The Devil characters range from people painting their bodies red or blue and dancing down the streets, to ornate traditional devil costumes.  The picture on the left if of the traditional devil costumes.  The ornate devil in this costume is a 75 year old man and has been playing this character for years.  The painted devils are younger kids who smear red and blue paint on their bodies and ignite flames from their mouth by putting lighter fluid in their mouths and igniting it when they blow it out.   CRAZY.  Later you'll see pictures of us painted blue when we dressed as "Blue Devils" to participate in J'Ouvert, but there was no flame throwing in our group!!.

instrals are another character from Old-Time carnival.  Minstrels wander the streets singing traditional American folk songs and calypso songs.  At times, the sing parodies of American fold songs.  Their faces are painted white.  The carnival seminars explained that these are a representation of what went on in prior days when white folks pretended to be black folks during carnival season.  This is an interesting twist, however,  these were black folks playing white folks who are playing black folks.

At Viey La Cou, a celebration of past carnival costumes, we saw many of the old time costumes.  There was even one that depicted a traditional wedding ceremony.  The wedding party consisted of the bride and groom and their attendants.  The attendants had special functions.   One carried a breadfruit, which symbolized the brides fertility.  Another carried new sheets that were a symbol of her virginity (and were later inspected to insure she actually was a virgin).  The wedding party strolled down the road in a semi-dance step.

arnival is for all ages.  Kiddie Carnival is a big deal in Trinidad, with no child too small to participate.  It is not uncommon to see parents walking down the street at Kiddie Carnival holding a baby all dressed up in an elaborate costume.  Often the parent and child are dressed in matching costumes.   Photo opportunities always present themselves at Kiddie Carnival -- just walk up to a cute little one and the proud parents are the first ones to have them turn and smile for the camera. 

The costumes are amazing -- gold,glitter, and bight colors abound.   Check out the glasses on the little one in the green and yellow costume.  You can see hours of work and a lot of pride everywhere.   It is an all-day event with huge groups of kids dancing up and down the streets of Port of Spain.  Music is blasting, people are dancing, and the enthusiasm is contagious. 

The carnival festivities are well organized, and for the cruising community, there are several tour organizers that provide a list of the available activities and will take care of getting tickets and arrange transportation.  There are three levels of competition (preliminary, semi-final and final) for every category of event -- steel pan, soca, calypso, as well as costumes for king and queen of Carnival.  You name it, they'll have a competition for it and parties to celebrate it.  In all, an amazing spectacle.   It is easy to be a part of Carnival, either as a spectator or as a participant

.e played mas ... .J'Ouvert (which means "daybreak") is the all night-long party that officially kicks off the three-day Carnival Holiday.    People get in all types of crazy costumes party through the streets of Port of Spain until dawn!   These cosmos are not the fancy costumes of the formal Carnival, but it is the very soul of Carnival.  We joined some of our cruising friends in the J'Ouvert band "Blue Devils".  We wore horns, a spiked tail, and carried a pitch-fork as we danced behind a huge flat-bed truck of enormous speakers blasting music so loud you can feel it in your body.  Behind the music truck is the drink truck that party-goers frequent through out the night. 

Our event started early in the day when we met aboard Sequel for a breakfast with our fellow devils.  We feasted on quiche, lots of fresh fruit, breads, and coffee.   For some, the day started with Bloody-marys, but Allen and I decided to survive until night time....  Then it was up to the shop to "decorate" or costumes.   Out came the glitter, the glow-in-the-dark paint, and some creative devil horns were the result.  A nap was next on the agenda to prepare for the big night.   Starting a party at 11pm was not something we've done before. 

We got up at 11pm, donned our costumes (horns, tail and fork) then met at the pre-party location.  There we "added" to our costumes by applying liberal amounts of red, blue and white mud!   Mud is a big thing in J'Ouvert.   It's a cheap "costume".   Cheryl ended up with a drum (really a large biscuit tin and a stick to beat it with) ... It turns out everyone wants to play the drum, even if you are carrying it.  People are constantly coming by to "play the drum" with you!

e danced  down the streets from midnight until 7am.   Somewhere near morning we had a big display when we trooped across the stage for the TV cameras.  We hear our group came in second, but how you judge group-after-group of mud-smeared party goers and decide who wins is beyond our imagination.   It was amazing to watch hundreds of people dance down the streets.

The last hour we were all dragging.   We still managed smiles as we sat on the curb and waited for our maxi to take us back to the marina.  We arrived back at the marina and used hoses on the docks to rinse off most of the mud.  Our clothes were beyond hope and were the first things in the trash can.  Then a hot shower below decks to get the rest of the mud and then a comfortable bed for us footsore and weary Carnival participants.

fter J'Ouvert, we slept most of the following day! So much for any events on Monday ... some party all three days. Even Tuesday, our big plans to go into town for the big finale, the Parade of Bands, didn't make it.  It was hot, we were tired, and we have a TV with 66 channels at this marina.  So it was sit back, put our tired feet up, and watch the Parade of Bands.

n all, Carnival is an amazing spectacle.  You cannot capture in words or in pictures the mass of humanity that gets involved in Carnival.   Bands with hundreds...as in 600-700 per band ...all in costumes of feathers, bangles, beads and a few swaths of colorful cloth... dance enthusiastically to one of the carnival tunes that play all day long! Each participant buys their costume from the mas camp for about $40-50 US, which include drinks along the way. The costumes speak to a wild sexy glamour, and amazingly make almost all the participants look relatively glamorous. Anyone can join these bands, and many cruisers did take part.  Just being able to watch the event is amazing ... regardless of how much you participate.