Looking through a map it’s unusual to see most of Central America’s largest population centres being far inland. With the exception of Panama, from Mexico down to Columbia virtually all major cities are far inland and away from navigable waterways.

Wouldn’t being on the coast or near a large waterway have more easily facilitated population growth in this region? In North America it’s entirely based on waterways. While South America has some large inland centres Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru all have their major centres along the coast as well.