Carnival at Last St George Grenada – 13 Aug

you can see from the photo’s that the carnival event was all and more than we expected. we got to shore in the afternoon just as the “day” event was finishing up in st george. the timing was perfect we arrived to empty streets and as we checked out the various vendors set up along the road we ran into the “lead element” of the carnival.

we continued to walk “upstream” periodically getting our photos taken in and with the various “official” entrants. some where more or less on the “official” side. aimee had ordered tickets to the “mass” event in the evening. initially i thought this was some sort of religious event. only later did i discover it had to do with the “mass” of people. aimee collected our “packages” for 50 ec we got a shirt a hat and a drink bottle for all you could drink in our case rum and coke as we where in the coke rum “mass”. the different sponsors actually compete to see how many people they can get to sign up for their event so some guy actually came down to find aimee to deliver our packages at the last minute.

in any case we continued along the event course running into jason and amanda and their kids as well as some other random friends. it finally was time to go to the “mass” part of the event around 7pm we got a ride with a couple of the paraders going off duty and heading home. this day event had actually started at 5am with body painting. we had decided to skip this as we where still trying to remove bottom paint from our bodies!

we found our “float” a massive truck at the start of the parade. 7pm came and went, we played with our flashing hats and light sabers (see photos). finally we realized we where in a bit of an “island time” situation so we wandered a few meters up the parade route and discovered a little bar severing beer and some food. this was perfect and we hung out with the spectators and waited for our float to come by and joined in.

the “parade” was only a few miles, yes actual miles but it lasted for hours as the “floats” ie trucks stopped and blasted music while everyone danced in the street waved their glowing devices about. it was a true LED extravaganza!

we finally we made it back to the dingy dock where we where supposed to all rendezvous. i arrived first then jen and aimee but some how sietse had gotten into the true spirit of the event and had disappeared completely. finally, we decided we would have to head home without him but we where in for a big surprise…

Cheers Roger