Drummers

(Image is from a previous parade)
One thing I have not really talked about much is what is sounds like to live on this hill by the jungle. I know it sounds like an odd thing to bring up, but bear with me.

Not only do we hear the birds all day and the howler monkey when he comes to visit this part of his territory, but there is another more unseen human activity as well. The schools spend all year practicing for the parades and the drums can be heard echoing through the canyon all the way up to our house. We hear them from breakfast until dinner time most days. Even when the rain has come and the mist has floated over the land and the birds are silent, the steady beat of the drums can be heard. 

If a person had been dropped off here, near a jungle when the mist made it hard to see 5 feet in front of you and all you heard were the drums beating...... However, the schools are probably 2 to 4 miles away in each direction and they are not nearly as close as they sound. I think it is the way the canyon is around our house... :)

The good news is that the drums finally are in sync around this time of year. Right before all of the parades start and big holidays begin, the bands sound really good. So, for the last few weeks, I think all of the schools have it all together. As a mother that has had a child in band, I know there is a learning curve....up here on this hill, we get to hear all of the schools and each of them proudly pound on their new drums each phase of that learning curve. I can tell you that I like October, November and December the best. :)

I do not have a good way to record what it sounds like. So I recorded a few seconds with just my cellphone from my front porch, which does not do it justice on what I actually hear. You can click the link to my google drive, but you might have to turn the volume up and remember that these are drums from 2-4 miles away and my phone recorder tries to mute out background noise. ​https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4w0lDC_PWYjYmlEd291LXZibEE