In with a bang

New Year’s celebrations in Panama are a hoot. Fireworks are involved (natch) but over here it’s more a case of throwing them at each other than watching from a safe distance. We don’t have any ammo so spend most of the evening dodging the crossfire.

On the stroke of midnight each household brings out an effigy of someone they don’t like and sets fire to it in the middle of the road. These are mostly of politicians but can be of anyone – a rubbish actor, a crappy pop singer or just a particularly annoying neighbour.

One of them looks a bit like Nigel Farage so it’s very pleasing to see that one go up (okay, maybe I just wanted it to look like him).

A nice touch, which becomes noisily apparent after about 5 minutes, is that they stuff the heads of the effigies with fireworks. This is kind of shocking, violent and fun all at the same time. A blast, you might say.

Happy New Year everyone!