Trip to Central America

At the end of July I took my first ever trip to Central America - to Costa Rica and to Panama. I thought it would be good to relate some of my experiences, so I will do so in the next few blog entries!

Geography

For those of you who don't know - if we think of Central America as the thin strip of land that joins the large land masses of North America and South America, then Costa Rica and Panama are the most southerly two countries of that strip. They are both small countries; here are their sizes in square kilometres: 

Costa Rica: 51,000 

Panama: 75,000 

By comparison:

UK: 244,000

São Paulo state: 248,000

Costa Rica borders with Nicaragua to the North and Panama to the South, with Colombia also bordering Panama to the south-east. The Panama-Colombia border is closed to all ground traffic; you can only travel between the two countries by air or sea. I spent my time in Costa Rica in the capital, San José, and stayed just outside the small town of Volcán in Panama (too small to show on the map). More about those cities in subsequent blog entries.

Operation Mobilisation has bases in both countries, both of which are looking to expand their activities and grow their teams. To do this, they need to make the best of IT technology for their offices, which is why I, as OM Area IT Officer for Latin America was invited to visit their bases. 

This was really a great privilege,  and a very successful visit. Watch this space for more posts …