She travels.: Going to the fair.

Carnival, Holy Week, Labor Day...from February on, I feel like we've pretty much had a steady stream of reasons to play in Panama. One is left thinking, what next? What could we possibly be celebrating now? Why the Azuero peninsula, of course! Last week marked the end of the 12-day Feria International de Azuero, or International Azuero Fair: a stewing mix of vendors from all over the country and beyond, those creepy rides that are only fun because you're not sure whether or not you'll live to see the next one, cultural exhibitions and dances, cows, heaps of fried food, and music. A lot like our state fairs, actually...with one minor difference.

A couple Fridays ago, my friend Yovana, a secretary at the school, tells me "we're going to the fair this evening, do you want to come?" I say sure, assuming that I'll be going out and coming home past my bedtime, which is typically around 9 or 10. I was also excited to finally go out with some Panamanians. We get to the fair around 7 to find that the place is empty, plenty of space to walk around, a lot of stands not open. I assume this is because things are winding down. "Oh we're really early," Yovana says. Early, I think, early??? Fast forward to 3 AM. Yovana is still laughing and dancing and the tipico band that started playing three hours before is just finishing up their set. I'm falling asleep in my cup of iced beer (yes, iced beer. They pour light beer over ice here.) and wondering how I'm going to manage the following night, since I promised another friend I would go with her to another dance. Nobody worry: I managed by sleeping away almost an entire Sunday, which I hadn't done since sophomore year of college.

Here's the thing: people here don't party a lot, since most towns are so small that any sort of partying results in bochinche (remember this word of the day? It means gossip) that follows you from here to next carnival, and there really aren't places to go out besides seedy cantinas full of hissing men (more on hissing later). When they do play, though, people play hard. And as I mentioned before, Azuerans are known for their happy spirit. They like to have a good time.

I managed to snap some pictures of the cultural exhibitions at the fair. The first couple are of polleras (poh-yer-ah): what is possibly the most expensive traditional dress in the world. Certain polleras can cost $10,000 and take a year to make, because true polleras are completely hand made. The costume comes out everywhere, from traditional dance troops (much like the ones we see dancing son and cumbia at the New Mexico state fair), to parades and carnival. It was the first time I had seen one up close and the detail is exquisite. I'll write more on polleras later, as there is an upcoming festival completely dedicated to them...