Been doing a lot of footwork today....started out with the weekly Tuesday market in Boquete selling our merchandise, t-shirts and burlap shopping bags, sales going pretty slow...... After that hit the road to visit potential sponsors and to follow up with those who hadn't responded to previous calls yet.....tiring and mostly not very encouraging....but that's how it is. Got to follow-up and follow-up again and again hoping to finally getting a decision whatever it may be....the rare species of festival sponsors is extremely shy here in Panama......almost 4 months to go and still $10,000 short of covering expenses.....hey business folks in Boquete, step up and show us your support...y'all will benefit from the festival! We only need 50 guys shelling out $200 a pop and you'll have the best festival ever
OK, we'll keep on truckin'...I'm sure in the end it'll turn out alright...how could it not?

Ok, we had a long weekend here in Panama...4 days! Independence from Spain in 1821 was celebrated with almost daily parades of marching bands of the local schools..the town is bathed in displays of the Panamanian flag...lots of visitors from all over Panama....never seen this place so crowded! And this is not the end of it..there are more holidays to come. November is actually the month of national holidays here....the next long weekend will be coming up on Nov. 25-28, this time it's the independence from Colombia (1903) that needs to be celebrated every year. (Panama had joined Colombia after it broke loose from Spain in 1821, and then got its independence from Colombia in return for letting the US build the canal, with a little help from this new friend).
Anyway, the first part of the annual celebrations is over, and the weather is getting better also, less rain and a little more sunshine every day....Monday everybody's got to back to work, and so do we. Time to get ready for our next pre-festival events: On Nov. 13 we'll have the 4th free Sunday morning concert in the Boquete Central Park, this time with a band from Panama City playing traditional Panamanina music in honor of the "Fiesta Patrias".
Then, during the next long weekend we'll have another wine tasting fundraiser on Nov. 26, again with 10 fine wines to taste plus live music by a local jazzband. If you're in the area you shouldn't miss it...it's always a great pleasure!