Carnival in Panama

We were lucky to roll into Panama just in time for the biggest night of Carnival. We celebrated in a town called Pedasi on the Azuera Peninsula.

This particular town celebrated in the traditional manner. There were two Queens...one from the north of town and one from the south. This particular picture is one of the Queens with her court and live band. There were also tons of people supporting their Queen by dancing in front and behind the floats.

The two Queen teams circled the square for hours competing by dancing and singing different songs. We were told that most of the songs badmouth the opposing Queen.

We had a phenomenal time drinking the Panamanian form of rum called caña and chatting with a bunch of locals and ex-patriots.

After the Queen and their teams were done the fireworks came out in full force. Latinos and their explosives...a deadly combination :) Luckily, everyone still had all of their fingers after all the fireworks had been lit.

From fireworks to the discoteca...we danced til 3 in the morning! Remember, we´ve been camping a lot so 11pm is usually pushing it for us, but powered by caña we had not problems keeping up with the Panamanians :)

Overall, a great time...would recommend Carnival down here to anybody.