forget the grisly updates on the toni grossi abrams murder, or the colombian killers riding around panama city on the back of a moto, here’s a quiz on a couple of the more interesting stories coming from south of the border. read more»

i’ll admit it. i’m a book whore. and on my last visa run to costa rica i spent an obscene amount of time fingering the swollen shelves of mora books. mora books is an excellent used book store in downtown san jose. sometimes i think i spend more time there than i do with my girlfriend. in my defense, i’ve yet to find a good used bookstore in panama, so by the time i hit san jose i’m hard up.

truth is, if i’m not buying books, or malingering in outdoor cafe’s like the worst kind of bohemian, i’m hiking the city. and it was on one of these walks that i stumbled across signs of an interesting sub-culture in san jose. it was near the museo national, where i found several old walls featuring funky tico-style graffiti. read more»

this is intended to be a quick reference for first time visitors.

is it safe? - here’s the u.s government website for travel warnings, visa, and passport info

departure - there’s a pant-load of cheap flights into panama city. but if you really want cheap, and you’re planning to stay longer than three months, you’ve got a problem. a $400-$600 round trip ticket jumps to over $1000 - $1200 if you want to hang in panama longer than 90 days. read more»