Day 5

Today we visited the Metropolitan Park in Panama. It was an unexpectedly long hike, but was worth every minute. The park is situated right in the middle of the city. When you are there, however, you wouldn't have any idea there is a major city so near.

Our group split into a spanish-guided tour and an english-guided tour.

We encountered many types of flora and fauna. A very interesting tree on the trail was named "Espave" which derives its name from the phrase "Es para ver" (it is for seeing). This name was bestowed upon these massive trees because the spanish explorers used to climb them in order to see for days.

We discovered termite and ant nests, beautiful flowers, and stretch-marked trees with "bellies" full of water.

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One of the most amazing things we encountered were the "ant highways," where thousands of ants scurry back and forth, carrying leaves to their nest. These leaves are not for eating, however. The ants actually mix their saliva with the leaves, and eat the fungus that grows from the mixture. You can even see where the ants' travels have worn a path in the earth.

The park was also great or bird watching. We saw a beautiful orange-bellied bird high in the canopy.

We learned the origin of the country's name: The Panama tree! This one happened to be shedding its leaves at the time.

More crazy flora and long hikes. We even saw two tiny monkeys and a sloth far up in the canopy! They were too far for my camera to capture them, though.

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There are 5 biologically distinct levels of the forest, from the moss on the ground to the plants living atop the other trees, over one hundred feet in the air.

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Here is Profesora Gomez making her classic picture-taking face.

Here we are, the two groups meeting at the halfway point.

This is the peak of the hill we were climbing. Such an amazing view of the city. This was basically the only way we could tell how close we were to all the hustle and bustle.

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We also made a new friend! A cousin of the raccoon called a Coati. Some of us got a bit closer than others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89_GLGQj6yo

After the trip our awesome bus driver Jaime drove us back to the hotel, and we got the rest of the day off!

-RJ Darabant