The Christmas party season is in full swing here on the island. We went to a house-warming/holiday party at our friends Andrea and Wade's on Tuesday. Thursday night was the big get-together at Ron and Tina's (photo). Last night Boyd and Kendra had their party since they're leaving Friday to go island hopping. Elaine went to boyd and Kendra's but I stayed a Lola's. Damn! Missed a party!
The party at Ron and Tina's turned into a impromptu paranda.
The traditional paranda involves a bunch - say 20 or 30 - of your closest friends getting together, bringing musical instruments (or just pots and pans to bang on), and coming to your house at 2:00 am, waking you up with music - sometimes great, sometimes dreadful depending on your friends' talent. For the honor of this serenade, you are expected to provide large quantities of food and drink (the stronger the better) for the assembled masses. Your reward? YOU get to join the traveling party as it moves on to the next site.
Sorta like caroling on steroids.
It's a great tradition. There were a couple of parandas down the road last year. One in particular had an awesome trumpet player. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. I should have gotten up and joined the party. Instead I just laid in bed and listened to the trumpet.
At Ron an Tina's party, we didn't go out but we had a great time singing horribly offkey renditions of traditional paranda songs (which none of us gringos knew) and traditional carols (which many of the Puerto Ricans only knew in Spanish) accompanied by bongos, harmonicas, and other noisemakers.
The Ola Lola's Christmas party is next Saturday. If you're in the neighborhood, please join us. Everyone's welcome.
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