You Can´t Fight Carnaval, It Just Happens
25. Feb, 2009 
9 Comments
I didn´t want to go to Carnaval, honest. I had the idea to skip the crowds, the noise, the heavy drinking, the late nights, the excess– all of it, and just head to this one coastal town in northern Panama. In fact the entire trip was spur of the moment: a quick decision to skip the 30 hour bus ride from Cancun back to Guatemala and instead work my way back up from the south. When I arrived in Panama City, I wondered what everyone was getting ready for. ¨You must be here for Carnaval,¨ someone smirked at me. Actually no, I´m here for the Canal. You?
The Canal was actually pretty boring, but I did spend a good part of the day hanging out with my cab driver, who insisted that he didn´t have anything else to do, so he wanted to come see the Canal with me. Seriously, people are this friendly and nice in Panama, there is something in the water. He thought I should go to Las Tablas, the small town people flood from all over Panama during the 5 day pre-Ash Wednesday bash. Five days, of nearly 24-7 dancing, music, drinking, eating, parades, performances, pagentry, thick crowds, and chaos.
There was only one problem, the once a day bus to Bocas del Toro, the beach town I wanted to see in the north, was sold out. I faced another day at the slow as molasses Canal or to take my chances and buy a $8 ticket to Tabla. I plunked down the money, got my ticket and went to look for the bus. Ah, there´s a line, I realized. A line that runs… all the way… to the end of the terminal. Oh, someone else had this idea too.
No problem. Four hours in line, two diet cokes, a few hundred pages into my novel, and a seven hour bus ride later, I arrive, in the most famous town for Panama´s Carnaval. There are throngs of people hauling in camping gear, inflatable mattresses, coolers, and bags of provisions. I ask a few (five, actually) taxi drivers if there was a place I could stay for the night. Hilarious! I must be kidding right? No? Ok, can you point me to the direction of the party?
This was turning into a very bad idea. Not only where there no rooms, there were no hotels! Everything was closed, besides street vendors selling beers, hats and ice by shovel-full. I wandered around for a while, growing more convinced that I was absolutely going to be spending tonight awake, at the bus terminal, waiting to return with my tail between my legs to Panama City.
By now it was 2 am and I must have looked strange, sitting there with my pack, nursing a third diet coke and trying to pass the next 4 hours before I could catch a bus by reading the latest Stephenie Meyer tome. Someone approached me, and as a reflex I looked at them wearily. ¨Are you from Canada?¨ Í shook my head. By now, I noticed that it was two people my age, who definitely didn´t have that street hustler edge. ¨Do you have a place to stay?¨ They seemed nice, we chatted for a bit, and before I knew it I had agreed to at least see their place, which was, as promised, just around the corner.
It was a house, completely stripped down to just walls and floors. In 7 small rooms there lay the backpacks of their friends, about 20 Panamian kids between 21 and 34. I could sleep in the tent on the back porch and they promised me, their eyes getting a little wider, the best time at Carnaval ever. Oh, and it was house full of gay men and lesbian couples. These things do not happen everyday. I had no choice. I was going to Carnaval.
What a story! Can’t wait to hear about your wide-eyed experience.
Alan Perlman´s last blog post..Accra, Ghana: land of gold, cocoa, and ant hills?
OK, I am loving the two part stories! Can’t wait to hear part 2 of this one!!
Gillian´s last blog post..100 Days!!
After all these years I still love to go and see the pageantry! I mean what’s the point in living somewhere exotic if you don’t participate in the things of that country? I think the many expats who live here but just eat English food and do English things all the time are really wasting such a chance to enjoy themselves!
Victoria´s last blog post..It’s Carnival Time in Gran Canaria!
This sounds like it’s going to be good…
Geoff´s last blog post..Slightly less rubbish with languages
The canal was boring? It’s supposed to be one of Central America’s great wonders!I’m poised to hear what happens next.
Fly Girl´s last blog post..A Traveler’s Secret
Hi Christine,
I love following your adventures in Central America as I am going there in May of this year for a few months. I’m taking notes on your destinations and adventures..
Any thoughts on the recent travel alert to Mexico? http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html
Leigh
Leigh´s last blog post..Be a True Explorer
Can’t wait to hear the second part of this one.
I hope you make it to Bocas. I went there two years ago and loved it. If you go, stay at Dolphin Bay Hideaway. The owner is a real character – and very nice.
Enjoy!
Melissa
@Leigh
RE: Mexico travel advisory, I can´t speak to the specifics, but based on their warning, it seems there has been increased violence along the border. Which, is usually the case, not because of violence against Americans but drug war stuff. They have generalized the warning to all of Mexico to be ultra safe, just as when I was in Guatemala they put a warning out about the region I was in, because two weeks prior and 100 miles away a single bus got hijacked that was full of locals. It´s as if someone robs a bank in Maine and they tell you to stay out of the eastern seaboard.
So basically, I wouldn´t worry about it, unless you´re planning on doing a land crossing from the US into Mexico.
What a story! Can't wait to hear about your wide-eyed experience.
<abbr>Alan Perlman´s last blog post..Accra, Ghana: land of gold, cocoa, and ant hills?</abbr>