My friend said Panama has 2 volumes: loud and louder. This is a gross understatement.
Panama has ear splitting, head rattling, chest pounding, migraine starting, sleep depriving, body rush noise. Really!
Boquete is in the middle of the Flower Festival, so there are lots of people. And, when you have lots of people, a low life form of human fungus erupts...politicians. And Boquete has broken out in presidential candidates.
As I was walking on the main drag, a line of over 100 cars started to pass me. Each car had big flags with the candidates name proudly displayed. All honking their horns...non-stop, continuously, making a brain rattling screech. Added to this, the cars are full of people, all leaning out the windows and yelling. Plus, a B-boy sound system fit for a rave is cranked up and booming. And, people on the side of the road are screaming, trying to get the politicos attention so they will throw tee shirts to them. Loud, louder, and very loud.
At least, this is during the day.
The main noise event starts at 10 pm and goes to 4 am. That's right, 4 AM!
I thought the Flower Festival would be a quite, sedate, well...flowery sort of thing. Not on your life. This is just a thinly veiled excuse for a PARTY!
I watched them build a series of stages that would make Woodstock proud. They worked all week, with professional sound and staging teams brought in from Panama City. They erected a network of walkways, platforms and stages from 5 to 30 feet off the ground. Then they added rock concert style lighting and last but not least...THE SOUND SYSTEM.
I don't know where they got this system. The decibels would dwarf an AC/DC concert in their prime. I happened to walk by when they did a sound check. It almost knocked me to the ground. I was stupefied.
Friday night they cranked it up. I was a mile away...a mile away! The volume still pounded my chest. Sleep was not an option. For anyone within 10 miles. I know you think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. Mercifully, they stop at 4 am.
Now for the Creme De Le Creme. They play Spanish techno. The same song. The same beat. All night. And again tonight. And for the next 8 nights.
A friend took pity on me and gave me ear plugs. God bless her!
I will say this: these people know how to party. They make us in our hippy heyday look like amatures.
Any culture that can party this hard is to be revered.
Party on, dude!
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