Jan 22 – Today we left the shiny skyscrapers for a walk in the jungle. Within the city limits is Metropolitan Natural Park, offering a shady walk and a chance to see some local flora and fauna.
What are these kids looking at? Turtles!And more turtles!I love these curly, ropey thingsNothing Jim likes more than a shady trailThe ranger pointed to a sloth in this tree – my camera is at maximum zoom, but I can’t see it – can you?Here’s what the sloth would look like if we could see it!A termite nest up in a treeAs we reached the top of the hill, we were met by a family of friendly coatimundi, looking for handouts and exploring people’s backpacksThis one was a little too aggressive for me! From the hilltop we looked down on the cityThere’s the Canal locks! A view of Ancon Hill – Jim has plans to climb it later in the week Hard to see, but a parade of leaf-cutter ants crossed our path……on their way home to their big anthill by the kapok treeDieffenbachia in the wild!Not too much is blooming, but here are some!
We got back to the hotel and rewarded ourselves with an afternoon swim. For supper, we saw Sancocho on the menu, and remembered that this was one of the national dishes we were to try. Sancocho turned out to be chicken broth with a big piece of chicken breast, served with arroz blanco on the side. So…chicken soup with rice. Very nice!
Taking Our Time 