Geography and Climate

The map 

Joke:  What do the "0" say to the "8"? 

Answer:  Ooh, nice belt!

Before I visited Panama, I pictured the geography in my head as though North and South America -- one directly above the other -- were connected with a little vertical strip.  In my head, it was kind of like the number 8 with a very thin, very tall belt. 

In fact, Panama doesn't go north-south (like the letter "I"); it goes east-west.  It looks a lot like the tilde to the left of the "1" on your keyboard, except upside down.  

The canal doesn't run east-west; it goes north (Atlantic) to south (Gulf of Panama, which leads to the Pacific).  

Panama isn't centered underneath the U.S. (due south of Texas).  South America is both to the south AND east of North America, and so Panama is pretty much due south of Ohio and Pennsylvania.  Indeed, Panama City (8° 58' N and 79° 31'' W) is basically due south of Pittsburgh (40° 26' N and 79° 59' W).  

That also means the time in Panama is the same as in Pennsylvania, or is one hour off, depending on daylight savings in the U.S. and similar adjustments in Panama.

Other geography stuff

Everything I've seen so far here is really hilly.   The Ciudad del Saber is an exception, I guess; it's built on a plateau and its overall flatness surprised me when I got there.  It's not surprising that a strip of land that effectively separates two large oceans would have to be pretty darned steep.

There are, supposedly, extinct volcanoes in Panama.  In fact, National Geographic had an issue on the top 20 places to visit in the world:

"A sustainability leader, Panama recently launched its 1000 kilometers of trails project, which seeks to bring outdoor recreation and green tourism to rural communities and protected areas. First out of the gate is the Ruta de la Caldera system of five trails around the extinct Valle de Antón volcano (venalvalle.com). The treks take in waterfall-speckled landscapes, according to their photographer who hiked sections of the route over five days."

"We don't have earthquakes, but we do have some small tremblers": the Embassy gave us a helpful handbook, saying in part:

• Residential security – By law all the buildings in Panama have anti-earthquake foundations for your own safety so your house is not going to fall apart by any means. All the architects and engineers that achieve a degree in Panama have to build to the seismic standard of construction before they could build homes in Panama. This standard is the same as what is being used in the United States for houses that are being built in earthquake-prone areas. We don't have earthquakes, but we do have some small tremblers, which are more common. They are regular in this part of the world because this is a seismic region all the way from Costa Rica to Colombia. Chiriquí is the place in Panama with more seismic activity, which could happen once every two years and it is not like as dangerous as in other places. The average earthquake is from 4 to 6 in the Richter scale. 

I haven't felt any temblors yet, though.

The climate

I put together this chart of monthly average high temps, low temps, humidity, hours of daylight, and days of rain, based on this weather-and-climate site.  I think this chart accurately reflects what we've seen so far!

From May to December (the rainy season), it rains almost every day.  The humidity is constant and heavy.  Well, I say it's constant, but last night my husband and I were out for our daily after-dinner stroll and noticed with surprise that we could see blue sky between the clouds.  We both also remarked that the air felt less humid than we were getting used to -- it was almost pleasant.  (I think the humidity had dropped to about 80%; we're getting ourselves acclimated!)