Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama

We are in Boquete, a pretty town in the mountains of northern Panama. We will stay here 2 or 3 days and explore. It is interesting, at first glance, Panama seems more integrated with the US than Costa Rica or (definetly) Nicaragua. They use the dollar, and there are lots of McDonalds, TGIFridays, etc. Part of it is possibly their connction with the US through the Canal, there are also lots of US Retirees around. But this is Central America.There is certainly poverty. There are lots of indigenous people in traditional dress in Boquete, and parts of the town have the same kinds of houses and flavor as anywhere down here. Other sections feel like a coolsville town near Yosemite. More thoughts to come. Costa Rica and Nicaragua are not friendly to each other. Nicaragua is poorer, and traditionally Central American. Granada is a mixture of Nicaraguans with cell phones in cafes and people carrying bundles on their heads, driving cattle through town (small herds), and sometimes sleeping on the streets. Politics are everywhere, any given neighborhood will have pro or anti Sandanista graffiti. Nicaraguans resent Costa Ricans, several Nicaraguans told us Costa Ricans are snobby, and said the country is full of violence. We have never felt danger in Costa Rica, and find the people to be as generous and friendly as Nicaraguans, just more reserved.Politics are less visible in Costa Rica. There was a dockworkers strike and riot in the Carribean city of Limon aten days or so ago (we are not going there). There was also a march of several thousand of the Invisible in the capital... Nicaraguan migrants, displaced rural folk, gay people, etc. That would have been interesting. One issue is that many Nicaraguans come here as seasonal farm workers, and are not well treated. Their experience is obvioulsy different from ours.Another is that there is a long lasting dispute about which country controls navigation on a river along their border. No one has said this, but I wonder if both countries feel mutual resentment that the Nicaraguan Contras (right wing anti Sandanista guerillas in the 1980s) illegally set up camps in Costa Rica. Very sad and complex. Both countries are great, can they get along? More to come, stay cool (especially folks in the East.)