I enjoyed the readalong, especially over the egregious past of that hopelessly tantalizing spit of land.

Thanks ! I enjoyed sorting out the history too. It armed me for situations like the other night when the topic came up and gray haired Panas try to say the Scots were the first colony here. Heh.

A nitpick: I think the softer molina trees you encountered were rather melina,

Ah, thanks, right you are.

How much of a hit is the exotic wood market taking with the canal dramas?

Not exactly sure. In tandem with the canal dramas, which they're looking to raise some $8.5B to improve the water resources, there was the copper mine drama which shut down the country for a good 6 weeks last quarter and led to the shuttering of the mine for now and a downgrade of their debt to one notch above junk.

That being said, my contacts in real estate say N. Americans are continuing to flock here as they look for an escape from the dramas up there. How much due diligence they're doing isn't very clear ; anecdotally, few are aware Panama has elections in May, they "just want to" flee from Castreau/Piden.

We'll see degree to which they're hoping from the frying pan into the fire.

P.S. Sorry for the excessively tardy reply.

How much of a hit is the exotic wood market taking with the canal dramas?