So, Carnaval in Panama City was….less exciting than expected. We thought that it would be a good substitute for Rio but not a chance. There were 5 floats driving around in a loop about 3 blocks long. The crowd wasn’t excited and no one was dancing.
The line to get in was absolutely crazy. It was probably 4 blocks long with pat down searches for everyone coming in. There was a line for men and women so whoever got through first would wait in the DMZ until the other person came through. It reminded me of images of refugees being reunited with loved ones.
The food was yuk yuk yuk. Fried everything and really nothing vegetarian to eat.
It turns out that all of the party goers head out of Panama City and go to other cities like Las Tablas for Carnaval. We considered doing this, but couldn’t find any way to find out about accommodations. The taxi drive who picked us up tried to get us to go and stay at his friend’s house. No thanks.
There were some interesting characters walking around.
The highlight for Avinash was the SUPER tall bouncy house slide and a can of string confetti.
The children dancing were of course adorable, but there was one girl who would dance and as soon as she saw someone trying to take a picture of her would instantly get into a pose for the picture.
So our Carnaval desire remains unsatisfied. We’ll have to figure out how to get to Rio one day.