The Central American country of Panama is like a stretched-out letter S, lying on its side to soak up the sun — with the Pacific and the Caribbean snuggling up to its curves.
The capital, Panama City, in the bottom arch of the S, invites you to stroll down red-brick streets lined with lush palm trees and white colonial buildings that look like layer cakes. You can stroll along the seafront and gaze out across the Pacific — and daydream about the 17th-century pirates that sailed nearby.
When you’re ready for adventure, you might hike to the top of Panama’s highest mountain — Volcán Barú — to watch the sun rise over both the Atlantic and Pacific, volunteer in Cerra Hoya National Park to study jaguars, spend the night a traditional village in the jungle with the Emberá people, or kick back at an artistic island resort.
Maybe it’s more your speed to spend endless days in your bathing suit, eating fresh fish just pulled from the sea, or sipping some of the world’s best coffee. Panama has all of that and more.
In this episode, we get curious about the Panama Canal, discuss the relative sobriety of dwarf sloths, and get real about what it’s like to spend time in the jungle. Then we recommend five great books that took us to Panama on the page, including a fascinating history of the Panama Canal, a novel that answers the question ‘what would it be like to run away to the jungle?’, a rousing real-life pirate adventure, a story in verse that honors the people who built the Canal, and a family mystery set in Panama City.
Here are the books about Panama we recommend on the show:
Seducing the Spirits by Louise Young
Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune by Keith Thomson
Silver People: Voices From the Panama Canal by Margarita Engle
Panama Fever: The Epic Story of One of the Greatest Human Achievements of All Time—the Building of the Panama Canal by Matthew Parker
The World in Half by Cristina Henríquez
For a complete roundup of all the books we recommend, plus a full transcript and the other cool stuff we talked about, visit the Episode 63 show notes.
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