It’s location, location, location. With 80 direct flights Panama is quickly becoming the air hub of the Americas. Tocumen International Airport is expanding as rapidly as possible as is Panama’s carrier Copa Air. Construction has begun on a new International Airport only 3 hours driving time from Boquete at Rio Halto. And the regional airport at David, 40 minutes from Boquete, has lengthened and improved the runway, added radar to accommodate international flights, and is finishing a new terminal . . . and hopefully in the not too distant future will have direct flights to the US.

Simon Bolivar said, “If the world ever had a capital, it would be Panama.” And Panama City, “Miami on Steroids”, continues to grow upward and outward. Every time I’m in Panama City on my way to Tocumen International I’m stunned by all the new towers! It is hard to for me to believe sometimes that this is the same Panama we discovered seven years ago. The Colon Free Zone is the second largest free zone in the world and is growing by leaps and bounds. The Panama Canal has joined the world together for almost 100 years and as it approaches its 100th anniversary in 2014 already over one million ships have passed through the Canal. The $5.25 billion expansion program is, according to Canal officials, on target to open at the end of 2014.