Panama City, Canal and Parque
Natural
Panama City is a vibrant, green, multi-layered city with something for everyone.
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If you enjoy the pizazz of five-star hotels, the hum and buzz of a corporate machine and American fast-food chains, you’ll like the business centre.
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Should you thrive on 18th and 19th century architecture and fine dining, you’ll fall in love with the old city (Casco Viejo) with its UNESCO status, cobbled streets and boutique restaurants.
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Nature lovers will be enthralled by the Biomuseo at one end of the Causeway and the Punta Culebre at the other, with brown pelicans divebombing the ocean and crab-eating racoons, tanagers and massive iguanas in the dry forest.
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Wildlife enthusiasts, birders and walkers will adore the Parque Natural Metropolitano, a 265-hectare area of tropical semideciduous forest in the city with walking trails and tons of wildlife.
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The world famous Panama Canal has something to offer everyone. Visit Miraflores Locks to see massive cargo ships navigate through the multi-tiered locking system and the sheer scale of this engineering feat.
Two videos cover the amazing array of Panama City's sites and sights.
Explore Panama Canal, Parque Natural Metropolitano and Ancon Hill
Things to do
Panama Viejo (not in videos)
http://www.patronatopanamaviejo.org/ppv2014/en/pvs/plan-your-visit
Historians will love the ruins of the original city of Panama, founded in 1519 by the Spanish as a stopover point on the trading route through which passed most of the gold and silver that Spain took from the Americas. Panama Viejo, as it’s called, was burnt to the ground by the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan in 1671, whereupon the city moved to the Casco Viejo. You can take a taxi or go on a tour to the site which is near the airport, see the remains of the cathedral tower and city walls and learn about what happened in this atmospheric place.
Casco Viejo
http://cascoviejo.com/
The current old town, separated from the skyscrapers of the business centre by the Punta Americas (Bridge of the Americas) is a thriving lived-in place especially popular with Panamanians on Friday and Saturday nights when the nightlife kicks off with a bang and rocks all night. Rum bars, beer haunts, pubs and wine bars rub shoulders with nightclubs and chic restaurants. First settled in 1653, the old city still has a barrio feel in parts with its old buildings and churches, crumbling ruins covered in ferns, and small museums and art galleries.
Miraflores Locks (Panama Canal)
https://visitcanaldepanama.com/en/centro-de-visitantes-de-miraflores/
Pretty much everyone will be thrilled by the massive cargo ships navigating Panama Canal. Miraflores Locks is the place to visit to see locks opening and filling with water so massive ships can descend to sea level and travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The Locks has an informative 10-minute film and interesting displays on the canal, and a gift shop and café too.
Natural attractions
There is much in and around Panama City to captivate wildlife lovers. Just outside the city are mangrove wetlands https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/nt1414 which are a refuge for migratory shorebirds including sandpipers and ibises, as well as for native birds including the grey-necked wood rail, and the Amazon and green kingfishers.
The Causeway connects the city to its various islands, with water on either side. It has generous pavements and lawns and is popular with joggers, walkers and cyclists who can watch brown pelicans divebombing the ocean and black vultures fighting over scraps while keeping fit. At the city end is the Biomuseo while about a 30-minute walk from there takes you to Ancon Island and the Punta Culebra.
The Parque Natural Metropolitano is a beautiful area conserving 265 hectares of the almost disappeared tropical dry forest of the Central American Pacific. Although it's in the middle of the city, it is home to many native animals and birds.
Then there's Ancon Hill, the highest point in Panama City at 200 metres. You can see wildlife here too but not as much as in the Parque Natural. It's a good steep walk with excellent views.
Biomuseo
http://www.biomuseopanama.org/en
The Biomuseo, designed by architect Frank Gehry, is a colourful building housing interactive displays and information on ways in which Panama changed America's natural history by creating a land bridge between North and South America that had been separated for 70 million years. The museum describes the species that had evolved on both land masses and how movement of these species affected each other. Interestingly, the horse became extinct in Panama, only to be reintroduced by the Spanish hundreds of years later.
There are also graphic displays describing the history of Panama and ways in which human beings affected its biodiversity.
The museum is still being constructed but is already quite breathtaking and definitely worth a visit
Punta Culebra Nature Centre
https://stri.si.edu/visit/punta-culebra
Managed by the Smithsonian Institute, Punta Culebra is a great place to visit and can be combined with a trip to the Biomuseo. The two places are about a 30-minute flat walk, 10-minute bike ride or 5-minute taxi ride from each other.
There is a small beach where you may see crabs; a lovely if small patch of dry forest you can stroll through with sloths, crab-eating racoons, crimson-backed tanagers and giant iguanas; a frog house and tanks containing turtles and fish from the Pacific and Caribbean with descriptions of why the oceans evolved differently after they were separated by the Panamanian land mass.
Parque Natural Metropolitano
http://www.parquemetropolitano.org/
This amazing place is right in the middle of Panama City but apart from the hum of traffic on some of the trails, you wouldn't know it. A network of trails winds past a pond with turtles and tiger herons, through a deciduous forest with sloths, monkeys and more and up to a viewpoint where you can see fantastic views of Panama City and congratulate yourself for being at the second highest point in the city at 150 metres. The highest point is the top of Ancon Hill at 200 metres.
There are five main walking trails, each about a kilometre long and there are lots of dawdling points along each one. They all connect with one another and you can do the whole lot if you want. There is a walking trail map here and at the parque itself, and trails are very well signposted.
It's worth going more than once as you see different animals and birds each time. Species we saw on our two visits included:
Animals
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Brown-throated three-toed sloth
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Geoffroy's tamarin
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Mantled howler monkey
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Central American agouti
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Whip-tailed lizard
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Yellow-eared slider turtles
Birds
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White-vented plumeleteer (hummingbird)
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Blue dacnis
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Crimson-backed tanager
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Keel-billed toucan
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Red-rumped cacique
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Lesser kiskadee
What and where to eat
Surrounded by ocean, it's not surprising that Panamanian cuisine specialises in seafood, drawing on inspiration from South America and Spain. Ceviche and paella are delicious here. Salads are fresh and green and tasty. It's easy to get meat too if you crave it.
The best restaurants are in the Casco Viejo where there are Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Indian and South American restaurants as well as Panamanian.
Do you have questions or comments about this article? Email maddestinations@gmail.com or leave a comment under one of the videos.
