Carnival!

Carnival was... words just can't describe it! lol

I started off on Thursday at the beach after a big meeting at my site. And then on Friday we drove down to the Azuero Peninsula to celebrate in Las Tablas. One of my friends rented out the house of someone from his site (who then decided that she was going to stay too... leaving us with one bedroom and 15 people!). I'm glad I left early Monday morning, cause my liver sure wouldn't have been able to handle two more days. As it was, I think I was the only one in my group of friends not drinking at the discotecas. It's a marathon, and if I was going to make it as long as I did, I knew I would only be able to handle some drinks from noon to 4pm, nada mas. Well okay, one of the days I played flip cup after we got back to the house, but then called it quits. Oh... lol and I had a rum and ginger ale the very first night, but that was only because the Vice President of Panama had his secret service bring it over to me and my two friends. That was a crazy day! We shook hands with him at the parade, and he asked if he could take a picture of us. Then he sent it to the US Embassador of Panama, with a text message saying, "Your Peace Corps Volunteers are celebrating Carnival in Las Tablas. I'm taking good care of them." Then of course we got a picture with him and that's when he invited us to join him in his VIP area of the club he owns. (He owns half of Las Tablas too, plus the main alcohol company of Panama (Abuelo and Seco rums, and Balboa and Atlas beers), plus Pub Herrana (Herrera?) which is a club in every major city of Panama for all celebrations, fitting at least a couple thousand people in each one. When he introduced himself to us, he told us that he was the VP and all that he owned... as if we didn't know who he was already. hehe) But needless to say, we were taken good care of!

Then in the culecos (the water craziness during the day), we got on top of one of the water tanker trucks and danced and squirted people with the fire hoses. And then we got into one of the VIP areas that are elevated as well above the wall of people in the streets. (I dont' like being squished with a bunch of people, so it suited me well!) And that had an open bar. You can see then why I called it quits at 4pm when that part of the day ends!!!

All in all, it was a great last Carnival in Panama! I'll send pictures as I get them from people, as I wasn't going to chance bringing my own camera. Ahhhh, now back up to site and back to work!!!