Our new home!

The new place!

^Andrea signs our lease... because I'm not legal here yet!

^But we NEEDED it...

^Nothing like a few comforts from home

*MORE PHOTOS TO COME

Carnavales in Las Tablas

Carnavales in Las Tablas

Las Tablas is about four hours away from Panama by car.  The only great thing about the drive is the on-the-side-of-the-road restaurants (I love street food!)  At least on this trip the road was paved and had more than one lane!

^Guarapo, it's the strained and chilled juice result of putting a whole sugar cane into a grinder.  It's sugary, delicious and only 50 cents a cup!

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Carnaval is a very intense holiday.  The entire nation is told to celebrate the four days leading up to Ash Wednesday in a tradition that goes back 100 years.  Nowadays, the meaning of Carnavales is about getting drunk all day and all night with your family while cheering on your part of the neighborhood... even if you're not from the actual area.

The festivities of Carnavales are tricky and difficult to explain, so bare with me!  In each interior town square people flock every year to celebrate and witness the parades of Carnaval.  You root for the Queen representing the side of town you live on, Calle Arriba or Calle Abajo (High Street or Low Street).  The beauty Queens that are picked to represent these areas come from long lines of families from the town (in this case Las Tablas) and it is a job that is taken very seriously.  It's considered to be a HUGE honor to you and your family to be chosen as a Queen.  Every night for four nights there is a large parade around the town square.  Each queen has her own procession of floats (think Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) and costumes that have taken all year to make.  The Queen's floats are followed by her fan club known as a Tuna... they sing and dance and beat on drums for support, to boo the rival Queen and to pump up the crowd.  There are also fireworks that go off well into the night.  Here is a video that I've found online from the celebration in Las Tablas... and the Queen that I was rooting for!

And, as you will see in the video below, the rivalry between the two Queens gets very heated.  They, along with their Tunas shout and point and scream awful things at each other.  One Queen says the other Queen's family has no money and, "look how much prettier my outfit is" and, "she's so fat she must be pregnant" and so fourth.  Also to note, the Queens in this video are wearing traditional Panamanian dresses because it is the final day of celebration.

During the day the same crazy amount of people once again, flood the town square to dance... and get wet.  This is called, going to the Culecos.  It is a different but equally grandiose parade during the midday sun where they park tanker trucks filled with cold water on each corner of the square to hose people down.

I didn't handle this very well but I'm glad I witnessed it!  At night after the parade is finished people go to the club called the PH ("peh-acheh") to drink and dance.  This club is sponsored by local liquor companies that brings a PH to every town holding Carnaval activities.  We were so smart to buy the VIP package ;-)

^This is what a VIP package buys you: Wrist band with entry to the PH every night, a voucher for a bottle of take your pick booze (Seco, Vodka or Ron Abuelo), a thermos to drink the booze from and an embarrassing tee shirt.

^Henna tattoo on my arm given to me by a local, albeit famous, TV personality.

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We took this trip with Ilda and we stayed at her grandfather's house in Guarare, the town that neighbors Las Tablas.  He lives on a large plot of land and farms his own food, chickens and iguanas which he sells at the market for meat.  This is his dog Macho, who Andrea and I may or may not have made sleep in our bed with us!

^Ilda's grandfather's dog named Macho

^He likes to sleep in the corner

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On our last day we drove out to the port town of Pedasi to take a small and rickety boat to an island 35 minutes off shore called Isla Iguana.  It is a protected coral reef as well as a wildlife refuge with scary black iguanas.  Nobody lives on the island with the iguanas and tourists can only travel to and from during high tide.  Interestingly, there is a large crater from a US bomb that was dropped as practice during WWII on the island.  Ilda's family made sure to tell me how great "our" aim is!

^I know the reef is protected but I couldn't resist!

Also, in case you're wondering... of course I got a sun burn during this trip!