Panama is one of the key crossroads in the world, the land bridge between North America and South America and the waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific, yet it seems to be perpetually a decade or two behind always-trendy Costa Rica in drawing crowds of tourists. This is true even though Panama has all the elements to qualify as a Central American hotspot: teeming wildlife, sandy beaches, scuba diving, world-class fishing, widespread English proficiency, reliable transportation and a cosmopolitan capital city. The country even uses the U.S. dollar as its currency, so American visitors don