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[Odler]

TTRINIDAD 2004, THREE MORE WEEKS

(January 29, 2004)

Carnaval in Trinidad is different from the festivities you would experience in Bahia, or in Rio.

Carnival per se starts in the early morning hours of the Monday that precede Ash Wednesday, by an event called Jouvert whose French consonance rings like Open Day.

At Jouvert, revelers do away with their civilized clothing and immerse themselves in mud. Mud-covered naked bodies of both sexes roam the streets, singing and dancing in the clear Caribbean night.

The parade of the bands is held on Monday and Tuesday. As of 8:00 a.m., tens of thousands in colorful and imaginative costumes follow the steel and socca bands. They ?play mask?. Those who choose not to play mask, stand on the sidewalks, join a stand, sit on their balcony, roost on a roof, or leave for the beaches.

The bands mounted on trucks distill the vibrant sounds of the rich Caribbean musical repertory (reggae, socca, calypso?). It is a scream from beginning to end, an artistic treat for all the five senses.

In and around the parade, it is folly. Jump-jump-jump. Wine-wine-wine. Kiss-kiss-kiss. Crotch goes against crotch in suggestive motion. Sometimes, pressured by impulses, sex goes on in broad day light. The decency police close their eyes. It is carnaval!

The parade ends in the evening, at around 9:00 pm. But no one goes to sleep. It is time for the scores of fetes (parties), planned for months, to switch on to life. Rowdy parties, all-inclusive or not, that seem to never end, carried upon the feverish wings of a debauchery of stamina in the search of palpable pleasure.

Three more weeks, three more weeks?.

(The Traveller, Thursday, January 29, 2004)