Gulf of Mexico
Mexico Nicaragua Honduras Panama Columbia
The Panama Canal and the Isthmus of Panama.
The Panama Canal connects the Caribbean Sea, to the Pacific Ocean.
The Gulf of Mexico and a few hundred kilometers (or miles) of the Atlantic Ocean separate the country of Mexico and Bahamas.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is a narrow strip of land in southern Mexico that connects the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. It is the narrowest part of Mexico and serves as an important transportation route between the two bodies of water.
Panama. An isthmus is a thin body of land that connects two much larger bodies of land. In this case, Panama connects North and South America.
The isthmus of Tehuantepec is in southern Mexico. It separates the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Before the Panama Canal was built, crossing the isthmus on foot was one of the best ways to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Both are different geographical bodies: Mexico is a country while Africa is a whole continent (e.g. much bigger). The biggest country in the world is Russia, while the biggest continent is Asia.
The Panama Canal connects the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea
The Panama Canal joins bodies of water, it does not separate them. The two bodies in question are The Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
The term "country" does not apply to the Panama Isthmus itself, as it refers to a geographical feature rather than a sovereign state. "Strait" is also not applicable because while the Panama Canal connects two bodies of water, it is not classified as a strait, which is typically a narrow body of water between two land masses.