There's more to the Americas than North America. First stop Bolivia.

Bolivia isn interesting place. Everything is relatively basic, but the people are very nice and they make the most of what they have. One interesting fact: there are no McDonalds in Bolivia as the people do not want to pay such a high price for a burger and so past attempts to establish the stores there have failed!

Here's the airstrip we landed at in the town of Villamontes, in the south of the country:

No duty free options or food court here. The town has a community of Mennonites. If living a basic life in Bolivia wasn't enough, these guys go the extra mile and avoid all modern trappings:

 But the residents of Villamontes do have an official fanny distributor, so that's good:

 So now up to Panama. First sight looks impressive:

Right now Panama is finishing work on their first metro line. Line 1 has 13 stations and links Los Andes County with the city center. Here's the 5 de Mayo station entrance:

 And here's a test train running at night:

 Very impressive so far. Next up is the Panama Canal. This photo does not do justice to the size of the vessel passing through the canal:

 The Panama Canal is 48 miles long and connects the Atlantic to the Pacific, drastically shortening shipping routes. Ships have to pass through a series of locks to get from one side the other and it takes 6-8 hours to complete the transit. The lock above is at Miraflores.

Panama may have a lot of advanced infrastructure compared with Bolivia but there are areas of extreme contrast, like this, just round the corner from 5 de Mayo station:

 And then a whole different atmosphere in the old town, full of nice old buildings and, importantly, good bars: