I hear that Costa Rica is all blown out by tourists and that Panama is the new hot destination in Central America. Why not check things out for yourself with some secret sales going on today bound for Panama City (PTY)?

Delta and American Airlines got into it this morning with some discounted fares from each other's hubs. And while as of lunch time Delta availability is starting to dry up, I'm still picking up tickets in the sub 250$ range on American from several domestic cities into PTY. A quick dummy booking from Atlanta from June 12 to 16th yielded a paltry 227$ fare, while Cincinnati was 241$ and Salt Lake City was 227$.

The sale only seems to be good for flights only taking place in June. Time to buck up and commit to that summer vacation that you were going to take the wife and kids on. Too bad I'm all booked up for June.

Don't forget about the double elite miles promotion that's going on at American through June 15.

I called my friend Captain Dave the day before our trip.

"Dave, we're going to hit the ground running in Panama City so we can check out the canal. I've got it all figured out. Just get to bed early," I said.

Dave was up for this. He actually traded one of his Barbados layovers to fly this trip with me. Sometimes it's worth it to fly an ugly trip with a good friend. We've been flying together for about five years and we always have a good time discussing current events and hanging out on layovers.

I studied up on the Wikitravel Panama City entry and figured we could get a taxi over to the Miraflores Locks where there was supposed to be a decent restaurant overlooking the canal.

When I met up with Dave in operations, he had quite the story to tell. He went to bed the night before at 7 p.m. and, you guessed it, woke up at about 10 p.m. After tossing and turning a while longer, he figured he might as well come into work a few minutes earlier than normal for what he thought was a 5:30 a.m. departure. It wasn't until he arrived at the Boston airport that he realized the flight departed at 6:45 a.m. He was almost three hours early. He tried to nap on a recliner in the crew lounge, but I imagine it's hard to get much sleep when you're kicking yourself all the time.

I've flown with Captain Jim on the MD-80, the 737 and the 757/767. It's always a pleasure to work with him and we often discuss everything from politics to aviation -- but lately he's also become my mentor in photography. Jim has been trying to expand my interest in shooting in the manual mode on my Canon DSLR. I tend to spend more time with the angles and composition than the exposure and white balance of my photos. But whenever I'm on a trip with Jim, he brings along his gear and shows me how it should really be done.

I've run into him a few times this month and we've talked about trying to get a Panama City, Panama and Caracas, Venezuela trip together so we could visit Casca Viejo in Panama. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, and perfect for a day of photography. Through some trip trading, I was able to get on one of these three-day trips with him.

As you'll see after the jump, it didn't go exactly as we'd hoped.

There's so much to love about the Caribbean, and so much to hate.

The "hate" category exists because the Caribbean we have all come to love is now loved by too many; there are too many hotels, too many tourists, and too much development.

But there are exceptions.

Thankfully, the fine folks over at Condé Nast Traveler have compiled a fantastic guide to the less touristy places along the Caribbean side of Central America that "are still under the radar" -- such as Corn Island in the photo above. This also includes the coasts of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.

No, you won't find the swank, sophistication, and luxury yachts that populate the rest of the Caribbean, but you will find the peace and solace that comes with small coastal villages, empty beaches, and modest accommodations.

This is the true Caribbean, the way it used to be. Visit now before it becomes just another Cancun.

News is out today that pretty soon, Panamanians will be bilingual in Spanish and Mandarin. The National Assembly has conditionally approved a bill requiring all schools to teach Mandarin, a nod to the sheer power of China's economy.

China is the biggest user of the Panama Canal, and the bill states that Mandarin is an "indispensable language," though it recognizes English is the international language of business. Curiously the country also holds diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

There's been a lot of coverage lately about eclectic countries all seeing a huge boom in Chinese tutoring and classes. Here's a great article from a colleague from the TIME Beijing bureau who wrote about this phenomenon.

I thought I'd recap a few of the things I've learned over the past week. I'll call them My Rules of Panama.

1. Do not go to Panama City without hotel reservations. For some reason, there are way too few rooms to go around, even though P.C. is a big, modern city with an incredible amount of residential high-rise construction going on. High end hotels or low end hostels were the same story.
2. Negotiate with your taxi driver ahead of time. No meters can mean widely different fares.
3. Do not get to your regional airport flight late. I went from P.C. to Bocas by regional airline (Aeroperlas), and the flight left 25 minutes early. That's a first.
4. Do not go to the Caribbean coast without rain gear. Even outside of the rainy season, it can rain very often.
5. Sand flies can be murder on the Caribbean coast. Bring repellent and wear long pants and shoes at night or you'll be itching for days.
6. Bring a very up to date guidebook if you want to know prices ahead of time: prices on everything have at least doubled in the last 3-5 years. That's even more amazing considering their currency is pegged 1-to-1 to the U.S. dollar and you can pay everywhere in USD.
7. Bring earplugs if pounding music at 4am will trouble your sleep. It's everywhere.

I've really enjoyed my time in this beautiful country. I've walked a rainforest in the city, seen toucans and dozens of parrots right in Panama City, gone wreck diving in crystal Caribbean waters, been face-to-face with huge toadfish, pipefish, and barracuda, seen the history-changing Canal, and polished off a few Atlases, Balboas, and Panamas (i.e., beer), and I'd lived to scratch about it. Thanks, Panama.

Panama City is home to one of the world's largest rain forests inside city limits. It's beautiful. Great city and Pacific Ocean views on one side (like my picture the other day, taken from the park) and unbroken jungle-like views on the other side.

What's strange about the Panama National Metropolitan Park is that it is a sister park to the Cleveland (Ohio) Metroparks system. USAID and the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation give some assistance to the park in Panama.

Why? It turns out that a few of Cleveland's home-town birds winter every year right here in Panama City. Birds like the Baltimore Oriole (pictured), the Yellow Warbler, and the Barn Swallow all hang out from May to September in Ohio, then head to Panama for the winter.

Signs throughout the park tell of the parallels between the cities. Both are major cities. Both home to over a million inhabitants. Both are a terminus of an important canal (the Erie and the Panama). Unlike Cleveland, Panama's park is home to 950 species of birds (227 of which can be found in the park), forty-six of which are migratory birds. Like Clevelend, Panama hasn't had a winning sports team in approximately 342 years.

One of the things that surprised me the most about my trip to Panama is the amount of development going up in Panama City, Panama. There are literally dozens of highrises going up right now, in addition to the dozens that are already there. Panama is a fairly small city, about 600-800 thousand residents, based on different estimates. Yet, judging by the skyline, you would think that this is a multi-million resident metropolis.

I have talked to a few people about this and they thought the development had to do with a) rise in tourism, b) banking, and c) planned expansion of the Panama Canal. Still, I don't understand why the need for thousands of condo units. Even Donald Trump has been developing here. Well, gambling and prostitution are legal here. Is this going to be the Vegas of Latin America?

It has been so refreshing to fly those little regional airlines in Latin America in the last couple of weeks. I have taken 4 regional flights so far and I love how well it has worked for me. Granted, the planes look about 50 years old, while the pilots look about 20, but they do seem to know what they are doing.

I appreciate that they operate like trains, without any of that insane ticket pricing structure we have all reluctantly gotten used to: "The air ticket you looked up yesterday for $250? Um, that will be $600 today. Why? Just because. Check back tomorrow, it might come down again. Umm, why?"

I have forgotten how nice it is to walk up to a counter and buy an air ticket for a flight that takes off 30 minutes from now. I did exactly that a few of days ago in Panama City. I walked up to an Aeroperlas counter and bought a one way ticket to Bocas del Toro for $70. If I bought the ticket 2 weeks before or 6 months prior, it would have still been $70. I love that - first come, first serve. Makes budgeting for travel much easier. Even better - if you miss the flight (which I did on one ocassion), they will issue you a new ticket to the same, or different, destination at no extra cost. How cool is that?

Try the same thing in the US or Europe, even with those so-called budget airlines, sometimes. They will charge you $2000 for a $200 ticket if you want to fly the same day. Changes? Yeah, right. The airlines would rather have the seat empty than charge something sensible. I remember taking a course on airline pricing structure in college and I remember that the overly complicated way air ticket pricing is set didn't make any sense to me then. Clearly, it still doesn't.

Yes, these are my legs. Yes, they have seen better days. I woke up a couple of nights ago and counted 85 sandfly bites on my left calf alone. I don't understand why I don't see anyone else chewed to pieces. Why do they love me so much?

Last week, I spent trekking through the Corcovadorainforest in Costa Rica and didn't get a single bite. I was ready to fight mosquitoes in Panama's Bocas del Toro, but I wasn't prepared for sandflies! They have mosquito nets here but those pose no problem for sandflies. The sandfly is basically invisible, doesn't make a noise, is about a quarter of the size of a mosquito and much faster. By the time you feel them biting you, they are gone. If there is a definition of irregular warfare, this must be damn close.

I brought repellent (40% DEET) and have been using it religiously during my hikes through the jungle. I should have been better about putting it on at night, I guess. That's when sandflies attack. Apparently, most sandflies are harmless (except for the really itchy bites) but some carry the parasite Leishmaniasis, which can result in ugly sores, scars and if left untreated, death.* That does not sound like fun. Meanwhile, I am putting all my energy into NOT scratching.

* I find that 5 to 6 bottles of Panama beer makes one forget about the imminent death by tropical parasites.