I have shared a lot with you in regards to carnival in Trinidad but I must share one more thing. It is an important item. I want to talk about the shape of carnival.
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
I mentioned in a previous post and no doubt you noticed in the pics, that the masqueraders costumes are generally on the small side.....aka skimpy. Trinidad is no different than other countries in the world, in that they are struggling with expanding waistlines too. The highest volume KFC in the Caribbean is supposedly in Port of Spain Trinidad.
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
However, when it comes to playing mas, size and age didn't seem to matter. We saw all ages of adults and all sizes. ALL SIZES! No one seemed to care that their body wasn't perfect. They still wore the beaded up - sparkly bikini with a mass of feathers. A 42 year old woman with say maybe three kids at home - no problem. She was sporting the same Brazilian cut bikini Mas costume as the 25 year old chipping next to her. The same is true for guys. We saw several older guys chipping along with rum guts (Caribbean beer belly).
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
Everyone here seemed to be so confident in their own skin. It really came through. They were out on de road, playing Mas, chipping and having a good time. Total body confidence with a big dose of Who Cares!
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
It was quite refreshing. No, it was fantastic! So much so, that it has been the topic of several discussion with various cruisers in the past week since carnival. I really can't think of an equivalent situation in the USA where a mass quantity of women in their 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's 60's+ would feel as confident marching/dancing in a parade in their swimsuits for 12 hours. I loved it. Both Adventure Sarah and Sarah off sv Cape expressed how amazing and brilliant they thought it was and echoing the same.... that there isn't the same body confidence among women in the UK.
All sizes, shapes and ages (adults) - beautiful
I am telling you it was powerful to witness and left me feeling empowered in my shape.
Tuesday, February 9th 2016
We got up at 5am so we could be on Jesse Jame's 6am maxi taxi into Port of Spain. This would assure we beat the traffic and hopefully allow us to get seats in some stands next to the judging booth on Ariapita Avenue.
Love the stands - seating and shade - me and some other cruisers
It worked. We scored seats along the parade route under a shaded tent with food, drink and toilets close by. Woo hoo! Being next to this judging stand meant we got to see the groups perform for the judges - those groups that do perform, not all of them do. Plus we got to hear the parade announcers and such.
Sarah, Tom and me
Today was the Pretty Mas Parade. If you will remember back to the carnival definitions I gave you ....Pretty Mas is – Today’s dominant form of masquerading
emphasizing beautiful costumes with elaborate decorations. Many pretty
mas costumes are now decorated bikini style garments.
Typical speaker truck - Big Truck
Big truck up close
The parade route we were watching would have 72 total "bands" passing by. Mini, small, medium and large bands but 72! AND....this was only one of I think four judging stands. I believe different bands had different routes as we didn't even see one of the most popular bands, The Hart Band. But I am not really sure to be honest. All I know is we saw a bunch of mas bands.
BIG generator running the speaker truck
Again, the definition of a Band is - A group of Carnival masqueraders with costumes
designed on a related theme. A band can have 4,000-7,000 people divided
into 25 or more sections, each with it’s own theme and several music
trucks. Each band has a huge King and Queen costume. Carnival Tuesday
will see about 20 large bands go across the Savannah stage and parade in
the streets in competition.
Beverage truck or bar truck
Spoiler alert - Ronnie and Caro Mas Band won the large competition. I read it online the next day! See the pic above.
Another example of a bar truck
The large mas bands we saw had as many as four Big Trucks (speaker trucks), multiple beverage and food trucks, a truck to hold their feathers when they need to take them off and a Tinkle Truck for.....well exactly that.....and thus the feather truck to hold your feathers while you visit the Tinkle Truck.
Food truck - see the parade rope and the line handlers in red
The large bands had ropes stretched on each side of their mas band with line handlers as they walked along "De Road". This basically encloses the group (loosely) and keeps them separated from the mass of people watching and walking along De Road. The mas band members all had wrist bands identifying them to that group.....because one jewel encrusted, bikini clad, feathered up masquerader pretty much looks like the next mas band masquerader! HA! Not really....but sort of.... with these large mas bands they have many sections and thus many costumes so it can be a bit confusing. Plus other masqueraders or even the crowd watching can and do "jump up" with the mas band. The wrist bands simply allow the mas players easy access to the food, beverage and tinkle trucks for their group.
Feather truck - no really
The parade was fun to watch. The themes interesting and costumes spectacular. However, the logistics of it all were what was most impressive. The large mas band YUMA had 12 trucks in total! It reminded us of the efficiency of the National Panorama Finals we saw on Saturday night. I told Jesse James "Seeing your carnival up close and the logistics with which events involving massive numbers of people are carried out, I would never underestimate the nation of Trinidad and Tobago."
Tinkle truck or um.... pic says it all
The flow of the parade was good as well. I am not sure if that is because we were near a judging stand. Maybe. But the past two years we have experienced carnival on two different Caribbean island and the flow was much slower with huge gaps between groups. Not in Trinidad. The big trucks kept moving for the most part. Even the tinkle trucks kept moving. Mas players had to time their step up onto the stairs of the tinkle truck as it crept along de road. *Can you tell I like saying "tinkle truck"? Actually, I think it's brilliant that they have tinkle trucks.
The one was called Wee -Wee Truck vs Tinkle Truck
This mas bank even has their own ambulance
This was truly Trinidad AND Tobago's carnival. There were pan orchestra groups competing in the finals from Tobago and there were pretty mas bands from there as well. FYI - Tobago is an island about 20 miles of the NE tip of Trinidad.
The 2016 Road March was "Waiting on the stage" by Machel Montano. It's a great Soca tune. Good thing too, as we heard it no less than 100+ times today. I know that sounds like it would be very monotonous but it's actually a good thing. Think about it, what if every big truck was blasting a different SOCA tunes? That would be horrible. This way there was continuity within the medium and large mas bands. And there wasn't conflicting music as bands transitioned along in front of us. You saw the pics of the big trucks, right? With that many speakers you not only heard the music but you feel it in your chest. Trinis like their music loud. Actually, all Caribbean people like their music loud. And age doesn't matter. We have seen many, many an older Trini chippin to the latest SOCA tune while singing every word out loud.
Terry checks out the costume
With so many big trucks blasting the road march, the mas players chipped their way along de road occasionally wining and jumping around in mass as their DJ demanded - HUGE energy. I suspect that is one of the judging criteria. If you listened to / watched the road march video above you can understand the energy that goes with that tune and what we witnessed out on de road.
Front line type costume
The previous week, we went to one of the mas camp headquarters. It gave us a chance to see the theme for the band and the various costumes.
Front line type costume
Two years ago I had a swimsuit custom made by Debbie here in Trinidad. She also makes the base swimsuits for one mas band. She told me she would end up making and fitting close to 5000 swimsuits! 5000!!! OMG! She only makes the base suit and then the mas camp adds the beads, sequins, feathers and all. And before you ask..... my custom made swimsuit was NOT a carnival style suit!
Sarah with one of the costumes
While these costumes may be small ....er.....skimpy, they are NOT cheap. Front line female costumes aka those with the most feathers - can run $4000 - $8000 TT = $666 to $1,300 US! And next year there is a different theme so no reusing this year's costume. *And what does one do with your old Pretty Mas costume? Is it like all the bridesmaid dresses us girls end up with in the back of our closets? Of course we all know how many times we wore those again!! NEVER, even though the bride insists "You will be able to totally wear it out for different occasions." HA! Fat chance.
Sarah with a headdress on
Although.....I suspect a few of my friends who dig sparkles (no names, right Adventure Sarah?) would probably wear their Pretty Mass costume again!
This mas band had a section that was a casino theme
Anyway, it was kewl to see the mas camp HQ in person. We learned that most of the feathers are pheasant and they come from China. Big surprise - not! But they do have to be quarantined for a rather lengthy time period before the mas camps can take delivery. Given the huge volume of feathers used in carnival, I would imagine there is a massive warehouse somewhere in Trinidad that is always chuck full of quarantined feathers.
Masquerader with her stomach painted up
A few of the masqueraders had well done body paint as part of their costumes. Not like kids face painting at a street fair but air brushed, Sports Illustrated Swim Suit issue type body paint.
Masquerader and Sarah - check out his body paint
WOW - so many feathers
Previously I could never figure out why nearly every shoe store in Trinidad carried ankle and calf length boots. Boots in sunny, warm/hot Trinidad......why? Don't get me wrong, they were usually super cute in bright suede colors but still boots in a tropical climate? However now I get it. They are carnival boots! Many of the masqueraders had these boots on as part of their costumes and for comfort. Twelve + hours of chippin on de road is brutal on any body regardless of age and shape.
Check out these UGGS and don't miss her bling bling drinking cup
Those of you trying to do 10,000 steps a day (it's a American health thing for you non-American readers) come to carnival and do all the various celebrations. Chippin the days away will quickly get you to your cumulative goal. FYI - a good friend says chippin often counts as double steps toward your 10,000 steps goal so try chippin as you do your house chores.
Pic by Kurt - King type custom
Pic by Kurt
Pic by Kurt
There were a few traditional steel pan orchestras mas bands sprinkled among the big truckmas bands.
Not sure if she was a mas player or just wearing last years costume
After a full day watching the parade, we departed at 5pm. However the parade continued on, wrapping up after 8pm!
*J’ouvert or Jouvay is at the heart of Trinidad carnival, and is also
celebrated in other Eastern Caribbean islands. The name J’ouvert
originates from the French jour ouvert, meaning day break or morning,
and signals the start of the bacchanalia that is Carnival.
Rock D Boat info sheet
J'ouvert is highly traditional and full of symbols culture and heritage.
It is steeped in tradition and playing mud mas involves participants
known as Jab Jabs. covering themselves – from head to toe – and others
in paint, chocolate, mud, white powder or anything for that matter. It
is J'ouvert custom that everybody gets involved and it’s common to see a
newcomer being hugged by a muddy revelers.
Times and route for this group
This traditional part of Carnival starts at around 2 in the morning and
finishing after sunrise. Calypso and soca music are the dominating
sounds of J'ouvert in Trinidad the mass of revellers takes the street
party winning and chipping their way to The Savannah in Port of Spain in
the early hours of Lundi Gras, before the daytime carnival parades.
Before Sarah, Anna, Sarah and me
The roots of J'ouvert in Trinidad go back 200 years, with the arrival of
French plantation owners. The French never colonized Trinidad, however
elements of their culture remained. J’ouvert evolved from the Canboulay
festivals in the 1800’s, which were night time celebrations where the
landowners dressed up and imitated the negres jardins (garden slaves).
Following emancipation the newly freed slaves took over canboulay, now
imitating their former masters imitating them.
Making short on Anna - good for chipping
Canboulay revellers, who carried lighted cane torches, were seen as a
potential risk by the authorities, and the tension mounted leading to
the Canboulay riots. It was eventually banned, and then was re
established as Jouvert.
sv Giraffe - Anna Chipping
We didn't go with a formal J'ouvert group. Instead 11 of us (6 boats)
went into Port of Spain just after midnight (to beat the traffic) and just roamed
about.
David and Sarha sv Capt
There was already a mass of people down on Ariapita Ave. It didn't take long for us to break into smaller groups.
sv Cape - Bryn
Wayne, Jean Louis, Bryn, Anna and Peter went one way.
Crew of sv Cape
David, Sarah, Terry, Sarah, Tom and I went another way. Soon David and Sarah went off yet another way. It wasn't hard to do with some many people. We spotted our first Big Truck (flatbed 18 wheeler with nothing but speakers and a bigass generator to run them blasting Soca music). The truck was followed by 1000+ people in that group, wearing t-shirts and hats of that group, covered in paint or mud or coco and dancing/chipping/wining through the streets. Food, beverage, paint and tinkle truck followed. Yes, that is what they are called "Tinkle Truck."
After
We would watch them pass and then jump up following along chipping/dancing/wining as we went. Then another Big Truck with another group would come by the other way and we would jump up with that group. These trucks and groups slowly snaked their way through the streets in various directions.
sv Libertine Sarah and Terry, Tom and me - after waiting for our ride home
Many times the people in the groups would come up and dance/wine/grind with us and thus paint us. We returned the favor. No one was throwing paint. It's shared through dancing and gentle wipes on the arms, legs, face with the person's knowledge. No paint fights, no scuffles.
Me, Sarah, Anna, Peter and Wayne - After
It's basically a HUGE street party that moves through the streets until around 8am in the morning. Then everyone disburses and tries to find rides home through gridlock traffic as other flood in for the Monday Mas Parade.
Jean Louis - After
By 9:30 am our paint had dried but our driver didn't take any chances. He covered the seats of his car with plastic bags so we wouldn't get paint on the inside.
Ann (Sv Receta) part of the Coco Group
Tom wore ill-fitting swim trunks and an old K-State T-shirt which he simply threw away after. I wore T-shirt that I had cut up for the occasion, old faded shorts and an old swim suit under both. We arrived back in Chaguaramas and immediately jumped in the showers at Power Boats. We scrubbed the worse off and then headed back to the boat for some sleep. Later we took proper showers but even then the next day and even the following, we were still finding little areas of paint.
Ann (sv Receta) and Debbie (sv Taka Trois) coco girls
It was an unique, interesting and fun event. I am glad we took part.
AFTER -Front of my J'ouvert costume
AFTER - Back of my J'ouvert costume
*Historical information about J'ouvert came from this web site
*Special thanks to Sarah on sv Cape for her pics and whoever took the pics of Ann and Debbie.
