Bring your appetite. Bring gifts for the king of the Naso tribe.
Join Darrin DuFord as he hikes, bribes, and barters his way across Panama, a perennially overlooked filament of the tropics where DuFord encounters a startling richness of cultures between the nation's two coastlines. Sitting down with everyone from scientists to town barflies, DuFord samples such local delicacies as fermented corn homebrew and slow-barbecued jungle rodent while, at every turn, taking the more vernacular--and much more enriching--options of transportation.

Whether jostling in the back of a pickup truck serving as the local bus or uncovering how the country is tackling its ecological quandaries, DuFord opens a window into the little-known day to day struggles and pleasures of the Panamanian people. Is There a Hole in the Boat? reveals a Panama that is not simply a place to watch bloated cruise ships edge along the walls of the Canal. It's a land where the machete can slash through just about anything--except the nation's spirit.