Chiriquí Chatter

What a disappointment! I love to go to parades. When I heard that David was having a parade last Sunday, celebrating its 159th anniversary, I made plans to go. It was to start at 11 and I was in my parking place across from the Dolegita Romero at 10 AM.

Why was I disappointed? Well, you would expect, that if this is specifically a parade for David, then the David officials would plan and do it right. WRONG! I saw no evidence that any planning went into this parade. NONE. Of all the parades I have seen in Panama, since I have lived here, this was the worst!

I mean no disrespect to the participants of the parade. I blame the organizers. Were there any? I would have thought that the Mayor of David would have been in the parade. Where was he? The only sign of city participation was a handful of police here and there.

I felt so sorry for all of the people who marched in the parade. It went from the Parque de Madres to the Super 99 super market. It takes a lot of effort for the participants to walk that far. Unfortunately, all of the participants had to contend with a large amount of traffic. It would have been so simple for the police to have placed a few cars blocking off the parade route so that there could have been an orderly parade.

You know I am usually pretty upbeat and probably think I am over reacting. From the photos that follow, you will see that the event could have been improved, should have been improved, and actually was a little dangerous for those that marched.

I will add another post and try to crop the photos to give the parade participants the respect they deserve. This post is to recognize those that deserve the credit for creating the most under planned parade I have seen in Panama.

This is the very first group in the parade. Notice that traffic was rolling to the right. It was impossible to get a photo that had no traffic in it at this point.

This is the end of the first group. Notice the traffic and the bus that is lining up to enter behind the band members.

Here is the bus passing on the wrong side of the road.

Here is one of the David to PC buses taking its turn. It would have only take one police car placed about 100 yards behind this bus to have stopped all traffic going this way the bus is going.

This is about midway through the parade. Traffic going both directions. It would not hard to imagine someone marching getting hit by a car or a bus.

Have you ever seen traffic like this while a parade is going on?

This is the Chiriquí flag being saluted by all drivers passing by.

Here is how the parade ended. This was a pretty elegant float. I thought it was very unusual for such a float to not have a beautiful lady on it. Well, I got in my car and headed home and on my way, I passed the beautiful lady getting her decorative gold ornamented dress adjusted so she could catch up to the parade and get on the float. From start to finish it was a disaster.

Tags: Events, Parades