"The Panamanian Carnival is the second biggest festival in the world. Traditionally beginning on Friday and ending on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, "los Carnavales", as Panamanians refer to the days of Carnival, are celebrated in almost the whole country. Carnival Week in Panama is specially popular because of the luxury and magnitude of the Las Tablas Carnival as well as the Carnival celebrations in Panama City and almost all of the Azuero Peninsula. The Panamanian Carnival is also popular because of the great number of concerts by national and international artists held on different stages in the most visited areas of the country."
It is such a big deal that the Ngabe-Bugle indians postponed their protests so the country could enjoy the holiday. I steered clear of the big events, crowds not being my thing in my older age. But, I did go to the small town of Dolega 15 minutes from Boquete, which is supposed to be one of the biggest Carnival celebrations in Panama, drawing people from Panama City, David, etc. The festival goes for 5 days. During the day, water trucks called Culecos are brought in, and the crowd is sprayed with a fire hose. At night, bands and DJs preform and people get generally sloppy drunk. I went at around noon with Jason for the fire hose portion. It was $5 to get in to the fairgrounds, and beer was $1...port-a-potty was $0.25 a go, and cat-on-a-stick was $1. We ran into some of the football players we officiated for in the past, and they handed us beer faster than we could drink them. I left my phone at home and put anything that would be damaged by water in a ziplock bag which was a good idea because we got absolutely drenched.
Prior to the drenching, fire hose operators in the background spraying the crowd.
J prior to drenching.
Fire hose people spraying the crowd.
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