Payphones Aplenty in Panama. Here’s One From Santa Fé.

It’s been reported that there are more cell phones than there are people in the Central American country of Panama. This is according to Mary Roush, who wrote to inform me that in spite of the cell phone’s nearly universal adoption there are still many, many working payphones to be found throughout her country. Mary adds:

My favorites are on the islands. There are payphones on Contadora and Saboga in the Pearl Islands and, most likely, in the San Blas Islands…and there is one on the main street in Volcan, at the base of Volcan Baru (our snow-capped dormant volcano).

Maybe Mary will be sending more photos from those and other locations throughout Panama. For now here are a couple of photos of a single phone booth on a rural road near the Continental Divide. This is outside of Santa Fé, Panama. The structure, bearing the brand name of “CABLE & WIRELESS PANAMA”, looks to be similar to the GTE-branded model from Wrangell, Alaska, seen a few days ago on the Payphone Project. This might be a bit of a stretch but it also resembles the model I spotted outside the Sahara Motel in Daytona Beach many years ago.