There was a post on the Gringos in David Yahoo Group that I thought deserved a second post here. I would like to get a little time and go up and see it. Maybe you would too.

Here is Norm’s post:

Feria de la Candelaria Bugaba
Enero 26 al Febrero 4

Bugaba, aka La Concepción, is hosting the annual Feria de la Candelaria. I caught the horse parade last year and it was fantastic.

The scoop…
I got the information below from a very excited Panamanian fair sponsor and it may/may not be totally accurate but here goes..

Bugaba Fairgrounds
Jan 26 to Feb 4 ;
I asked what time the fair opened and the reply was in the morning.

- Agricultural fair with dairy and beef cattle judged by judges from Mexico, Europe and Canada.
- Carnival rides
- Stage entertainment in the evenings.
- Many venders

Rodeo.
1 Feb thru 4 Feb.
I believe the big main rodeo is on Sat, 3 Feb. i asked for details and the reply was ”everyday”. The rodeo stadium is constructed new every year and taken down after the event. It’s built out of bamboo, old and new boards and old metal roofing. I’ve been taking daily photos of the construction process and yesterday, I noticed the bamboo floor joists are tied down with strips of inner tube, quite a contraption!!! I worked in construction in the states and this errr… structure would never fly in the states but it works here.

Parade;
- grand parade on 2 Feb (Friday).
I asked what time the parade started and the reply was ”in the afternoon”. i asked what time in the afternoon and the reply was ”later in the afternoon”. : ) The parade goes from the rodeo stadium to the parque and loops back to the rodeo stadium. actually… once the parade returns to the rodeo, the riders just keep going around the parade loop till they wear out : )

Last year, it looked like every campesino from the campo bought his horse to town and it gets kinda wild with lotsa drinking and lotsa horse poop. The horse parade has some magnificent animals in it and is a must see for horse lovers.

Bugaba is located about 20 minutes west of David at the intersection of the pan-am and the Volcan highway. Going up the Volcan highway, the rodeo stadium is a couple of blocks up from the Volcan highway intersection and one block left of the Volcan highway (first left after Union Fenosa). Unless you’re on horseback, you’ll be lucky to find parking anywhere in the area!!!

The fair grounds are about 1.7k up the Volcan highway from the pan-am. Swing left at the ‘y’ which is the 2nd intersection past the accel gas station on your left. The fairgrounds are on the left just past the ‘y’. Ya can’t miss it!!!

I’ll post photos of the horse parade after the event. Take toilet paper…
Norm : ))~

Norm thanks for taking to the time to do such a complete write-up and Norm make sure to take good photos in case I don’t make it up that way.