Carnaval!

Not knowing what to expect for traffic and people, I set the alarm for 6:15am with the hopes to be out the door by 7:00. We actually made it out by 7:30 and was shocked when we had zero traffic issues. We made our way to Casco Viejo (the historic district) which is close to where the Carnaval celebrations were being held in Cinta Costera park. We found what appeared to be a public parking lot that had a gate attendant, but we weren’t sure if it cost anything to park there. Vicente asked the person manning the gate if we could park there and how much it would cost. The response was yes and payment was whatever we felt like. We probably could have given him $5, but we gave him $20. We weren’t sure if the parking lot was designated for a specific business or something. He had just wanted to know how long we would be parked there. In all reality we could have probably parked on the street for free, but I actually did feel better about leaving the car in a parking lot that was being attended.

We walked up the road and came across St. Francis Assisi Church in Plaza Bolivar and took a few minutes to take it in and to take a couple of photos. I pulled up a Google map to figure out how to get to the Cinta Costera park and off we went. We walked right into the Carnaval area and found that it was pretty empty and looked like the food vendors were still setting up. According to one of the websites there was supposed to be a parade at 9:00. Vicente talked to several police and got different answers about a parade. One said 10:00, another 10:30, and another 11:00 and several others said there was no parade. Vicente also talked to an older couple from Canada who had come to the Carnaval area on Friday and was told there would be a parade that never happened that day as well. At that point we decided to leave the grounds for a little bit and set off to find some food. Once again Vicente’s Spanish was a huge asset. He asked several people and was directed to an area where there was several street vendors. We tried many different things from several vendors. The best was a chicken dish and something that looked like testicles, but was probably chicken gizzards.

After getting our fill of local food samples we walked back to the Carnaval grounds and went to a security checkpoint (which we had not done earlier in the morning because they were not set up and we had just walked in). At the checkpoint they told us we needed our physical passports to get in. We had not brought our actual passports but had taken pictures of them on our phones. They wouldn’t accept the photo so we decided to walk down further and try another gate. Before we went to this gate I told everyone to have the driver’s license out and ready to show as ID, as I thought maybe they would take that. The police didn’t look thrilled but we showed them pictures of our passports and they matched our driver’s license to the passport picture and they entered our passport numbers on their phone and let us in.

At this point there were more people then had been there earlier, but hardly crowded. We walked a little bit before we found a nice place in the shade to sit and relax. Another couple came and sat next to us and soon we found ourselves in a good conversation with them (unfortunately we cannot remember their names). They were from Amsterdam and had been in Panama for 3 weeks and were going back home tomorrow. Vicente asked if they would like a beer and he agreed so they guys went off to get the beer (which was only $1.50 for Atlas, a local Panamanian beer, or $1.75 for Budweiser). We probably talked to them for an hour covering all kinds of topics from other travels, gun ownership in America, jobs, sights to see in Panama, speaking multiple languages, and what language they dream in. They both predominately speak English in their jobs, and English is spoken everywhere in Amsterdam, but Dutch is their native language. The answer to what language they speak in their dreams is Dutch. While we were talking to them we did feel drops of water, but didn’t think much of it even though music now was starting to pump through. Eventually the man from Amsterdam got up and walked over to see what was happening on the other street where our backs had been and saw that the water trucks were spraying water on the other street. We walked over and found that the Carnaval celebration had started. We walked though and got drenched by the water trucks. A stage was set up with a DJ rocking a mix of Spanish and American music (mostly Spanish, but he did play a little Nirvana which I thoroughly enjoyed). We danced, got wet, and drank another beer before we walked out of the party area to the port-a-potties. We relaxed for a bit before we went back into the water gauntlet and stage area where we saw the Carnaval’s Queens. One more beer and a few more dousings of water and we had our fill of the Carnaval experience. The easiest way for me to describe our experience to those who are familiar with Milwaukee’s Summerfest is that it was like going to Summerfest at Noon when it opens and staying for the early afternoon acts. I’m sure it gets much more packed at night with beer, music, and dancing in the streets. I’m glad we got to experience it, but I certainly wouldn’t feel the need to have to do it again.

Upon leaving the Carnaval we headed over to the nearby fish market. We walked around the market to get a feel for it and ate at a restaurant above the market. Tom and I shared shrimp ceviche and a grilled fish. Both were very good. With our belly’s satisfied, I told the gang we were going to take a short .5 mile walk one way to get a geocache. The sun had come out and it felt quite toasty and nobody other than myself seemed too excited about this experience. Tom was going to hang and chill in the shade, but decided at the last minute to come along. Vicente and Peyton were going to come but then decided not too. The walk to the cache was quite nice along a pedestrian path that goes out over the water. I found the clever cache in what looked like an electrical box quite quickly. Yeah! I’m finally am able to put Panama on my geocaching map. So glad I was able to grab this one and get a few more steps in for the day.

Side Note: Tonight I went to the cache page for the one I tried to find yesterday on the La India Dormada trail and looked at other cacher’s pictures and determined I had not found ground zero as I previously had thought. It doesn’t appear I was searching the right tree after all. So frustrating since my GPS put me on top of it. It almost makes me want to go back and try again, but that is not going to happen.

Tom and I came back from the cache to find Vicente and Peyton had moved so we headed back to Casco Viejo and gave them a text to find where they were. They said they were in a tatoo shop near our car. We passed another old church on our way back and with the sun really beating down, when we saw a place for gelato we stopped to get a scoop to share. Leaving the gelato shop Vicente called to say that they were at the car, so we headed straight back there. By this time I think it was 4:00 and we decided to make the drive to the Panama sign at the end of the Amador Causeway and then maybe head a little deeper into Panama City. The GPS started out ok to get me out of Casco Viejo with all of the skinny streets, but then it wanted me to go down a street that was blocked off. I soon found myself going down the wrong way on multiple different one-way streets. To say this was frustrating would be an under statement. Police are everywhere and on one of my wrong way drives they came over to help us out with directions. Vicente asked them how to know which streets are one-ways (they don’t have clear signs like we do) and their response was “we just know.” That wasn’t super helpful but on a few streets I did see the arrows on the corners of the buildings, but they weren’t on all of them. We finally got out of one-way hell and got on a main road to the Amador Causeway only to find I was in the wrong lane to go in the direction needed . . . so another out of the way jaunt was made to get us going back in the right direction. We eventually made it to the end to the Panama sign and got the picture.

We were all feeling pretty beat but Peyton wanted a chance to see more of the city so we drove back into the heart of the city. Without having a real destination in mind and not wanting to get close to the Carnaval, I wasn’t in the mood to park and wander so we all agreed it was time to head back “home” for the evening. Once again we were all in complete shock that there were zero traffic delays. For the past couple of days Vicente has mentioned wanting to try the food from a tent located at our exit. Tonight was a perfect opportunity! We pulled in and they told us they wouldn’t be ready for another 20 minutes so we walked over to the Jumbo grocery store for Vicente and Peyton to buy some aloe. When we got back they were ready to take our order. Peyton was feeling famished and ordered 2 tacos, 2 arepas, and 2 quesadillas for her and Vicente. I ordered 1 Arepa to share with Tom. The food was so hot and already packaged in a to-go manner that we decided to take it back to the house to eat it (that, and a dog had taken one of Peyton’s bags, but we were able to get it back with no damage done). The food was excellent!

We caught back up with Pete, Laurie, and Linda and heard about their day at the Soberania National Park with Ryan and Angie in which they walked along a trail to see monkeys, birds, crocodile, and other wildlife. They said they had enjoyed their day as well. Overall I’m glad that we spent the day in the city. When we left the house this morning I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was a good day!

Stats of the Day:

Steps: 18,111
Time Stuck in Traffic: 0 Minutes!!
Geocaches: 1 Attempted/1 Found