Standard Balseria showdown

Описание: Balseria is a Ngäbe stick-fighting festival. Typically one community challenges another to the participate. Traditionally, balseria starts off with three days of storytelling and drinking cacao, then culminates on the last day with the balsa "dance" and "chicha fuerte", a fermented corn drink.

The dance consists of teams from both communities facing off one person at a time, where one participant launches a series of blunt-ended balsa logs at the legs (below the knee) of the "dancer". Light as balsa is, a direct hit can result in a serious bruise or injury should it peg the ankle.

Men will oftentimes wear Naguas, or the women's typical dress, in an attempt to obscure their legs from the person throwing the log.

Fighting is also common during this festival as a show of strength and masculinity. Though frequently bloody, I've seen two fighters hug each other afterwards.

Attendees will also wear stuffed animals as they might a backpack, as a display of their hunting prowess.

Ngäbes have undergone a lot of change (i.e. loss of culture) in the past decades, concurrent with their "progress" towards "higher standards of living", but this is one tradition that holds strong throughout their Comarca (indigenous reservation, created in 1997). Balseria normally takes place between late February and early April, during Panama's summer months, when food stores are full and less work needs be performed.