Today, we celebrate Dia de Campesino, the farmers day.  A bit like Harvest Festival or Thanksgiving - Chiriqui style.

Dia de Campesino is the beginning of the endless parties, holidays, drum beating and marching through the streets that starts now and goes on and on and on and on..... until after Easter or the Orchid Fair in April, whichever is later.      

All these parties require clothes.  We started meeting with the seamstress for the new costume about 2 months ago.    It was a pilgrimage walking up an unpaved road to her beautiful wooden house by the river to get measured and have the costume made.  It is a work of art.

The costume actually consists of one skirt and no less than three tops, each one used on different occasions.   Today, we use the same floral color as the skirt which is the most rustic; There is also a frilly white blouse with ribbon for fancier occasions; And the off the shoulder number with pompoms that is not strictly part of the uniform of this province, but all the girls want one anyway.  

Huge thanks to a  lovely Panamanian lady who took us under her wing and guided us through the process.   It is great fun dressing up as Panamanian peasants.  Actually, it is pretty fancy for a peasant; But I guess that is Latin America for you in a nutshell.  Charming.