AngelaPanama.com: Trinidad Carnival 2013

I know I said this last year and probably the year before but this year was the best carnival ever. The music was outstanding, the fetes were phenomenal, the people were amazing, and the vibes were indescribable!!! So let’s recap the week that I waited all year for.

First of all... I had to bring my brother Paco. I couldn't let him live his entire life without experiencing this madness! So, Paco & Rocky landed in Trinidad Wednesday about 4 hours before me and they went straight to work picking up jouvert packages & carnival costumes. When I landed at 7pm they were already on the Ave having drinks and waiting for me. Straight to the Ave I went to lime on de corner at our favorite bar "La Havana" drinking dirt cheap drinks until the wee hours of the morning!!! Thursday morning it was time for my favorite thing to do… climb the coconut tree in Rocky’s mom’s back yard. YIPPEE!!!

Thursday afternoon the homie Bryan came to pick us up & we linked up with his crew to wait on our maxi (shuttle) to the C’est la vie fete. This fete has the best venue ever, overlooking the mountains and the ocean. This fete along all the others are “All inclusive” which means all the food & drinks you want for no additional fee. We ate and drank like champs (mainly drank). As you can tell by the pix, we had a dayym good time. Last year after C’est la vie we went home, but this year the crew decided that we should hit the Ave so we partied from like 3pm-1am straight, those guys are too much fun.

Best fete crew ever!!!

Tiyad... but got my life together & hit the Ave

Mid- day Friday was the Frenzy boat ride. I love boat rides, soca, the ocean, beautiful views, lots of rum, and DJ Private Ryan… can’t beat it. And of course after the boat ride we headed straight to the Ave.

All hail DJ Private Ryan

Friday nite we watched a Soca Monarch on TV and caught a quick power nap. Our maxi came for us around 3am and we headed to the Hyatt where everyone was watching Soca Monarch at the bar. Hopped on the maxi just before it ended to avoid traffic, we passed the stadium as Blueboy aka SuperBlue was performing & as the performance played live on the maxi radio. The next fete was in the middle of nowhere… Caesar’s Army A.M. Bush jouvert, may I say that I love love love jouvert . The pix speak for themselves, everyone had A Time !!!!!

On the way home from Caesar’s Army Saturday morning I got a quick glance of Kiddie Carnival. It just melts my heart to see them continuing the culture with the youth. I love that they have their very own day and don’t have to get mixed up in the madness that is adult carnival.

Paco & I got a good days rest Saturday afternoon, but Rocky had to go make costume alterations. *poor thing got no sleep* early Saturday evening we headed to the Ultimate fete where we got to see the Soca Monarch champ SuperBlue perform, the crowd went MAD!!! Blaxx mash up the stage too, the crowd energy at this fete was thru the roof.

Maybe an hour power nap after Ultimate and then it was off to Shades Breakfast at 3am. We were there from sunrise till noon and I must say this was my favorite fete of the week. There were some American celebs at the fete & we totally hijacked their VIP area. Poor things had their bottles of booze on the floor, eventually they left & we took over the entire stage. LMAO!!!

Rocky and fam kept the party vibes going Sunday nite but Paco and I rested up at the hotel for our BIG DAY Monday morning. Around 2am we headed to Jouvert with Dirty Dozen, like I said, “I LOVE JOUVERT” if I could just do a weeks’ worth of jouverts and wet fetes I would be in heaven. We danced around the streets of Port of Spain covered in paint & powder, If you wonder why I have glasses on at nite, just know that powder in yuh eye BURNS!!! After jouvert the party turns into a wet fete where they hose everyone down, but we were tired and wrapped it up early around 6am.

We slept until around noon and then headed to meet our carnival band Island People Mas. Monday was my favorite day on the road even tho it was hotter than hell!!! Paco and I jumped around town for hours and then ended up losing our band, how we lost a band with more than 10 trucks… iDunno!!! Luckily we found Rocky’s band and hijacked it for booze & chunes!!! Afterwards Paco & I danced around partying with the rest of the city.

I didn’t get much sleep Monday nite, I just laid in bed staring out the window at the beautiful view. I was too anxious to get out on the road Tuesday morning.

We got up at sunrise & got the day started, although Tuesday ended up not being as fun. When we found our band they were in line to cross the stage, but sadly behind Tribe & Bliss so it took about 4 hours to move less than 1 mile. It was hot hot hot, even a police officer passed out from the heat. After drinking in the heat for hours eventually I felt compelled to abandon my bro and the band & take a nap under a tree. I found a nice location next to a family picnicking & slept so good for about an hour until a stupid ant bit me on my shoulder. I then went to McDonalds to satisfy my chicken nugget addiction & started chatting with my homies on Facebook. They told me that Island People was about to cross the stage & since I was in section #10 I knew I had time to catch up with the band. Crossed the stage with my band & gave every bit of energy I had left to jump & wave & get on bad bad bad!!! Stayed with the band for a few, but then went to the hotel to freshen up. I came back out later in the day & chilled, best believe I slept like a CHAMP Tuesday nite.

The Heat *uuuuggghhh*

Tryn not to have a heat stroke

Spent early Wednesday by the pool fixing tan lines from the cheetah spots I had on carnival Tuesday. Hopped a flight to Miami where I stayed to chillax at Fat Tuesday, sleep & get some beach time in.

We stayed at the Carlton Savannah Hotel this year and all I can say about them is BLAH!!! For the amount of $$$ people pay for hotels for carnival, I was not impressed one bit. They made one too many mistakes for my liking and they forced me to go Jekyll and Hyde on them, I really hate when I have to do that… it drains me. BUT because of Hyde we went from a mediocre room on the 7^th floor to a great room with a breath taking view on the 12th floor!!!

Will I go back next year??? I dunno yet! Do I want to go back? OF COURSE!!! But I know it’s just not a financially wise decision to spend that much $$$ on TNT carnival year after year, when I could do smaller carnivals for 1/3 of the price. But then again I don’t wanna be like a friend in Florida who had no plans of going to TNT carnival this year, but got a bad bad bad case of carnival fever last minute and booked a next day flight to Trinidad, I can only imagine how much that ticket cost her.