Reasons why Panama is a good place to live

Reason # 1 why Panama is a good place to live: Huge gaping holes do not appear in the earth in Panama City devouring buildings. A sinkhole sixty feet wide and a hundred feet deep opened up in Guatemala City over last weekend. The nearly perfect cylinder is thought to have been caused by underground water erosion of bedrock and to have been accelerated when the first hurricane of the season hit Guatemala. The absence of hurricanes is another reason to pick Panama over all other Central American countries. Tropical storm Agatha left more than 175 dead as is passed over El Salvador, Guantemala, and Honduras.  

According to residents of the neighborhood in Guatemala City where the sinkhole occurred there have been rumblings heard from the ground since 2005. Local officials are talking about examining soil consistency in the area to help determine if nearby houses might be in danger if the hole widens.

In a comparative note the volcanic uplift that created the Isthmus of Panama left us with a bedrock of basalt, not a rock that erodes easily.