This week was the 107th anniversary of the Chiriqui province, where Boquete is located. As such, there were things going on all during the week, including a parade of horses, called a cabalgata. Since I like horses, I was excited to experience this uniquely Panamanian event.

We came into town a few hours before the parade was to start, because we figured traffic and parking would be difficult. Considering how much activity there was around the public square, with vendors, music, and townspeople already gathering, I’m sure we made the right decision.

There’s a restaurant with a second-floor open dining area overlooking the main street, so we headed there to have a soda and stake out our viewing spot. Of course, the parade started about an hour after the scheduled time, but it was an enjoyable wait, people-watching and taking in the atmosphere until the main event.

While waiting, a street vendor selling snowcones came down the street just below the restaurant. I had purchased one a few months ago and remembered how good it was, so I dashed downstairs to get another.

The guy has a block of ice on his cart, and shaves it into a cup as people buy them. My favorite was the peach flavor that has bits of diced peaches in it. He pours a bit of sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand in the US) on top of the flavoring. The cost? A whole $1.

Panamanians are very proud of their horses, and it showed. The horses were groomed until their coats were shiny and manes and tails were combed to perfection. Some had fancy breastplates that looked like concho belts, with silver medallions, and some had colorful, protective wraps around their lower legs. 

I’m not sure how many horses were in this parade, but it was definitely well over a hundred. The riders were mostly Panamanian, but there were some gringos scattered among them. There was a band in the bed of a pickup that traveled with them, and a couple of trucks dispensing rum & coke and beer to the riders. Needless to say, a good time was being had by all!

The horses went in a circle, down the main street and back around one of the side streets. They made the circuit at least twice as a semi-organized parade, then individuals started straggling off in various directions on the side streets, eventually ending up at the starting point where their trailers were.

We walked back to Tim’s apartment after the parade, which is on the side street where the horses made their circle route, so we saw a few of the horses and riders up close and personal.

I’m glad I finally got to experience a cabalgata – another city-wide celebration that exemplifies the fun-loving nature of this country, as well as the pride of its citizens.

Sometimes, life is just funny….

Allow me to set the scene: Tim has a friend named Holly. She is currently in Hawaii, but owns a house in Boquete. She has a friend (David), who comes to Panama with some friends every year to go tuna fishing. David needed some freezer space for a few days to store their catch until they got on a plane back to the US.

I have a good relationship with my former landlord, Don, and he has a small chest freezer at the house I rented from him. He gave me permission to let them use it to store their tuna, and David was supposed to contact us this evening at 5:30 to transfer the tuna to Don’s freezer.

Well, 5:30 came and went, and we tried to call David. No answer, but Tim left a message. He also e-mailed Holly to let her know we were waiting for the “tuna drop”, as she referred to it.

About 8:30, I got a phone call. The person on the other end said, “Hi, Kathleen! This is David, and I’m in town. Tell me where to meet.” I told him I wasn’t Kathleen, and he then asked if I was her daughter. I had a strange feeling that this David was the same person we were supposed to meet earlier this evening. He asked if this was a wrong number, and I said, “You said your name was David, right?” He answered in the affirmative. “You don’t happen to have some tuna with you, do you?” He excitedly replied, “Yes, I do! We’re desperate – we have 600 pounds of tuna, and we can’t find a freezer anywhere!”

I gave him directions to Don’s house, and they filled his freezer. However, it held way less than half of the tuna. David told me that Kathleen (who he thought he was calling when he called me) had some space in her freezer, so we arranged to meet at her place. It so happens that I know both Kathleen and her daughter, and found this situation pretty amusing for that reason.

Just after I called Kathleen, David learned that the guy who was housesitting for Holly was at her house just then, so we trucked on over to her place instead, to see if she had the capability to store the rest of the tuna. Holly happens to live just a block or so away from Don’s house, so it was a quick trip there.

I tried to call Kathleen, but didn’t have wi-fi at Holly’s house, so I had to run back to Don’s to connect and let Kathleen know we would be there later than planned. But fortunately, they were able to offload the rest of the tuna to Holly’s freezer, so I had to call Kathleen AGAIN and let her know we wouldn’t need to use her freezer. That was sort of an awkward conversation, because she was waiting for us at the entrance of her gated community, and hadn’t sounded too pleased to be bothered at that late hour in the first place. Sorry, Kathleen!!!

So, late in the evening, Tim and I launched into this crazy adventure of finding homes for a LOT of freshly caught tuna, experiencing a “wrong” number that turned out to be the totally right one, loaded tuna into the freezer at my former residence, and got rid of the rest of it at Tim’s friend Holly’s house.

If you’ve kept up with the cast of players, it goes something like this. Tim knows Holly. Holly knows David the fisherman. David and Holly both know Kathleen. Tim and I had dinner with Kathleen and her daughter last week, and had no idea they knew Tim’s friend Holly. Neither Tim nor I knew David at all, except that Holly arranged for us to meet. Small world, indeed!

The interconnection between the participants, the good fortune that Holly and Don’s houses are so close to each other in the same neighborhood, and the unusual reason for this late-night jaunt in the first place (just how often do you need to find some quick frozen storage for 600 pounds of tuna???) made for a hilarious adventure that was also a win-win situation. The guys got to save their catch, and promised me a generous reward (in tuna, of course) for helping them. That works for me!

On April 9th, a 20-foot container arrived at Tim’s home in Florida, ready to be loaded. He hired a couple of guys to load it and secure the load for transit, which took about four hours. They were very efficient, and from what I could see on the videos Tim sent, they did a great job!

The container went by truck from Tim’s house to the port of Miami, and was loaded on a cargo ship bound for Panama on Friday, April 12. It arrived at the Atlantic side of Panama (the port of Manzanillo) around April 19. That being Easter weekend, not much progress was made until the following Monday or Tuesday. After it spent a couple of days in customs, it was released for transport to Boquete by truck. It arrived in our driveway on Saturday morning, April 27.

The two guys on this end of the trip worked very hard to unload the container. It took them about three hours. Tim had created a spreadsheet and numbered each of the approximately 250 boxes and individual items being shipped. The inventory list included the box number, the contents of each box, and the room it should go in. My job was to check the items off the list as they came off the truck and give Tim a quick idea of the contents, so he could tell the guys where to put them. This system worked pretty well, although it did get a little hectic at times.

The entire door-to-door service went very smoothly, considering all the steps involved. We used DAC Transport, Inc., based on the recommendation of a friend of ours who had used their services about six months earlier. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them, too – they did a great job!

The next step is to get the appliances hooked up. The portable dishwasher and washing machine were relatively easy to hook up, but the stove and clothes dryer are proving to be a bit trickier, since they need to have the correctly sized fittings in order to connect to the gas supply.

And the boxes – so many boxes! It’ll take a bit of time to find places for all the “stuff”, but at least it’s here.

There are more boxes in the dining room, the master bedroom and bath, and about a dozen more in my office. But actually, the volume of the boxes takes up a bit less space than I imagined it would. At least we can still get from room to room without climbing over them!

So far, we haven’t found any damage or breakage, except for a slight rip in the fabric of the little swivel rocker that came from the thrift store, which can likely be fixed quite handily. We’ve heard horror stories about lots of items getting broken in transit, but this container was packed very tightly and strapped in securely, so it didn’t have an opportunity to move around during its journey. Good job on everyone’s part!

Last night, Tim and I wanted to see the Good Friday processional, which is quite a big deal in Panama, since it’s predominantly a Catholic country. Since we knew that there were going to be large crowds for the event, we came into town early in order to find a parking place. Tim still has his apartment downtown, so we parked the car there and chilled out until just before the parade started at 8 p.m. We left his apartment about 7:45 and walked the few blocks to the town square, and found a great spot to view the processional as it passed right by us.

The processional began with several young people bearing torches and carrying banners. They were very solemn and deliberate in their demeanor, as befit the occasion.

Following them was the first float depicting the cross draped with a banner, and a large crowd of people walking silently behind it.

The next float depicted the crucified Christ, followed by another large group of people. Solemn religious music accompanied the march, with the speakers mounted in the back of a pickup truck.

The next float was of Mary, again with a large number of people following and more music.

The final float featured the risen Christ. More people, more music. I didn’t know there were that many people in the area!

All of the floats were very beautiful and elaborate, embellished with fresh flowers and great attention to detail. This event obviously means a tremendous amount to the faithful, for them to participate and endure the crowds. I apologize if I didn’t capture the full meaning of the event – I confess I’m not Catholic. 🙂

All the hotels were packed, and I’m very glad we decided to come into town early! We learned our lesson when we tried to watch the Christmas parade. The roads were at a complete standstill when we came into town an hour or two before the parade was to start. We gave up about a mile outside of downtown and went home. Not this time!