Carnival Tuesday (long overdue)

I realize that this is now quite outdated, but I also realize that I owe people some pictures of me in my Carnival costume.

First off, I want to try to explain what Carnival Tuesday is really like. However, my friend Nick put it best when he posted to his experiences on his Facebook page, “no matter what I say, you will never fully understand what Carnival Tuesday is like until you experience it for yourself.”  There are no truer words than those.  But let me try.

On Tuesday, everyone comes out in his or her full costumes and one of the highlights is when they pass the stage.  The stage is basically a big set of bleachers set up facing the road on the Savannah that we all walk by.  We were supposed to be at the starting point at 6:30 Tuesday morning.  But after a long day Monday, Andrea and I decided to try to get there about 8:00 or so, figuring that we wouldn’t miss much.  As we drove in, we got a call from some of our other friends and ran into even more looking for parking.  I guess all our bodies felt the same way.We found out where the band was at and we started walking in that direction, when we got word that Harts (our band) had just crossed the stage.  So there we have it, we missed the biggest event of the day.  Who would have thought that it would happen so early?  But then again, now knowing what came next, it did make some sense.  Because as everyone started drinking and dancing, the extravagance of the costumes was slowly stripped off to essentially what we were wearing on Monday.

Even though we missed crossing the stage, we still got there to see everyone in their costumes.  The music that is played all day long is called “soca” which is a mix between dance and calypso, and they tend to play the same 10 songs over and over and over again.  By the end of Carnival, I had had my fill. Yet oddly, by Thursday, Andrea and I were both looking for a little soca music on the radio.  I guess it just gets in your blood a bit.  The music was starting to pick up and got progressively louder.  The alcohol started flowing a little more and the dancing was starting to pick up.  At this point, it was about 9:00 AM.  So here are a few of those pictures that everyone was looking for.

So what is Carnival Tuesday?  It’s a day filled with drinking.  Some to excess, although most people realized that it was a marathon and not a sprint and paced themselves accordingly.  I saw very few people completely sloppy drunk, even at the end of the day.  But more than drinking, it was a day filled with dancing, laughter, smiles, and some of the most beautiful people in all of Trinidad.

 

It’s also a time where people let go of all their inhibitions and there is incredible safety in numbers with that.  In these skimpy, tiny, ridiculous outfits, there were all body types.  There were tall, short, thin, not so thin, and those that would fall in the “overweight” category.  There was every skin color under the rainbow and everyone was dancing with everyone.  So while we may look like total tools in these pictures, you didn’t feel that way walking through the streets because everyone was dressed up.  Actually, those people not dressed up stood out and looked more awkward then we did.  And really, if this is a ll I have to do to see and dance with all those beautiful women, I’m ok with it.

So here is me and Andrea in our gear at the beginning of the day and then more what I looked like as the day progressed.  Although the best part may be that we are wearing our trainers with this get up.

And I have a bright, shiny quarter for anyone (who wasn't in Trinidad for Carnival) who can guess who this guy is with Andrea and my friends Gina and Rebekah.

Oh, I almost forgot, if you want to see some more, really cool pictures from Carnival, my friend Sam (one of the English teachers at ISPS) is also an amateur photographer and she took some great pictures, which are posted on her blog.  On the right side of my blog, under my Profile, there is "My Blog List".  Under that is a link for "3Limes".  That's her.  Just click on the link and then look for the posts with Carnival in the title and you'll see her pics.  They're great.  You'll love them.

Update: The bright, shiny quarter has been claimed by one of my former students in Indianapolis.  The man in the photo is Lennox Lewis, a retired heavyweight boxing champion (41-2-1), who had defeated the likes of Ray Mercer, Evander Holyfield, and Mike Tyson.