Trinidad by any other name is CARNIVAL!

 

Brooke and I headed down to Trinidad last Thursday and we are now preparing for Carnival, the biggest celebration in the Caribbean. We have already attended a "Fete" (held at the cricket stadium), which is a big cooler party that starts at around 11pm and then lasts all night. Okay, we made it until 1:30am and counted ourselves as quasi-locals. I can assure you that my hips do NOT move in the way that I saw others who attended. And let's not mention the fact that I am old enough to be the father of most attendees!!


We slept in on Saturday and then headed to the Maracas Beach. To say that I am not a good passenger (versus being the driver) would be an understatement! Both the brake and steering wheel on my side of the car were not working. It was described to me as "a one hour mountainous drive", but never was it said that the whole trip over from Port-of-Spain would be 2 feet from a straight drop to the sea below!! Did I mention the road was barely 2 car widths wide? And the cars are right-side drive (what were the Brits originally thinking?). And what driving school did these people attend? In spite of it all, the beach was beautiful and Brooke befriended a snake; life does not get much better than that!

So, it is off to bed right now as we will be leaving at 3:00am to attend, uh...participate in J'ouvert; the very start of Carnival. J'ouvert is a large street party in the eastern Caribbean region. J'ouvert is a contraction of the French jour ouvert, or dawn/day break. The celebration involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing through the streets. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise. Fortunately for me, there will be at least 500 people in our "band" and it will be dark - no one will even know this particular guy can't dance!

Our best to all from Trinidad and Carnival...

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