Panama is such an interesting country. Far more than "that country with a canal", it has coastline on the Pacific and Atlantic (Caribbean) oceans, mountains, lakes, jungles, wildlife and a beautiful skyline! It was industrialized and safe and fascinating; surpassing my expectations in every way.
Panama is geographically important in a few different ways. It was the final piece of the puzzle connecting North America and South America, which by all accounts happened pretty recently. Somewhere around 3 millions years ago a whole bunch of volcanos exploded a whole lot of material and connected the two massive continents. This allowed for anything that wanted to walk across the continents to be able to do so without having to cross water. It also meant that a big ol' land wall was put up where the oceans previously connected. More on that to come.
A the beginning of the 1500s, Rodrigo de Bastidas left Venezuela and sailed west looking for gold. Fresh off of his voyage from Spain to the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus decided to continue traveling west and landed in Panama about a year later. These fellas lead to Spain learning all about Panama and alerting the European world that there was a skinny, 50 mile strip of land that was a whole lot easier to cross than going all the way around the continent of South America. So, the Spaniards took over and the native people fought back, died of new European diseases and then retreated into the mountains and jungles around the country.
The Spanish ruled for the next 300 years, during which time they built towns, squares and, of course, churches. We explored the remnants of Panama Viejo, the original site of Panama City, which at its peak had a population of 10,000 but crumbled after fire, earthquakes, pirates and privateer Henry Morgan pillaged the city.The cathedral still stands, and you are able to climb up to the top for a really great view of both the original Panama Viejo, and the glistening new skyline which has developed from the relocation of Panama City after it's destruction.