Carnival Tabanca

Carnival Tabanca or as my mom says in Spanish, “Cabanga” basically means you have the frekkin BLUES!!! 

When I was a kid I HATED carnival where as my brothers LOVED carnival, why???  Where we lived Colon, Panama it was all about the Diablos (Devils) & my bros got to make their own diablos masks & harass people in the skreets.  I’m sure somewhere else they were celebrating Pretty Mas, but I didn’t get to see much of that.  I was literally afraid to leave to house during carnival cause the streets were full of diablos and I’m a scary chica, even the commercials for scary movies scare the ish outta me.  All the pix below are courtesy of my cousin Indira in Colon this carnival. The lil red dots on the blurry pic of the streets are diablos running amuck. Don't ask me WTF is going on with that half naked woman, guess her shirt fell down while running from a diablo???

But now I Love Love Love carnival!!!  After Miami carnival in October I go into hibernation.  Back to normal life of work, school, being a mom, not traveling, regular Atlanta nightlife and stockpiling $$ for Trinidad Carnival.  I am very content with being in non carnival mode until Trinidad carnival rolls around, after Trindiad the carnival fever sets in and I start foaming at the mouth. I just want more more more!!!  

I got the International Carnival Calendar off carnivalinfo.com (some of the dates are wrong so do ur research b4 u book) and I’m sitting here trying to decide what carnivals I’m going to attend this year. I must attend at least 4 carnivals to maintain my sanity and to also keep the year round motivation to work out.   2012 I did Trinidad, Atlanta, Houston, Toronto & Miami.  2011 I did Trinidad, Atlanta, DC, Toronto & Miami.  I’ve already knocked out Trinidad, and Miami is a must so what shall the other 2 or 3 carnivals be???  I’m thinking I want to do Crop Over this year, now if I can just talk some of the homies into going with me. A friend said I should do ATI weekend in Jamaica in August instead. *Decisions decisions*

I don’t get a costume for all the carnivals I attend and I decided to design my own costume for one of these carnivals. I'm really excited about designing my own costume, the sketch looks great, now if I can only make my vision come to life.  Ima skip a head piece cause I’m really not that big on head pieces, my last few carnivals I gave my headpiece away early in the day.  I’m sure the people in my Trinidad band thought I was a weirdo cause I had my headpiece on backwards, yes I went thru the trouble off adding more feathers & other details (cause it looked pretty BLAH) only to wear it backwards.  Below... In my hotel working on my headpiece the nite b4 carnival

Now to finalize the 2013 carnival schedule!!!  Plan early people!!! 

International Carnival Calendar
Jan 5-Feb 12th, 2013	Curaçao Carnival (Fudeka)
Jan 27th -Feb 12th, 2013	Aruba
Febr 18-25th, 2013	Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Feb 11th & 12th, 2013	Panama City, Panama
Feb 11th & 12th, 2013	Trinidad & Tobago
Feb 11th & 12th, 2013	Dominica
Feb 12th, 2013	New Orleans, LA
Feb 10th -12th, 2013	Haiti Carnival (Kanaval)
Apr 3-8th, 2013	Bacchanal Jamaica
Apr 19th -May 2, 2013	St. Maarten
April 22-28th, 2013	St. Thomas (V.I)
June 9th, 2013	Tampa, FL
July, 2013	Atlantic City Carnival
May 26th, 2013	Honduras
May, 2013	Pt. Fortin Borough Day
May 5th, 2013	Cayman Islands (Batabano)
May 22-24, 2013	Bermuda (Junkanoo)
May 27-30, 2013	Georgia Carnival (Dekalb)
May 25th, 2013	Atlanta, GA
May 27-30, 2013	Orlando, FL
May 26-27, 2013	San Francisco, CA
May 25th – 28th, 2013	Berlin (Germany)
June, 2013	Calgary (Carifest), AB, Canada
June 14-16th, 2013	Charleston Carifest Charleston, SC
June, 2013	Philadelphia, PA
June 16th, 2013	West Palm Beach, FL
June 29-Jul 10th, 2013	St. Vincent & The Grenadines
July, 2013	St. John (V.I)
June 29-July 4, 2013	Houston, TX (Caribfest)
July, 2013	Montreal, Canada (Carifest)
July 13-14, 2013	Baltimore/Washington Carnival
July, May 28-July 17th 2013	St. Lucia
July, 2013	Jersey City, NJ
July 21st, 2013	Atlantic City, NJ
July 23-24, 2013	Vancouver, BC
July 27-28, 2013	Rotterdam (Zomer Carnival)
July 27-Aug 6th, 2013	Antigua Carnival
Aug 7th 2013	Antigua
Jul 28- Aug 7, 2013	Anguilla Summer Festival
Aug 1-4th, 2013	ScotiabankToronto Caribbean Carnival (formerly Caribana)
Aug 1-5, 2013	Barbados (Crop Over)
Aug, 2013	Tortola Carnival (BVI)
Aug, 2013	Nevis (Culturama)
Aug, 2013	Norfolk, Virginia
Aug 5-6-, 2013	Hamilton, Canada
Aug 5-6-, 2013	Edmonton (Cariwest)
Aug 5-6-, 2013	Detroit, MI
Aug, 2013	Hartford (Connecticut)
Aug, 2013	Ottawa (Caribe-Expo)
Aug 4-14th, 2013	Grenada (Spice Mas)
Aug 17th, 2013	Virginia CaribFest Carnival
Aug 25-26, 2013	Chicago, IL (Carifete)
Aug 24th-25th, 2013	Boston, MA
Aug 26-27, 2013	Notting Hill (London, UK)
Sep 1-5, 2013	New York (Labor Day)
Sep 13- 16th, 2013	Jacksonville Carnival
Oct 13th, 2013	Miami Carnival, FL
Oct 20th, 2013	Los Angeles Carnival Road Show
Nov 8-18th, 2013	Cayman Pirates Week
Dec 14-Jan 1, 2013	Monserratt
Dec 15-Jan 2, 2013	St. Kitts
Dec 19-Jan 2, 2013	St.Croix (V.I)
Dec 26 & Jan 1, 2013	Bahamas (Junkanoo