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Panama
The narrow isthmus where a canal joins two oceans
Panama is the slender land bridge between North and South America, and its defining feature is the canal that slices through it, linking the Atlantic and Pacific and funneling a vast share of world trade. Around 4.6 million people live in a country that is part tropical crossroads, part global shipping and financial hub. Skyscrapers crowd Panama City's skyline while the Darien jungle remains one of the most impenetrable wildernesses in the Americas. Few small nations sit so squarely at the center of global commerce.
A spine of mountains runs the length of the country, rising to Volcan Baru at 3,475 meters, the only spot from which both oceans can be glimpsed on a clear day. Dense rainforest cloaks much of the territory, including the roadless Darien Gap on the Colombian border. Hundreds of islands fringe both coasts, among them the San Blas archipelago of the Indigenous Guna. The climate is hot, humid, and tropical year-round.
Part of Colombia until a US-backed secession in 1903 cleared the way for the canal, Panama regained full control of the waterway in 1999. The canal, expanded in 2016, anchors an economy also built on banking, logistics, and a free-trade zone. Biodiversity, the migration crisis funneling through the Darien, and water supply for the canal define contemporary concerns.