Carnaval in Panama City was a real blast! The fiesta begins on the Friday before Lent and over the next five days builds up to a crazy, raucous, cacaphonous crescendo on (Shrove) Tuesday. Carnaval has been a Christian festival since the Middle Ages, the word coming from carne vale meaning “farewell to meat”. It represents a last period of feasting and celebration before the start of forty days of fasting during Lent. Thanks Wikipedia!
We had been told that many city dwellers head out of town during Carnaval, but as we queued to get in and watched the line of people snaking around the block we figured it was not going to be a quiet night in town.The party started in the afternoon with Panamanian rap artists prancing on the stage pumping out their thump thump music, stalls plying the crowd with Atlas beer on ice and water trucks spraying the dancers to keep them cool. There was junk food aplenty, hotdogs, hamburgers and sausages cut into spirals. Neil got particularly addicted to the fried chicken and over the evening managed to scarf what probably amounted to a whole bird.
As darkness fell devils emerged and wandered the street looking for people to frighten and posing for Instagram pictures. Soon the parade got going and the music started up, Latin rythms from every direction mingled and clashed around us. The floats were an eruption of light and colour as they moved by very slowly giving us time to really enjoy the spectacle. Each one had a unique theme; Mexican bullfighters, African leopards and elephants, sphinxs and pharaohs and Chinese dragons, all beautifully painted and dramatically lit. The costumes were incredible; waves of feathers dyed every shade of neon, sequins, gold buttons and plastic jewels sparkling in the light. It was a fantastic evening.
We ended up spending about ten days in the City getting chores and dental work done. The anchorage at Isla Perico is linked to the mainland by a causeway and a regular service of airconditioned buses makes getting into town cheap and easy. Traffic in Panama City is a horror but the Causeway is usually clear except for one afternoon when no buses were running and the traffic was at a standstill. We were stranded at Albrook Mall for an hour until we managed to squeeze onto a bus. As we passed we looked out of the window to see what the problem was and saw a bullet-riddled car blocking the road. The next day the papers reported a drug-related shooting – a stark reminder that Panama City is not all fun and games.
The Las Brisas anchorage lies on the east side of the Causeway and is often battered by strong northerly winds at this time of year. One day when Neil was in town one of the other yachts dragged anchor and ended up drifting into Distant Drummer. I was in the salon and heard whistling so I went up to investigate and found another boat scraping against our bow! Some guys on a French boat nearby (who had been whistling to get my attention) came over to help. We got fenders out to stop the boat from damaging DD any more and managed to get lines across to a local fishing boat who towed it off. Then we didn’t know what to do with it so we tied it behind DD until the owner could be found.
I finally managed to contact Neil who spoke to the AeroNaval (local Coastguard equivalent). The owner of the yacht turned up about half an hour later but S/V Oh Baby remained attached to DD until eventually he got a panga to tow his grotty little boat away. Luckily DD did not suffer too much damage, just a split to the rubbing rail on the port bow and we managed to get some compensation from the owner. What an adventure!
We were glad to leave Panama City and return to Pearl Islands. We celebrated St. Patricks Day on Contadora at the house of our friends Ilene and Terry. Our Irish friend Nicola supplied the pizza and a movie Waking Ned which was a quirkly, slightly black Irish comedy. Neil sampled a few too many slices of vodka watermelon and managed to separate himself from the kayak on the way home and then from the dinghy which separated itself from the boat . . . It looked a bit chaotic for a couple of minutes but soon enough everything ended up back on deck!
We have had several more guests for bnb and sailing tours.Unfortunately at this time of year the water is freezing (hovering around 20oC) and cold water brings poor visibilty making snorkeling fairly uninspiring. However the islands are beautiful for kayaking and beachcombing and the Isla las Perlas have been the setting for several series of Survivor. Stumbling on “Survivor memorabilia” adds an interesting dimension to exploring these deserted islands.
Some of the islands are home to large colonies of pelicans, cormorants, boobies and frigate birds. The trees are thick with birds roosting and nesting and, armed with a pair of binoculars and nostrils filled with the smell of guano, we have spent several happy hours spying on our feathered friends. Although the adults look remarkably different, the chicks all seem to be fluffy and white but the beak helps to tell them apart. The sharply hooked bills of the baby frigates look like they mean business but the baby pelicans with their long beak and leathery pouch looked slightly ridiculous.
We’ll be in the islands for another couple of weeks then back to the City to haul Distant Drummer out for a survey and to get stocked up with water and goodies again.
More soon
Suzy