500 Years of Nombre de Dios

Even though it has been a few months since I went to a celebration in my friend Marin'a town, I feel it appropriate to write a post about it. Marin lives in the Costa Arriba area of the province of Colon, on the eastern side of the canal. Her town is called Nombre de Dios and is one of the oldest, continually settled towns in the Americas. Just this year, the people there celebrated the 500th anniversary of the town with a 2 day celebration of music, singing, speeches, and overall good times.

A group of dancers from the University of Panama put on a show using typical tipico dress and music. Tipico culture is part of Panama's latino culture.

Congo is a song and dance from the Afro-Antillean parts of the country, which are mostly located in the Colon province.

These men are wearing costumes of Diablos de Espejos, Mirror Devils. I had no idea that such a thing existed before they appeared and did thier dance, but the costumes are really cool.

So theres a little Panamanian culture for you all. Like I said, this event took place a while ago, but I wanted to get pictures before writing on here about it. Unfortunately, my camera was doused in water this past week at our All Volunteer Conference, so the pictures may be put on hold for a while. Hopefully I can figure something out and keep posting more on here. Stay tuned...