OK. I've recovered from the disaster at Dulles.
Panama was great. It was only a 5 hour flight from Dulles. Panama's got a variety of different things to offer. Panama City is a big, cosmopolitan town with a good food scene and a great skyline. Panama City also has not one but two old towns: one dating to the 1500's (which is in ruins because it was burned down by Captain Morgan, yes that Captain Morgan) and one dating to the 1600's which is still preserved and now full of rooftop bars. But there's easily accessible jungle too: there's a jungle preserve just 10 minutes away from downtown Panama City where you can see wild monkeys, coatis, sloths, leafcutter ants, etc. Even if you never leave Panama City's immediately vicinity, you can see both urban and natural attractions.
We did leave Panama City and spent two days in Bocas del Toro, an archipelago of islands on the Caribbean coast of Panama. There are two roads (both on the main island) but apart from that you get around by hiring water taxi speedboats to take you from island to island. That was cool and different, though it rains there a lot. You get really, really soaked very quickly if a sudden rainstorm breaks out while you are in a speedboat going really fast.
We saw the Panama Canal too, they have a visitors center where you can watch ships go through the locks. I saw two big cargo ships and one small cruise ship go through the locks. It was funny because for all the tourists watching from shore (or on the cruise ship) this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for the seamen on the cargo ships this was just an everyday part of their job. I got great pictures of the crew on one of the cargo ships just sitting around, bored, on their phones. Meanwhile on the cruise ship literally every passenger was crowded around the front of the deck taking videos of the locks opening in front of them.
Don't expect cheap, though. The US Dollar is the currency and prices are pretty similar to America. Panama is richer than you think: they make a ton of money off that canal. Very safe too.