Lagniappe: Grenada Part II : Carnival

Carnival in Grenada

8/1/2015 The children’s parade was the Saturday before Carnival weekend. Groups of children walked in costume from downtown St. George’s to the stadium where there was a beauty contest that evening. We didn’t go to the stadium for that but caught the kids parade just before the stadium. Some groups had big heavy shoes and shook baby powder on everyone. It has something to do with scaring the white folks and ghosts back in the days of slavery.

Children's parade

These girls had the bootie moves !

This little guy was having fun but Didn't look like his little sister agreed

The baby powder group

The big soled shoes these marchers were wearing

8/8/2015 We sailed our boat from Mt. Hartman Bay over to Port Louis Marina in St. George’s, the capital of Grenada. We planned to leave the boat in the marina while we traveled home for a month. We were leaving the day after Carnival, so we went to the marina a few days before and had a perfect location for Carnival.

Dave and Sherry clowning in the veggie market

Pretty flamboyant trees in bloom as we sailed around to Port Louis marina

Grenada’s carnival is not at all like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. First of all, it is in August and has nothing to do with Lent. It used to be just before Ash Wednesday but Trinidad has such a big Carnival then, that Grenada’s was overshadowed so they moved it to August. Many of the Caribbean islands have their own carnival at different times of the year.

The Saturday night before Carnival, August 8, they had a pan band (steel drum) competition in the stadium. We went for 8:00 because it was supposed to start at 8:30 and we wanted to get good seats. We need not have worried. It was surprisingly minimally attended. We did manage to get seats under the overhand which was a good thing since it began raining before the competition even started. Unfortunately, the rain delayed the first band getting on stage so the program didn’t start until about 9:30. That is really late for us as “cruisers’midnight” is about 8:30. The first band did their performance and then it took about 30 minutes to get their instruments off stage and load the next band on stage. This continued for each band. The music was very good and it was very entertaining to watch the musicians from youngsters to elders get into the music as they played. We stayed through the first four bands and then we were too tired and had to head back to the boat.

At the Pan band competition

Some of the bands in the competition

8/10/2015 Sunday night, actually Monday morning about 3:00 a.m., they start Jouvert which is a roving street party that goes through downtown St. George accompanied by very loud soca “music”with gigantic speakers on trucks. The locals walk the street with drinks in hand and are painted. They splash paint on themselves and on others. It is waterbased paint and is harmless and if you don’t want it on you they will refrain from painting you. Many of them also smear motor oil on themselves. It is black and gets into your pores and is much more difficult to get off. We were docked in Port Louis marina so we were right on the route for the “parade.” We got up about 4:30 and joined the parade as it went past along with many other boat crews from the marina and others who had taken taxis in to join in the fun. We dressed in clothes that were already stained and put on a little paint to get started.

We got painted more along the way by friends and strangers alike. One woman came up to Greg and mohawked his hair with gold paint and then came back a few minutes later and gave him a nice gold handprint on his crotch! We wandered around for several hours and then made our way back to the marina. We had a late breakfast at the Merry Baker just at the entrance to the marina and then walked back to the docks. We had to wash off with a hose and dish soap outside which the marina provided to prevent us from messing up the bathrooms.

Paintless before we started Jouvert

Locals covered in motor oil

Carib beer truck

Gwen and Izzy got painted by one of the locals

Izzy and Liz Ann--2 PT's

We got a little bit of paint. Note earplugs for Liz Ann!

Liz Ann and Catherine from Jump

Glenda and Sue dancing with a couple of local girls

Add caption

Greg gets a hug from a local girl full of paint

Now he is full of paint

Catherine from Mowser shows off her pink belly

Greg's mohawk

The mohamk-maker

More motor-oil guys

Brita, Catherine, Gwen, Izzy, Alex, Sue and 2 more

Cleaning up after Jouvert

We rested up Monday during the day for Monday night Maas. To do Monday night Maas, you join a “band” which is a walking group affiliated with a beer company or other organization, but it all has to do with beer. You get a costume which is usually just a shirt and a hat or a few other things and of course, the most important thing of all the BEER MUG! We got Guinness shirts, gold lighted hats, glow stick wands, and glow stick necklaces and glasses and a red plastic Guinness beer mug. Around 6:00 p.m. you go to the starting place to follow the trucks and crowds. Of course, we got there and they had moved the starting spot so we had to walk back about 20 minutes to get to the right place. We waited for at least an hour for the thing to start (ie the beer trucks to get there) and then began walking down the road back toward town. People just walk along with trucks blaring music and beer trucks filling our mugs whenever we go up to them and hold our mugs up for a refill. There is really no point to it other than to drink beer in a big crowd about a mile or two long. Since Liz Ann doesn’t drink beer, she would get refills and pour it into friends’ cups. We passed families along the way just watching the people go by and some people had their kids in the crowd too. We gave our glow stick things and wands to kids along the way. After about 5 hours we made it back to the marina which was along the route and called it quits. The parade continued on into downtown St. George’s but we were worn out. It was an amazing drinking street party with thousands of people and no signs of violence or even rudeness throughout the whole night.

Venessa from Neptune II modelling her costume for Pretty Maas

Some of the group with their Monday night Maas outfits from Carib

Sherry and Liz Ann with our Guinness outfits for Monday night Maas

Suzie of Spirited Lady modelling her costume for Pretty Maas

Sherry, Greg and Liz Ann

Our Guinness group: Sheri and Paul, Roland and Leah, us, Sherry and Dave

Our magic light wands

The crowds

Getting a beer from the Carib truck

Sheri and Liz Ann take a break on the sidelines

Gave our light sabers to these two

Greg has a new friend when he gives her his glasses

Tuesday was Pretty Maas. This is the parade with the ladies (and a few men) dressed in elaborate costumes. There are also the requisite trucks with the gigantic speakers and music too. The only bands were a couple of steel drum bands on trucks, no marching bands. And no floats like in our parades back home. People don’t throw things to the crowd, they just walk along in their organization’s group in their pretty costumes. Two women from sailboats we knew were actually in the parade. They bought the costumes and walked the route. Vanessa’s 8 year old daughter also was in the parade. The costumes are made new each year usually by women who do it on a volunteer basis and then the people in the parade pay for the costumes and it is a fund raiser for their organization. The costumes ranged from cute to skimpy to extravagant. We watched the parade Sunday afternoon and then headed back to the boat for some rest and to pack our bags for going home. We had to be at the airport for 6:30 the next morning.