Down to our last day, and time was running out for us in Panama. Although we did not have detailed plans for this part of the trip, we were able to find plenty of stuff to do.

Within the limits of Panama City resides a rain forest called Parque Nacional Metropolitano. I found this to be a strange locale, surrounded by some hardened ghettos. After an unintentional drive around the outside of the park, we located its entrance and approached the visitor center.

It was starting to rain, no surprise there. We had to purchase tickets and were offered a guide, but we declined. At the time we thought this was a paper guide of the trail routes. Later we figured they were offering us a personal guided tour. I was happy with our decision anyways, as this would let us roam around and discover what we could on our own. Besides, the next week in Corcovado, we had an excellent guided tour, and this provided for a feel of both experiences.

The trail we followed had two main parts, which I'll call its front end and back. Each section would take approximately one hour, with the first end heading up hill and of course the back end ran down hill, but the trail could be hiked in either direction. This was a smart, but a bit lucky, decision on our part.

The front end of the path we chose consisted of 4x4 type of foot trails. In contrast, the back end was more smooth with less mud. We had indeed been lucky, and cleared the bad parts of the trail before the rain could make them even worse.

We were basically alone the entire hike. In fact, the only people I remember seeing was a small group of three we passed on the front end. The weather was classic rain forest: hot, humid, and lightly drizzling. For the most part the front end was all the same, step after step on a slight incline. This let us get used to the new sounds and huge trees, while we tried to avoid the deeper pockets of mud.

At the half way point we came to what was called "The Tower." This was a bit of a misnomer, since there was no tower in sight. It did provide some stunning views of downtown though.

Our cameras were battling the constant rain, trying to stay dry while trying to do their job. Mom had a good idea to wrap her's in a zip-lock bag. I kept mine under my shirt for most of the hike. I was so nervous about ruining my new toy, yet so anxious to capture every picture I could.

The back end of the trail was supposed to house all the monkeys in this rain forest. We kept a sharp eye out, but by the end of the hike we hadn't spotted any. We did see some other strange animals though, running back and forth behind us, as if they were playing a kind of game with us. It was a beautiful and fun hike, not to mention wet. We headed straight back to the hotel to dry off and plan the remaining part of our day.

We decided to visit Panama Viejo, a historical section of town that was formerly the country's capital, and promised photographically interesting ruins for us to visit. The city was founded way back in 1519 by the Spanish, but on a slightly different location from where Panama City sits today. We were not exactly sure where these ruins were or what they would look like, but felt confident enough to just get on the road and go. As luck would have it, we drove straight to them, and quickly pulled over.

We pulled over so quickly in fact, that we had no way of getting into the site. There was a fence around the perimeter, and no gate that we could see. "Fine," we settled, snapped a few quick shots, and drove on. Just a bit down the road was the entrance, and so we stopped again, quietly laughing at ourselves.

Over the years, these buildings have been attacked by pirates and indigenous people, earthquakes and fires. Perhaps the worst damage was caused by the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. During his savage reign of terror in 1671, Morgan caused the loss of thousands of lives to the local villagers of Panama Viejo. In a strange turn of events after his capture, Henry Morgan was knighted by King Charles II of England and returned to Jamaica as Lieutenant Governor.

This tower once served as a bell tower, and inside is a set of modernized stairs for visitors to climb. Neither my Mom, my Dad, or myself expected the stairs to reach the top level, but once we started up we couldn't let ourselves stop. From this vantage point we found a new view of downtown, as well as the Pan Am highway and the other surrounding areas.

Had the sun been shining, our photos would have had a bit more color in them. We also had issues with our lens fogging from the humidity. At least the rain had stopped, so that was one less worry. However, a new worry had crept up, pun intended.

A creepy looking man took it upon himself to follow us around, and made our self-guided tour a little uneasy. He wanted us to let him use our camera to take a picture of us. I was reminded of my first trip to Sea World as a child, when I was introduced to this scam.

A dolphin show was being hosted by a very funny announcer. He asked a couple of audience members to join him on stage, and said he would be happy to take their picture. He then proceeded to back up, step by step, apparently trying to take in the whole scene. After a few more steps, with adequate distance between them, he turned and started running with their camera in tow. Everyone got a good laugh from the gag, but I have never forgotten this lesson, and it has followed me on all my travels.

We had had our fill of the ruins, and it was getting close to dark. Our path back to the highway took us through a part of town we knew to be a little unsafe in the evening, and so it was time for us to go. Our adventures had worked up quite an appetite, and we decided to give the Balboa Yacht Club a try. After all, it was only steps from our hotel, and we couldn't bring ourselves to eat anymore TGIF's, which was actually inside the hotel.

We were all expecting a nice, quiet evening with some good food. Two out of three ain't bad... The restaurant was beautiful. Its basically a giant bungalow, complete with thatched roof and all. Mom & I had steak, which were both fantastic, and Dad ordered shrimp, but received prawns. Turns out though, that this was karaoke night, and so our quiet surroundings were abruptly shattered.

We had a great time regardless, and even sneaked in some laughs at the signers' expense. Hay, that's what karaoke is for, right? We packed our bags that evening, one less thing to do in the morning on our way up to Costa Rica.

I didn't sleep well that night. I was too excited to arrive in Costa Rica, and eventually drive into Coco with my parents... But between now and then, there were so many more adventures to be had...