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Also in this section:
Carnival 2006
Torrijos opens a new legislative session
Noriega defaults in torture case
The other Moscoso administration museum theft
Oscar Arias wins in Costa Rica
Panama News Briefs

What a great time it was!
photos by Eric Jackson

Carnival is this remnant of paganism, a bacchanalian orgy on the eve of Lent that the church loves to hate --- or the flip side of our Catholic culture upon which so many tourist-oriented businesses, musicians, street vendors and others depend to support themselves through the year. There is no doubt that it's a major event for both our culture and our economy.

Yes, the party brought along its share of tragedy too. The National Police went a bit too far this year when they announced but four Carnival-related fatalities as opposed to last year's 18. Actually there were at least four times that number, one of them at the hands of the police, who shot and killed a young man who had stabbed a cop in Arraijan. Even Government and Justice Minister Héctor Alemán complained about the information manipulation, but the police then clarified and said that their lower figure was about deaths within the perimeters where they were patrolling, and didn't include a guy they said was shot down the block and stumbled into the Panama City Carnival area to die.

(Shall we put it into perspective? There wasn't significantly more violent crime during Carnival than in any other five-day period in this country of three million souls, but the carnage along the road was substantially worse than a random Friday night through Tuesday night period even if it was rather typical in comparison with past Carnivals.)

Meanwhile, another part of the same ministry mentioned above, the Immigration Office, had agents circulating at the celebrations to hassle actual or suspected foreigners. Migracion arrested more than 60 people, the majority of them here quite legally but not carrying the papers to prove it. Neat trick, busting people who don't care to take their important documents into the water spray, but it's nothing new, just a standard tourism-unfriendly display of bureaucratic power that we see every year.

But let us not dwell overly much on unpleasantries, because this was for the most part a joyous celebration for young and old, resident and guest.

For many people, it was several days at the beach, or to just stay home and relax. This reporter did a bit of that, too.

These photos were taken on Saturday in the Panama City celebration area along Via España and Via Brasil and then later that day and night at the Antillean Fair on the Museo Afroantillano grounds; then on Monday at Las Uvas and on Tuesday at Penonome. This reporter also checked out some small festivities in the town of San Carlos. (The biggest, craziest event was as usual in Las Tablas, and although The Panama News did not cover it, a much better photographer than me did take these wonderful photos there.)

You go to the Carnival's culecos to get wet in the dry season sun, and you take pictures like the one above with a disposable underwater camera if you don't care to ruin some expensive equipment.

You also go to see the queens --- foxy young women like the Antillean Fair's Tanilka Lasso (above), and princesses like the usually shy and studious Yahaira Martínez (below), who reigned over the festivities in Las Uvas on Carnival Monday.

All hail Her Royal Highness! Those who don't (and even those who do) will get squirted!

These visiting royals were from the Afro-Panamanian community in the United States, which flew down in substantial numbers for the Antillean Fair.

And yes, there are the musicians, of most genres, who find work during Carnival....

And not all the music makers were necessarily professionals. Nor were all the rogue elements necessarily what they seemed to be.

Yes, there was the drunken lascivious adult behavior that so offends the church, so much so that in Penonome they barricaded off the main Catholic house of worship to avoid its being profaned.

But those concerns by and large didn't ruin the fun for the kids.

Then again, one feature that distinguished this year's celebrations from those of previous years was an increase in the number of and attendance at smaller celebrations, where small children won't get lost in or trampled by grown-up crowds. It was a case of local communities and families voting with their feet for less frenzied fun.

It was fun while it lasted...

... and there were some impressive messes to clean up afterwards. But hey, street sweepers and allied professionals need the extra work that comes their way during Carnival too.

So did you miss it? There will always be next year.

This issue's Carnival coverage also includes posterized or otherwise electronically manipulated photos shot at the same venues that these were taken in the fun section, a dining page about some of the goodies at the Antillean Fair, Gary Johnson's pics of Carnival in Venice and Ivan Klasovsky's graphic report from Germany.