My recent trip to Central America brought me a bit of anxiety: I now want to visit other countries for fear that the more years that I wait, the more that the march of progress will homogenize these places into being almost indistinguishable from the United States.
My first impression of Panama, riding the cab from the airport to the hotel, was that this was a much more corporate place than I had expected. There were huge billboards advertising mobile phones and high-end TVs by LG and other multinationals. In both Panama City and San Jose, it would have been possible for an American tourist, if he so chose, to eat at KFC, McDonald's, or Pizza Hut, stay at a hotel similar to what one would find in the US, and watch English-language cable TV programming in his hotel room. Thus, one could visit Panama City or San Jose deliberately avoiding getting immersed in the local culture and society. Had my trip only been to Panama City, I think that I would have been somewhat disappointed.
Panama, especially after visiting the canal, talking to some locals about the canal, and seeing the Panama Canal museum, came across to me as somewhat of a "crossroads of the world." The construction of the canal was a huge effort that brought in people from all over the world, including such distant places as Armenia, Bangladesh, India, and China. A number of those people made Panama their permanent home, resulting in a melting pot effect even more interesting than what one encounters in the US. On this one count, I have to admit that I think that globalization had some positive effects. Many of the people in Panama and Costa Rica appear to be some combination, in varying proportions, of European, African (by way of Barbados or Jamaica), indigenous, and Asian descent. There is no "typical" appearance to a Panamanian or Costa Rican person.