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The Panama Canal is fascinating, but there's a lot more to Panama than its famous waterway.

Like a Latin American Rip Van Winkle, Panama is waking from a long, deep sleep. Travelers to Panama today are lucky. They will witness the country's uneven, sometimes frustrating movement forward as it opens up and shares its astonishing diversity and beauty beyond the Panama Canal.

For 90 years this odd shaped country, the land bridge between North and South America, lay in the consuming and perhaps suffocating embrace of the United States.

Her sleep so deep; her dependence so total, that only now, it seems, is she moving toward her destiny and promise, a destiny shaped by one of the world's most unique geographies, and a people so kind, one wonders if they weren't better off sleeping the sleep of the innocent.

Awake for Adventure

As an Isthmus, Panama's fate was to host "The Canal" with which it is inexorably identified. And if not the canal, then Manuel Noriega. Or perhaps the deceptively innocent Chiquita banana, giving rise to the image of the country as a "Banana Republic." And, but for the work of dedicated organizations like the Panama Tourism Bureau (IPAT) and Ancon Expeditions (see box), the story would have ended there.

Today the country beckons the curious traveler with a promise of adventure. Costa Rica, with which Panama is inevitably compared, apparently suffers by comparison: Costa Rica has no authentic, indigenous tribes; much less history, virtually no ruins - and many more visitors. First-timers to Panama, however, should book their trip through one of the handful of local, reputable tour operators like Ancon Expeditions. With its history and commitment to the country's natural resources and ecology, it's a good bet.