Its capital is most modern city south of U.S. If this is third world, I missed first somewhere in my travels. Panama City is a world-leading financial center with some 120 banks, many with competing glass and steel monuments to commerce.

Panama is shopping, U.S. style. Many of stores found on Main Street, U.S.A., are here too. After all, Panama Canal was run by Americans for almost 100 years, and American military had a major presence here until 1999.

Panama once had a reputation as part of pipeline for Colombian drugs. It suffered under savage dictatorship of Manuel Noriega, until he was captured and imprisoned by American troops in December, 1989. The country has had a peaceful democracy ever since. Like Costa Rica, it has no military. Money is spent on education instead, and its people have a high level of literacy. And if you need medical attention here, your doctor is likely to have been trained in U.S. or Europe.

Panama is silver sand on Caribbean side and black volcanic sand on Pacific side. It has second-largest volcanic crater in world inside which nestles a popular tourist and retirement town. (The largest is Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.) It is dessert and mountaintop. It can be humid all year, or like spring for all 12 months, depending on where you are in this small country.