Carnaval is the best most intense 4 nights in Panama. It starts Friday night and is essentially a huge non stop street party in almost all of the cities an villages of Panama.

Last year I went to the carnaval here in the city, but this year I will be going to the Azuero peninsula in the two cities of Las Tablas and La Villa. Everyone says that La Villa is the best in the day time and Las Tablas the best at night. We shall see. I am definitely looking forward to it.

Carnaval here is a lot more of a street party, than the large parades you see in Trinidad and Rio. Panamanians are normally very well dressed, but for carnaval they find their oldest shorts, most tired tshirs and let loose.

The most popular activity in the day time are the culeco’s, where the crowd gets hosed down with huge amounts of water, while they are going crazy to the latest reggae, salsa and merengue. Just think of it as wet t-shirt country!!!

Friday night we are supposed to see the parades in Las Tablas where the Queens of Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo fight for the crown of Las Tablas.

In the night time Pub Herrerano rules with their open air night clubs at all the major carnaval locations. We’ve got our VIP passes purchased already. Cant wait. I hear they often have promotions down to $5 per bottle of Rum. Cant beat that.

Music wise Reggae, Merengue and a particular Panamanian party version of Salsa rules. Last year the number one song was Kulikitak (see video of last years dance contest here and you’ll know what I mean.)

This year, I’m not sure what will be the anthem, but it looks likely that the banned song La Doña about our president will win the title.

We leave tomorrow morning, so I wont be blogging during Carnaval time. But I will attempt to post pictures, when I get back.