Indigenous groups in Panama have shut down parts of the Pan American Highway in an increasingly violent protest. The root of the conflict is the Martinelli government’s refusal to enact environmental protection that was promised for the Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca from both Hydro-Electric and mining exploitation. Outside press is being denied entry to cover the conflict. This is not the first time this has happened. Ongoing updates in English can be found here.
posted by white_devil on Feb 7, 2012 - 6 comments

Panama Priti Bikes, by José Castrellón.
posted by Fiasco da Gama on Nov 23, 2011 - 6 comments

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is working to make many of their digital archives accessible online: These include everything from the distress call of a young howler monkey to courting poison dart frogs, to the sound of morning amongst the mangroves - not to mention more than 40,000 photographs and 1500 documents all related to STRI's work in Panama and across the tropics.
posted by ChuraChura on Aug 30, 2011 - 3 comments

Cannabis Culture
posted by twoleftfeet on Apr 3, 2011 - 59 comments

Res Obscura is a blog by Ben Breen, a graduate student of early modern history, which styles itself "a compendium of obscure things." Indeed, even the asides are full of wonder, such as the one about Boy, the famous Royalist war poodle of the English Civil War, which is but a short addendum to a post about witches' familiars. Here are some of my favorite posts, Pirate Surgeon in Panama (and a related post about 18th Century Jamaica), vanished civilizations, asemic pseudo-Arabic and -Hebrew writing in Renaissance art, and a series of posts about the way the Chinese and Japanese understood the world outside Asia in the early modern period (Europeans as 'Other', Europeans as 'Other,' Redux and Early Chinese World Maps).
posted by Kattullus on Sep 30, 2010 - 16 comments

Justin and Stephanie are travelling from Philadelphia to Auckland on the Cap Cleveland, a 220m long container ship. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago on Sep 23, 2010 - 17 comments

What do you do when you're a Panamanian golden frog and you need to let that certain special someone across the way know you're, um, interested? Sure, you could croak a few sweet nothings in her ear, but those rushing jungle streams can drown out even the most virile of frog voices. So, you... wave! Yeah, give her a little wave! A BBC film crew has captured footage of this rare (and, according to their article, now extinct) amphibian waving, fighting and mating. [NOTE: last link includes hot froggy ménage à trois. Surely NSFW!] [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on Feb 1, 2008 - 22 comments

Manuel Noriega will be getting out of jail soon.
posted by Meatbomb on Jul 20, 2007 - 22 comments

Two time-lapse journeys through the Panama Canal.(YouTube)
posted by fandango_matt on Dec 4, 2006 - 6 comments

Latin America Turning Left? From the top: Lula da Silva*, Lopez Obrador, Nestor Kirchner, Hugo Chavez*, Alvaro Uribe, Michelle Bachelet*, Ollanta Humala, Alfredo Palacio, Oscar Berger, Leonel Fernandez, Oscar Arias, Tony Saca, Tabare Vazquez, Martín Torrijos, Evo Morales* Manuel Zelaya, Nicanor Duarte, Daniel Ortega, Rene Preval*.
posted by airguitar on Apr 13, 2006 - 30 comments

Nefarious deeds in Haiti by the Consultants Advisory Group. Kathryn Cramer exposes n'er do wells acting in Haiti, operating out of Panama. Given the recent goings on in Haiti, one can only speculate as to the extent of their involvement...
posted by pucklermuskau on Jan 20, 2006 - 10 comments

Panamacam! (warning: embedded mpg) Using available web-cam footage and a little DIY hackery, Stephan van der Palen created this nifty little time-lapse movie of shipping traffic in the Panama Canal zone (1 week=11 min.). Not to be outdone, the US Army Corps of Engineers has their own Lock-cams, and releases their own time-lapse movies of Soo Lock Traffic--from multiple cams--every day of the shipping season.
posted by Chrischris on Nov 18, 2005 - 17 comments

Crossing the Darien Gap. The Pan-American Highway is not quite Pan-American. There are 200 miles of untamed jungle, where Panama meets Colombia, called the "Darien Gap". Today, persistent kidnappings and cartel activity make it unsafe to cross by either foot or off-road vehicle. But it's been done a few times. Here is one such tale, a blog from the mid-seventies. [more inside]
posted by condour75 on Dec 14, 2002 - 6 comments