At its best, carnival is thousands of people moving to Hispanic music, water spraying from above, cheap drinks, friendly and beautiful people - for 16 hours a day for 4 days. Panama city is said to host the second biggest carnival in the world but Panamanians prefer Las Tablas (where it has been celebrated for much longer) if they can find a place to stay. So when offered to share a house with some Panamanians for the weekend, I couldn´t resist.
At its worst, carnival is having your wallet stolen (my fault for having it in my pocket), having your house broken into (nothing of mine stolen) and somebody being knocked out in a fight outside our house - all in the first day. Like carnival itself, the people I stayed with were 90% great and 10% not. A couple of them had a very vulgar sense of fun - it was one of them who was knocked out outside our house after he touched the girlfriend of a neighbour.
The 2 people were easy enough to avoid because there were about 20 of us in the house. The other 18 (and their other friends I met) remind me of the reason I came to Central America, because 2 years ago in a hostel somewhere, somebody told me there was something special about the people of this region: that they are very hospitable, friendly and generous. Partying with them for 3 days was really something.
The routine was to head out before lunch time with an cooler (esky) full of beer and seco which you use to claim your space on the pavement and which the girls use to dance on. You stay there to dance and drink and talk until it is time for an afternoon/evening nap (or relaxing in a quieter street to sit around meeting people).
Night is much the same except without the coolers, people standing on tables and chairs instead. The night ends at about 6 and is followed by at least 4 more hours of sleep. The house was basic and 7 of us shared a room (with no furniture, carpet or door) with 4 airbeds and not enough room to walk in between them.
One night we went out early enough to get a seat each to stand on for the night, in the very centre of the park. Being tall, I could just about see every single person on all 3 of the platforms. Panamanian people know how to move and when a good song and the sprinklers are starting at the same time the atmosphere is spectacular.
