The View from Metropolitan Park
Jan. 2nd, 2025 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPanama Travelog #35
Metropolitan Park, Panama - Mon, 30 Dec 2024. 12pm.
"It figures," I scowled as I arose to brilliant sunshine pounding through our hotel room's floor-to-ceiling windows this morning. "The first sunny day in Panama City is our last full day in Panama!"
What a fitting thing to say on this star-crossed trip. A bit of good news is hard to appreciate because it reminds us of all the frustrations we've had to deal with.
But hard to appreciate doesn't mean impossible. And with a list of possible activities Hawk drafted in advanced we looked for the most outdoorsy one still in the area. It would be Panama City's Metropolitan Park, right in town and with a small network of trails including a stellar view of the city itself.
We Ubered over to the park's visitor center. The fare was $3.19 for a trip of just under 4km. Uber is ridiculously cheap here by US standards. I left a baller, 30%+ tip— a whole dollar. 🤣
From the park visitor center we walked 0.7km up a trail that mostly paralleled a road through the park then 1.1km up to the top of Cerro Cedro. It's the 2nd highest hill in the city, at 160m (524') above sea level. Outlooks at the top of the hill provide commanding vistas in multiple directions, including the one in this photo showing the main downtown area of Panama City.
Edit: Which building is our hotel? We're about 90% of the way over to the right in the photo above, just to the left of the tall, black building (Tower Bank) anchoring the right edge of the picture.
As we looped back down a different trail from the summit we saw some wildlife. I'll share short videos of those in another journal entry.
Update: see my journal with video of 3 animals we saw in the park.
Metropolitan Park, Panama - Mon, 30 Dec 2024. 12pm.
"It figures," I scowled as I arose to brilliant sunshine pounding through our hotel room's floor-to-ceiling windows this morning. "The first sunny day in Panama City is our last full day in Panama!"
What a fitting thing to say on this star-crossed trip. A bit of good news is hard to appreciate because it reminds us of all the frustrations we've had to deal with.
But hard to appreciate doesn't mean impossible. And with a list of possible activities Hawk drafted in advanced we looked for the most outdoorsy one still in the area. It would be Panama City's Metropolitan Park, right in town and with a small network of trails including a stellar view of the city itself.
We Ubered over to the park's visitor center. The fare was $3.19 for a trip of just under 4km. Uber is ridiculously cheap here by US standards. I left a baller, 30%+ tip— a whole dollar. 🤣
From the park visitor center we walked 0.7km up a trail that mostly paralleled a road through the park then 1.1km up to the top of Cerro Cedro. It's the 2nd highest hill in the city, at 160m (524') above sea level. Outlooks at the top of the hill provide commanding vistas in multiple directions, including the one in this photo showing the main downtown area of Panama City.
Edit: Which building is our hotel? We're about 90% of the way over to the right in the photo above, just to the left of the tall, black building (Tower Bank) anchoring the right edge of the picture.
As we looped back down a different trail from the summit we saw some wildlife. I'll share short videos of those in another journal entry.
Update: see my journal with video of 3 animals we saw in the park.
