ST LUCIA TO TRINIDAD, JANUARY TO MARCH 2008 |
The first Mas camp we visited was at the lower end of the price scale. The costumes (headdresses in particular) are relatively small. |
Larger headdress with feathers, more expensive. It doesn't look bad in the picture and in real life it was strikingly pretty. |
Part of a Mas display area. On the wall at the back are some of the trophies they have won at previous carnivals. |
Here I am in shoulder feathers, I rather liked these! |
Even bigger, even more expensive, even more impressive. |
Another headdress but totally different, the choice available was amazing. |
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The ladies in one of the Mas workshops making the costumes. |
The beauty of pan is that it is totally inclusive. Pans are relatively cheap and easy to learn to a basic level so everyone can play. Here, at a pan yard, we have a local Chinese teenager and the small boy (he is standing up and she is not very tall) with the flying hands. |
Kiddies carnival costume judging. Under three years category, a hibiscus, really sweet. |
Under three years category. |
Under three years category. |
Kids three to five. As you can seee the little girl was very shy and was trying to hide from the camera while keeping an eye on it. If you could see her full face she is very pretty. |
Three to five female. |
Three to five male. |
Three to five female. You're probably getting the idea of just how big the range of costumes was, keep going it gets even better. |
Kids six to eight. One amazing thing is that the costumes were generally as impressive from the side or back as they were from the front. This is a side/back angle. |
Kids six to eight. We began to wonder if we could believe what we were seeing. |
Kids six to eight, the backs of some costumes as they waited for further contestants. By now it was getting surreal. |
I said it was getting surreal. |
Still kids six to eight. |
Totally different costumes kept appearing. What the picture doesn't show is the movement of the costumes as the kids danced. The kid in the centre would spin round and the costume would move up and down, quite amazing. |
Just when you think you've seen it all this comes along. The costume was themed on life in a goldfish pond (presumably how you see it if you bin smokin da ganja). Again the picture doesn't do it justice, in the sunlight the costume sparkled and wobbled. We definitely needed a large drink at this point. Spot the feet. |
In this one spot the face. The number is his competitor's number. |
The costume above in it's full glory. |
Variation on the mythical African warriors theme from the same Mas camp. |
Yet again something totally different. |
Portrayal of a (Spotted Eagle) Ray. Another 'find the head' one. |
The Ray taken from the side/back. Incredible. |
And so it went on. A visual overload that stunning doesn't do justice to. As I mentioned in the text, if you get a chance you have to see it - with the movement, the music and the party atmosphere it's one of the best things we've ever done. Note: if you do go to the Trini carnival photography is strictly controlled. We got these pictures by paying a small fee for a photographer's pass for the Kiddies day that gave us access to the edge of the stage. At the time of writing a full pass for the whole carnival costs USD150. |
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Yachts generally fly three types of flag: country of registration ensign; signal flags (particularly Q for pratique); and crew flags. We keep an eye open for flags we haven't seen before - a recent first siting was an Icelandic registered yacht (do they really sail in Iceland?). This flag was being flown as a crew flag, very pretty but what on earth is it and why the Union Jack? In fact it's the flag of...answers on the 'Contact us' page please. |
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Playing Mas - the carnival parade begins. I did see my shoulder feathers early on but we didn't manage to get a picture. |
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Most people in the parade were wearing the smaller costumes that you saw earlier in the Mas camp pictures but there were some spectacular large costumes also. |
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Moko Jumbies whose characteristic is they walk on stilts, total height twelve to fifteen feet. A Jumbie is a spirit and a Moko in the Congo language was a diviner. Moko Jumbies are supposed to be able to see evil coming from further away than normal mortals. |
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Some of the beautiful smaller costumes with incredible headdresses that we saw at the Mas camps on models. As the Mas bands went past us they were all dancing. |
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We weren't allowed to take pictures at the Mas kings and queens competition but here is one of the Mas camp queens. These are the huge costumes on wheels. The only limit to size seems to be the width of the street and even then some of the costumes were taking out the photographers on the side of the street. |
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The same costume pictured from behind, amazing. |
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A king and a queen. |
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A king. |
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These gentlemen (who appear to have huge flies on their head) are carrying sticks. Some were of an age that they needed them but were still dancing. Ages of the players ranged from seven to over seventy. |
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Different yet again, we never knew what surprises were ahead they just kept coming. |
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Another Mas camp king. |
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This is what the carnival is really about, the smaller costumes and getting out on the street to dance. We've shown a lot of large costumes because they were often spectacular but they were also a one-off visual hit. The real spectacle was over a hundred people wearing what looked to be the same costume but on close inspection there were subtle variations in design. |
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Different group but they are still dancing. |
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Err...some of them got a bit carried away though, there was quite a bit of hip grinding going on. Well I'll call it hip grinding. |
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And you don't need to be slim to join in. |
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Men too. |
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Typical down the street shot, packed. |
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More Moko Jumbies. |
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And the party goes on. |
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And on. It was incredible. If we had taken a picture every thirty seconds we would have taken seven hundred and twenty pictures and every one would have been different. We hope you've enjoyed all the carnival pictures we've shown, and do try to get to the carnival if you can. You won't believe your eyes but if you are of a sensitive nature you might need earplugs. |
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Jesse James and his wife Sharon at the church before the wedding. |
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Sharon with Ronald the bridegroom. If you think Ronald might have a great sense of humour you would be right - he is an exceptionally nice young man. |
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Ronald and Simone in the middle of the ceremony. |
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The bridesmaids. |
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The top table at the huge reception - quite amazing. We were expecting the bride, groom, respective parents, best man and maid of honour to sit at the top table. In fact the bride, groom,bridesmaids and groomsmen sat there. |
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And here we are at the reception. Normally we plan for every eventuality but we got it wrong this time. There was no alcohol and we didn't take any (others did). It didn't spoil the fun though. |