Pollera Festival in Santo Domingo

On Tuesday of the Carnaval week, Santo Domingo, which is located right outside of Las Tablas, has its pollera festival. The pollera is the traditional dress of Panamanian women, with its origins somewhere in Spain. The pollera must be worn with tons of gold jewelry. Hair is put up by the ears and you wear enormous trembleques, which were once made out of pearls but now out of plastic, and you also add gold combs in your hair. The weirdest part is the little pompom in front and back (called the mota) that is always in a contrasting color – then you have silk shoes the same color as your motas. I think that the polleras are a great tradition. Panamanian women wear theirs occasionally on special occasions – they are passed down through generations and the best ones are handmade and cost thousands of dollars.

The 2nd photo is of me and Estephania, the daughter of our friend Colombia. She’s wearing more of an everyday pollera, and I have on the vasquina, which is just a fancy ruffled shirt that you can wear with black pants or whatever. I am supposed to also be wearing gold jewelry with the vasquina. I own the silk shoes that go with the pollera and also small trembleques, but they won’t stay in my hair (plus they look ridiculous). The 3rd photo is of a family we walked by who was getting ready for the festival. Mom is all ready but the daughter is getting her hair done.

Video of polleras in Santo Domingo

Here is a short video of the parade of polleras.

Carnaval in Las Tablas

We attended Carnaval in Las Tablas, the Carnaval center of the universe in Panamanian terms. Basically, it goes like this: during the day, you sleep until about 11am and go out onto the street to commence drinking. A parade takes place, and since it is so incredibly hot big trucks of water are strategically placed throughout the area to spray water all over the crowds. Plus, everyone comes armed with water guns, gull-be-gone guns, and pesticide sprayers (hopefully) filled with water to spray each other with. We skipped all of this and spent our days at the lovely beach in Pedasi. We would return to Las Tablas in the evenings, eat, rest and come out about 11pm to wait for the evening parade to start at midnight, or 1, or whenever.

The night parades were actually very nice, the floats are well done and very intricate, and the queens and princesses wore fabulous outfits. We were told that families have to pay a thousand dollars (per night) for their girls to ride on the floats as princesses. We don't know if it is true, but we believe it! Usually the parade would start and end with fireworks. The Carnavales usually have two queens – the Queen of Calle Arriba (upper street) and the Queen of Calle Abajo (lower street). The partisans of the queen would follow her float and sing songs about how awesome their street is, and how beautiful their queen, etc. They might also sing about how lame the other street and queen are. To be a Carnaval Queen in Las Tablas is a big deal for the entire family – they have to spend years raising money, getting sponsorships and (probably) paying off the committee members who pick the queens. The parades would also include a brass band for each Calle – the bands were great, they reminded us of New Orleans-style bands that you hear when you go to Mardi Gras.

Here are some photos of the Carnaval floats.

Carnaval Queens and Princesses

I love the Carnaval queens and princesses that ride the floats with the queens. Occasionally, even a guy makes it on to a float. Of these photos, the second one is of the Queen of Parita - you can see that the small town queens don't quite have the costumes of the Las Tablas queens, but every town has its own queen, or two.

waving queens and princesses

A video of one of the floats. I love how the queens wave and dance around, for 2 hours plus!

Living Carnaval from our Apartment

Panama City celebrates Carnaval by building a stage in the highway that we can see from our apartment. During Carnaval, there is loud pounding music every night until the wee hours of the morning. Is a good reason to get of town?

Flat Stanley Pictures

We brought a friend's Flat Stanley to the Caribbean and inside the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. Flat Stanley also spent Carnival in Las Tablas. The first photo is FS with a Carnaval float in Las Tablas, the second one is inside the Gatun Locks on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, and the third is the Caribbean (although you would never know it).

Pink Flowers

Cool pink flowers that pop out of a boring tree during the dry season.

Kel swimming in the Caribbean near Portobello at Sunset