You know I cruised - or "yachted" the Chilean canals out of Puerto Montt in 2001 - the food in Chile was not very great - lots of seafood - but not many spices. Very old style European - lots of Germans went to Chile around the turn of the century

Central america has pupusas - lots of variety there, but again- no spice. I have read that the great tradions here in MX sprang from the Aztec, Toltec cultures - which focused on a lot of hot spices - real MX chocolate has no sugar, milk and lots of chilli. You would think there would be some of the black traditions in Panama - think "jerk" - love that stuff - but I guess not. Looking forward to going there - sounds like at least their are good ingredients.