The Panamanian border with Colombia is the demarcation between North and South America. The boundaries between the continents of Earth are generally a matter of geographical convention. Several slightly different conventions are in use.
The number of continents is most commonly considered seven but may range as low as four when the Americas and Afro-Eurasia are each considered a single continent. According to the definition of a continent in the strict sense, an island cannot be part of any continent, but by convention and in practice most major islands are associated with a continent.
The Panama-Colombia border
The border between North America and South America is at some point on the Isthmus of Panama. The most common demarcation in atlases and other sources follows the Darién Mountains watershed divide along the Colombia-Panama border where the isthmus meets the South American continent.
Virtually all atlases list Panama as a state falling entirely within North America and/or Central America.
The North and South America used to be the Costa Rican border back when Panama was a province of Colombia, but when Panama got its independence from Colombia in 1903, the border was changed.
Panama is widely regarded as the only country to have changed continents.
The Islands
Often most of the Caribbean islands are considered part of North America, but Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America. On the other hand, the Venezuelan Isla Aves and the Colombian San Andrés and Providencia lie on the North American shelf.
What part is considered Latin America?
Latin America, a cultural region of the western hemisphere made up Central America and South America, where most people speak Spanish or Portuguese. The Caribbean may or may not be considered to be part of Latin America. It is considered a cultural region and not a physical region because not all of the islands or land areas in this region have residents that speak Spanish or Portuguese or have a Spanish or Portuguese cultural heritage (Belize, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Aruba, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbadoes, etc…)
Although French (Haiti, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, etc) is a Latin language, these areas are not usually considered part of Latin America for some reason.
Thus, Latin America is all countries other than the United States and Canada, and places near them that don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese.
What is considered Central America?
“Central America” may mean different things to various people. There is no continent called Central America. Central America is a subregion of North America occupying the isthmus of land that connects North America and South America.
Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Central America consists of seven countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
So, Costa Rica is officially North American.
