Dancing girls in beautiful traditional dresses, bands, bands, and more bands, guys with guns, and even some Carnival type outfits...Part 2 of the Flower Parade in our town in the mountains of Panama.
Continuing from yesterday's post, about the Flower Parade here in our town... I was surprised to see the band above with their Rose Parade Tuba covers. This band was big and good from Santiago, about 3 hours from us. It was impressive they had gone all the way to California to be in the New Year's Parade there!
The girl above has a banner on that says "Ambassador from Boqueron." It's a town near us (about an hour away), but I don't understand the costume. She was riding in the back of a truck, and we would come to find out there were more girls dressed like this coming up.
After this girl passed, my little girlie told me that she didn't have much clothing on. Nope, she didn't! I wonder if the made it into some cover when it started raining! I can't imagine that costume could take much water and still look the same.
These dancing girls were part of the band from Howard Academy in Panama City. I've never heard of it. They had a different dance where they kind of did a show like saying, "Come on, I'm better than you." The guys at one point even lifted them up in the air while they were calling to each other.
I did like the bands, but sometimes there were some LONG breaks in between each one! Some of them marched really slowly (like they were in molasses). It was like they didn't know how to march and play at the same time, so if they were playing, they had to stop! It is one reason the parade was 7 hours long I think!
Yep, guns pointed straight ahead as they marched. Ha! I'm wondering if these guys were in an ROTC type program, although there is no active military here. Not really sure. Maybe Coast Guard?
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I really am a sucker for the dancing girls. My 12 year old daughter is making one of these pollera skirts. I told her I wanted her to take traditional dance classes, but she doesn't think that sounds like a good idea! I can just see her and her blonde hair participating in the flower festival and parade next year. She would definitely stand out, but it would be fun!
Those dark clouds behind these ladies would hold off for a little while longer. I sure hope they got inside - can't imagine a wet feather costume! And where do you store something that big? Interesting costumes though!
