Panama Separation From Colombia Parade
Nov 5th, 2007 by Don Ray
On November 3, 1903, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. A Panamanian historian typically refers to this day as the day that Panama separated from Colombia. You will find many world references that call November 3, Panama’s Independence Day from Colombia. I am not a historian, but I will tell you that to many Panamanians, it is important that you use the word “separation”.
In last year’s post, I had photos and videos. This year will contain only photos. I will post some I selected and I will put the rest into Chiriquí Chatter Photo Album. November is the month of celebrations. For Panamanians, almost any occasion is a good reason to have a parade, but November is very special.
Take note of the sky at the beginning of this event. It is nice and clear and blue (this will change). The first set of photos are of the Panama police. These show the police taking firing positions.
Next they did some riding acrobatics. This one shows the policeman in the back on his stomach in a firing position.
In this photo, the man in the back is getting ready to change places with the one driving.
This one shows the man on the back standing without holding on. The bike was going at least 20 miles an hour.
They must have made ten passes, each demonstrating a different stunt. Pretty impressive.
After the police demonstration completed, the parade of schools began. Each school would have its banner displaying who they were. Followed by various students, maybe a marching unit, maybe a band, maybe a drummer section, and followed by the faculty or administration. At least that is my interpretation of how it was organized.
One of the things, I enjoy, it this is a parade of the community. Parents go to see their son or daughter. Others go to see their neighbors. I go to feel like a part of the community. Everyone has a camera or camera phone. It was funny to see some of the marchers see their mom with a camera and almost saying, “Oh mom – don’t take my photo”. Then there were others that just blossomed when they felt a camera lens on them.
For me this was the first of the parade.
This was a great band that was playing some John Philip Sousa.
There were some in traditional Panamanian dress.
This is a Pharmacy class.
This young lady became very serious when she saw she was being photographed. Then after the photo was taken, she broke out into laughter.
Crowds lined the streets from the start to the finish of the parade.
Everyone had someone they were waiting to see. I am sure that these two young ladies were waiting on a brother or sister and thinking about the day when they could be in the parade.
Of course there were lots of lovely ladies.
This drummer was taking it serious.
The parade started at the Parque de Las Madres, passed Romero’s and turned right going to Calle Miguel Ángel Brinas and turned right going to Super99, Can you imagine walking that distance in these shoes? Ouch! Makes my feet hurt just thinking about it.
A little after noon, it started to sprinkle and I decided to head to the car before the real rain came. As I was walking to the car, I saw these young marchers and I will close this post with a photo some future Panamanian beauties.
The rest of the photos are in the Chiriquí Chatter Photo Album. If you happen to see a photo that you would like, just drop me a not and give me the photo id. You can get it by right clicking on the photo and displaying properties. The original photos are at a high enough resolution that if you want to crop them, there will still be good detail.
I just looked and there are 272 photos that have been uploaded.
I saw some of it live then I went home and saw it on Astrovision Channel 23. Live is better.
Hi John.
I agree. For me half the fun is watching the crowd.
Hi Don I want to thank you greatly for the pictures you posted. I was under the weather this past Nov. 3rd and was really feeling left out cause I missed the parades!! in Volcan also!!! But you made me feel a lot better, Thank you so very much!
Hi Carolyn. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I am happy you enjoyed the photos. As long as I can get out and take photos, I would just as soon share them.
Don Ray:
Enjoy your photos! Since living in CA now I have not seen these celebrations in 15 years! I remember when I was the one participating back when I was in High School in David (late 70’s and early 80’s)
I am glad you like the celebrations. You seen very happy living your retirement in David.
Jaime
Hi Jaime. Thanks for dropping in.
Yes, I enjoy my time here in David.
Hmmm,
Looks like SWAT on parade. No thanks. I’ll pass.
KK
Hi KK.
I personally enjoyed the parade. Too bad you missed it. It might have improved your outlook on life.
Dear Don,
The personal jab isn’t in keeping with your usual jovial chatter. My outlook is reality based. While not the easiest way to go, it’s proving to be both profitable and predictive.
I was simply making a comment on the content of the first 5 or 6 photos included in the ‘David Parade’ essay. No offense, but armed guerillas (sp?) don’t do much for my ‘Constitution’ if you know what I mean..:)
Peace, Out.
There were no armed guerillas in the parade. Sorry if you took offense at my comment, but you typically have a negative attitude and sometimes it gets annoying.
The photos are lively and the parade looks like everyone had fun. Here in Costa Rica we had Independence Day parades 09/15 and the drummers ALWAYS take it seriously. If your police can do that kind of riding acrobatics why shouldn’t they get a chance to show what they can do? I’d have applauded. Thanks for the photos.
Hi flh.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. This is the month for parades. There will be another tomorrow. It will be a little different. I hope I can go see it.
Hi Don Ray,
Don and I are back in Portland, OR. Had a sardine packed 4 1/2 hour flight on our connection to Portland from George Bush airport in Houston, which is always on Orange alert. Very Orwellian. Warnings and caution announcements booming steadily from the sound system. Makes ya kind of afraid to do anything but shuffle along trying to keep a neutral expression on your face. Four hours trapped in that environment is a bit unnerving. After a while you want to start talking back to the sound system, but dare not!
Why don’t they just change the name to Willy Nelson Airport. Light up. Hum a country tune, roast a little corn, and relax.
Wish we’d been around to see the parade. Wonderful pics. Thanks for posting them.
The motorcycle policemen acrobatics, way impressive, and kinda scary what with firing positions and all.
We have an incredible motorcycle police force here in Portland. They do seemingly impossible syncronized riding manuevers in a once a year show. The whole force, doing manuevers together while having “ribbons” attached between motorcycles to show the perfection of the manuevers. Hard to explain, but amazing to watch. But no weapons in firing positions off the backs of the bikes. Just some impressive wheelies
Also, those spikey pointy heels in that one photo - fashion statement and lethal weapon. Loved it. Reminds me of my youth, eons ago, in Manhattan. Just a little stomp of the heel kept the weird guys on the subways in line. LOL. Course, didn’t do anything for my feet.
Anyway, looking forward to our next arrival to Panama in January. Can’t seem to warm up since returning to Portland. And of course, two weeks back and I caught some kind of nasty bug that’s going round. I’m still on Panama time. Can’t get into the NW time rhythm, especially since the clocks just got turned back. Early to rise and early to bed, makes for a very confused out of sync head.
Hopefully by next year Don and I will be standing on the sidewalks of David watching the celebrations in person.
Thanks again for the pics. It’s fun to look at them all. And we’re beginning to recognize shops and landmarks, etc. in David. Starting to feel like home.
I’ll probably be browsing through the whole bundle of shots on a regular basis just to keep my Panama spirit up.
Take care. Best, Charlotte
Hi Charlotte. Thanks for dropping in.
It was a good parade. None of the police had drwan wepons in any of the photos. They only took the position.