Panama :
Carnival and Canal
Old Meets New in a land of 1,800 Pacific and Caribbean islands.
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by the splendid chestnut-headed, orange-beaked, yellow-tail oropendola.
Carnival!
Back in the capital we celebrated the end of the Carnival week with a dinner of carpaccio of mushrooms, corvina in tamarind sauce, and a fine classic baked Alaska at the elegant Bristol Panama hotel. Then it was off to see Queen Yinnela Yero Torres and her two princesses on the Avenida Balboa waterfront. In resplendent costumes, they paraded first on themed floats or “desfiles,” followed by a “tuna” or group of musicians, and then they smiled and waved on open stage with folkloric dancers before an adoring crowd of locals supported by a blasting brass band. Certainly, it was more rough-edged than the world-famous Brazilian model, but after gazing at the Queen and her court my skeptical heart did jump a beat or two. In an increasingly homogenous world of tourism, Panama provides more than a few surprises.
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