paca during our morning hike. This one happened to be munching on a snack. |
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| Tegu lizard |
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| A beautiful spiral ginger! |
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| Loved the colors on this grasshopper! |
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| We spotted this incredible iguana at Centro Natural Punta Culebra. |
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| Caribbean sea star at the Centro Natural Punta Culebra. |
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| The kids loved touching these beautiful sea stars in the touch tanks. |
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| Amazing to watch this iguana climb up this tree. |
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| The Centro Natural Punta Culebra is located in a beautiful area at the end of the Panama City Causeway. |
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