Panama

Panama is where the Americas pinch to a waist, where two oceans almost touch, and where humans decided to finish the job. The Panama Canal is one of the greatest engineering achievements in history - a 77-kilometer waterway that saves ships from sailing an extra 15,000 kilometers around South America. Every year, roughly 14,000 vessels pass through its locks, carrying about 5% of all world trade. The canal defines Panama, but the country is far more than its most famous ditch.

Panama City is the only capital in the Americas with a tropical rainforest within its city limits. The skyline looks like it belongs to Dubai, but twenty minutes away you can be in jungle that has barely changed since Balboa first glimpsed the Pacific in 1513. The San Blas Islands are run by the indigenous Kuna people on their own terms. The Darien Gap is one of the last true wilderness areas in the hemisphere - so wild that there is no road connecting Panama to Colombia. And the biodiversity is absurd: Panama has more bird species than the United States and Canada combined. Not bad for a country smaller than South Carolina.