Saturday, October 20, 2007

We had another parade today even though it was pouring rain. We knew that there was an upcoming parade because all week long we have been hearing drum practice every night. This parade was "hosted" by one of the local schools, but there were floats from many other provinces (Bocas del Toro, Darien, Panama, etc.). Today's parade was a bit more low key than the one about a month ago, which had many more floats and all the floats were pulled by oxen. The general idea was the same.

The queen of the parade was the daughter of Dario, one of the fellows building the workshop. As I was riding my bike home this morning, I met Dario. When I asked him, "No work today?", he told me about the parade, about his daughter being the queen, and that he was looking for his boss to get an advance so that he could buy candy for the queen to throw during the parade. Of course I gave him a couple of bucks.

The parade started at the other end of town at 10ish. At 11:30 Tommy and I left our house and drove three blocks to a restaurant on the main street (on the parade route). This restaurant also has two bar seats outside in the front, and we were early enough to grab those. So, we had front row seating, con bar service, for the parade.

All the floats were pickup trucks decorated with flowers, palm fronds, and posters. The kids were in the truck beds, waving, dancing, and throwing candy. All were costumed: boys in dressy white shirts and dark trousers, and the girls in the beautiful native lacy dressy with elaborate hair ornaments. Most of the floats had some sort of cover to keep the kids dry. We saw one dad walking alongside the truck, holding an umbrella over his kid in the truck.

Each float was followed by its own marching band and dancing supporters. The bands all have drums and a horn section (some more than others), and assorted other instruments (one had an accordian). One of the bands took shelter on the terrace of our restaurant; this was great because the muscians continued to play while they were at the restaurant. Hard not to have happy feet while listening to these bands.

The parade route went past us, and a half block later, turned around and returned to the center of town. We watched both passes; probably took an hour or so. Everyone was soaked but had great big smiles.

So, now it's Saturday night and we are watching University of Michigan football on TV (you can take the boy out of Michigan but you can't take the Michigan out of the boy....), and we don't hear any drum practice. First time in weeks!