Animals in the Park - Panama City, Panama

Panama Travelog #36
Metropolitan Park, Panama City - Mon, 30 Dec 2024. 1pm.

This is one of the journal entries I skipped on our trip to Panama last month to avoid getting too badly backlogged. On our trip to the Metropolitan Park (Parque Natural Metropolitano) in Panama City we hiked to the top of Cerro Cedro for a great panoramic view of the city. But it wasn't just the city view we enjoyed. On the hike up & back down we saw a bit of wildlife.

Watch on YouTube

I put together this video of 3 animals we saw. First is plain, old ants. Yes, ants. But these are the busiest ants I've seen! Each carrying bright green leaves like shields on their backs they look like ancient Greek soldiers headed to battle.

Next is a ñeque, which the name in Panama for the agouti. It's closely related to the Guinea pig— though both are rodents, not pigs.

Finally is a coati. It's rooting around near a guard station at the foot of the trail. I think since this is an area a lot of people pass by it's sniffing to see if any of us dropped food.

After this we called a ridiculously cheap Uber, about $5 for a ride that would cost 2-3x back home, and headed back to our hotel in the banking district to take it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

Breaking Bad S5E15: Walt's Meaningless Survival

I recently finished watching the series Breaking Bad, the final two episodes, after taking a break from watching for  a few weeks. Why a break? For one, the holidays were coming up, with travel and stuff. And two, the events of the previous two episodes, 5.13-5.14, marked a shift in tone of the series. We saw the climax where Walt's empire crumbles around him and everyone he cares about turn to hate him. That's the climax in the Shakespearean tragedy sense. What comes next in Shakespearean structure is Act V, the moral, where the story counts the wages of sin. And for all the sinning Walter White has done... well, the count is going to be grim. I took a break before watching.

Indeed, in episode 5.15 the tone of the story switches from action and violence to grief, loss, and impotence, and toothless rage.

( Episode 5.15 Spoilers (click to open) )

I Bought What? Hiking Shoes

A few months ago... or maybe it was a year+ at this point, I'm not sure... Hawk and I were straightening the pile of shoes in our hall closet, and I found a pair of footwear I didn't even remember buying.



They're hiking shoes. Not hiking boots, but hiking shoes. When did I buy these? I wondered. I couldn't remember! So I stuffed them back in the closet— except in a more orderly fashion than the pile of shoes that was in there, because that's what we were cleaning up— and promptly forgot about them again. 🤣 Until today.

Today, for whatever reason, I remembered these shoes were in the hall closet, sitting there almost certainly never used for who-knows-how-many years. So when Hawk was feeling well enough to want to do a light hike today (she's still not fully over traveler's diarrhea after two weeks!) I figured it would be a great opportunity to try out these hiking shoes. That's because while the trail we picked, at Bxybee Park on the bay in Palo Alto, is too easy to want to wear hiking boots, the gravel paths made me want to wear something a bit more protective than my Keen sport sandals. Even with their toe cap the sandals still pick up small rocks on gravelly trails.

"I don't even remember when I bought these," I mused out loud as I laced them up in the hallway. "Maybe a few years ago at REI when I saw them on a clearance sale and figured, 'Why not try them?'"

"I think you bought them fifteen years ago, at Footwear Etc.," Hawk countered, name-checking a store that used to be around the corner from us but closed up years ago.

Well, regardless of when or where I bought them I could easily surmise why I'd bought them. While I've never bought hiking shoes before, always preferring either the sturdiness of hiking boots or the light weight and breathability of hiking sandals, for the right price I would've taken a chance on trying hiking shoes. And today, finally, is the time to try them!

Update: By the second time I'd worn them they fell apart! 😡