What Did I Just Do?

I went to Caribbean Carnival, that’s what.

But first, a little update. I bid farewell to my hosts on Saturday (I had to push back a few tears because I will actually miss them immensely) and waved as they drove off. They left me at Rocky’s to wait for him to take me back home since he was heading that way anyway. While waiting, I chatted with several people on the beach, two of them turned out to be the couple for whom Rocky was headed my direction. They were a lot of fun and we ended up talking most of the evening while waiting for Rocky to close up shop, exchanged numbers, and made plans to find each other at Carnival.

Sunday, I spent the better half of the rainy morning reading. I’ve been devouring books here….mostly spiritual stuff as I am truly hoping to find my path while I am here as well as let go of the past and have a bright outlook on the future. Perhaps in a future post I may share my learnings, but for now, it seems a little premature as I am still processing much of it myself. Anyway….after the skies cleared, I made my way down to the deck to journal about my thoughts and musings on what I had just read. I probably spent three or four hours out there just listening to and making sense of my thoughts. That evening, I fed the animals, ate some dinner and went to bed early.

I got up a 4am on Monday to get ready for Carnival and was dressed and ready by 6am (that includes the time it took to drink the copious amount of coffee required to get my ass in gear that early). Both the internet and cell towers were down so my ride and I could not get in touch with each other and by 7:45 I decided that I was probably not going to make it to Grenville and headed back to my cottage. Having a newly wide-open day to myself and no internet, I elected to paint a mural for Joy and Hans (don’t worry, they asked me to and gave me the OK to paint as much or a little as I liked while they were away). It’s been years since I’ve really painted. I did paint a little something as a gift fairly recently but I used to paint all the time and painting that gift lit that fire again. I was ecstatic to get to work so I put on my tunes, got the drop cloth and paint ready and set to work immediately. Three hours later, and it was done. Of course, I’m my own worst critic and I could add and tweak and find flaws for days but I think I’ll just let it be and appreciate it for what it is…you creatives out there know what I’m talking about.

Again, I went to bed early that night as I was determined to get up early and go to Carnival the next day….even if I did it alone.

Tuesday started off a little like Groundhog Day: again, I got up at 4am, drank about a gallon of coffee, got ready. But this time, at 5:30, I set off walking towards Sauteurs where I would be taking part in J’ouvert (pronounced jew-vay). The phones and internet were still down so I couldn’t get in touch with Aggie but was able to spot her once I got into town, just as the sun was coming up. We walked a little ways to Mattie’s (a small restaurant right on the water) where we may or may not have had more coffee…maybe or maybe not with Brandy. Soon, it was getting close to the start of J’ouvert so we made our way to the top of the hill and posted up to watch the action. This being my first Carnival experience, I was not going to just sit and watch though, so I gathered my GoPro and my beer and headed right into the crowd where I got painted (I THINK this is what they are referring to when they say Jam-Jam) and danced and jumped and just had a blast! I was able to find my new friends (from Rocky’s) too who were living it up and soaking in the experience just like I was!

I headed back home to eat and say hello to the animals around lunchtime but soon walked back for Mask. I’ve heard it called Mask, Pretty Mask, Fancy Mask or just Mass…but this is the part of Carnival where they dress up in amazingly ornate costumes. I believe that there are legends and/or stories to each of these characters however I have yet to find someone who could tell me what they were. I think I’ll just let the photos tell the story here. There are a few more over on the photos page too!

So it was another incredible week in Grenada! It honestly just keeps getting better and better! Tomorrow I take the bus all the way to St. George’s to pick my my rental car…Wanderers, wish me luck! My very first driving experience here will be all by myself, on the other side of the (curvy and very narrow) road, for about and hour and a half (basically the entire length of the island). AHHHHHH!