Decided to just lime on “di Ave” Thursday night and as in
Carnival Thursday’s past, caught the amazing Individual costumes
competition. The craftsmanship put into
those individual costumes is just mind blowing.
We then headed over to our favorite bar on di Ave “La Habana” and drank
insanely cheap drinks for a few hours and people watched, then grabbed some
eats at our favorite Chinese restaurant across the street “Good Luck”. A lot of
people crave the Trini dish “Doubles” when they are in Trinidad, but Ima tell
you a likkle secret… Paco and I Don’t Like Doubles, which I call a Trini bean
burrito. I was in Trinidad thinking,
dayym I want a corn empanada!
Friday morning is usually spent picking up costumes, but we
utilized a concierge service this year and had our costumes delivered to us, it
was beautiful having all that time back to do with as we wished. Paco and I wandered around POS in search of a
grocery store for food to sustain us for the week. We stumbled across a little bakery called
Bread Basket that had delicious quick eats, then we were lured in Ever Green
Grocery store by the nicest old man who entertained me with his crab. We bought
a ton of fresh fruit from him then headed over to Massy Grocery for the
necessities. Caught an Uber back to the
hotel and took a juicy nap because walking around in the heat is draining.
I really wanted to do a boat ride Friday afternoon, but others
voted to do the Scorch _uck Work fete at our hotel instead. I’m a team player, so _uck Work we went. When checking into the Hilton I requested a
room with a pool view so I could chillax on the patio and enjoy a view of the fete
for a while. Be careful what you wish
for, they gave me a room with a half ass view of the pool, but I also didn’t
realize that there was a Sunday night fete that would clash with our need to
get sleep before J’ouvert.
I’ll admit
that it was nice not having to worry about transportation to/from Scorch and
being able to leave/arrive whenever you wanted and not having to wait on the
homies. Had a good time at Scorch, I was able to step out of the fete and head to the room to get my life together for a bit and then head back to keep party'n.
After Ambush we took a powernap then headed to Private
Ryan’s Soca Brainwash. Oh how I just
adore Private Ryan, such a nice young man that throws such splendid
partyz. In previous years I took it easy
on the vast selection of food, but this year I kinda let myself go in the
carnival body department, I didn’t give a *BEEP* and ate ERRRTHANG!!! There
were liquor tents everywhere at Brainwash, so you never have to wait long for
drinks, then tents dedicated to just one liquor: Patron, Moet, Cîroc, etc. It
is a liquor paradise where you can drink your life away, it’s a dayym good
fete, actually more so an experience. As
I’ve said in the past, Brainwash is the fete where I see the most familiar
faces, always great seeing my long lost carnival friends. I remember ending up on di Ave after
Brainwash, I can’t tell you if we walked there or took an Uber. I can tell you that we didn’t last long and
took our drunk & tired azzes to bed.
Took a nap after Shades and woke up just in time to hear a
new fete getting started at the Hilton pool.
Feel sorry for those that opted not to nap after Shades aka Paco. I headed to the Savannah with the homie Jermaine
to take a pic with the famous Carnival Countdown clock. *GRASP* the clock was not there this year
*dry cry* oh well, wandered around the Savannah for a bit then off to di Ave we
went to drink and be merry!!! I did
however find a vendor with the cutest little bottles of Puncheon for my liquor
collection. For those that don’t know,
Puncheon is Trini over proof rum. To
know me is to know that over proof rum is LIFE!!! So when in Rome (or Trinidad) Puncheon is the
liquor of choice…
Headed back to the hotel around 8pm to get our lives together
for J’ouvert morning. The stupid hotel fete
was still going strong and I regretted requesting a pool view. We did have a view of the stage and could see
Kes, Problem Child, Shal Marshal & other performing. While I love all those artists, I was tempted
to throw a chancla at them, we were 5 hours away from the 3am fete-a-than and I
needed Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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| Ariapita Ave = di Ave |
Woke up around 2:30am Carnival Monday ready for The Big
Day!!! Met the other homies at the Dirty Dozen mas camp for the pre J’ouvert
fete, around 4:30am the J’ouvert morning road march started and we drunkenly
danced around POS while getting DUTTY x2 !!! (1) Dirty & (2) Getting on bad
bad bad!!! I told the newbies that it is
a J’ouvert tradition to climb a wall & like crazy maniacs they
obliged. Also during J’ouvert there is
always a few people that spend the morning dancing with a bush/tree/twig… that
would be me! Around 8am we called it
quits and headed back to hotel to power nap before Part 2 of Carnival Monday.
Carnival Monday & Tuesday 2016 was #FAIL,
we were in “Don’t Give a BEEP* mode & stayed in the room a good portion of
both days cause it was like 1 million degrees outside. This year I was
determine to do better and dedicate more of the day to being with the carnival
band, it didn’t hurt that the temp was only 87 degrees this year.
Slept for a few hours after J’ouvert and by 12:30pm we were
on our way to link up with our band Tribe.
A couple of the other homies were playing mas with Paparazzi so we didn’t
get to fete with them on di road. We drove
around in an Uber for like 30 min trying to find Tribe and sadly just missed
crossing the Savannah stage with them. *dry
cry* Any who we once again drunkenly danced around POS till the music
trucks shut down for the night around 8pm, we stumbled over to our favorite Chinese
spot on di Ave and got some grub and headed back to the hotel around 9pm to get
ready for Carnival Tuesday aka Pretty Mas.
Tuesday morning we headed out around 9am (keep in mind the
trucks get started at 7:30am) and we linked up with Tribe just in time to cross
the Socadrome stage. YES YES and YES because
I was highly disappointed in myself for not getting to cross the Savannah stage
on Monday. The crazy part is I remember
linking with Tribe and drinking and partying with the random homies that I came
across as each section waited to cross the stage, but I have no memory of stepping
foot on the stage. Happy Happy Joy
Joy!!! Tuesday mas was amazing, I was determined to give it my all, not leave
the band, No Surrender, Soca or Die.
That lunchtime nap was everything, can you image how exhausted you have
to be to be to sleep on the grass, surrounded by 5,000 ppl and with music
trucks blasting chunes? I slept like
baby Monday & Tuesday afternoon, honestly the best naps I’ve gotten in my
life!!! Lunch is usually 2 hours, but
Tuesday’s lunch was only 1 ½ and believe me ppl could tell. There were so many people
that just lingered around the lunch area and didn’t leave when the band left, us
included!
Paco’s foot was bothering him
and he decided to call it a day after lunch (4pm). Being that there was still another 8
hours left in the day with Tribe, he decided not to let his costume go to
waste. He gave his shorts, wrist band,
and cup to a homie that was just chillin/storming bands. I had to capture a pix of Paco walking away
in his boxers like a vagabond.
Any who, I think Karina called it quits around 7pm (update: she apparently stopped at the Savannah to see bands cross the stage then ran into some friends), I was so
proud of her being that this was her first Trinidad carnival. I hung in there and kept fete’n till the
trucks shut down around 8pm and then partied at the Tribe, Bliss, Lost Tribe, &
Rogue, Last Lap fete until around 9:30pm.
Then I ran outta steam and took my broken down azz back to the
hotel.
PS: Waiving a flag all day is exhausting, shout out to all the fellas that took it upon themselves to assist with flag waiving duties *MUAH*
My Fit Bit tells the story of my carnival Monday & Tuesday. This is why I be on the treadmill with a strong drink in my hand, I am conditioning my body for carnival Monday & Tuesday. It’s not because I care about things like cholesterol or body mass index. Although I will confess to you guys that my drunk ass fell on the treadmill and crashed into the wall once so I don’t really be on there lit anymore.
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| She was hesitant at 1st, but once she saw a pic of herself with her new collar she was All Smiles! |
My Fit Bit tells the story of my carnival Monday & Tuesday. This is why I be on the treadmill with a strong drink in my hand, I am conditioning my body for carnival Monday & Tuesday. It’s not because I care about things like cholesterol or body mass index. Although I will confess to you guys that my drunk ass fell on the treadmill and crashed into the wall once so I don’t really be on there lit anymore.
In carnivals past we would hop a flight to Tobago on Ash
Wednesday morning, but I just wasn’t up for it this year. Instead Wednesday was spent eating, drinking,
and chilling by the pool tryn to fix the crazy tan lines that comes with wearing fish net
stockings all day in the sun for two days.
I had an amazing carnival experience this year, I’ve blown so much $$ on
Trinidad Carnival though the years, I hoped that this would be my last trip,
but I can’t promise that. I’m going to
skip 2019, but who knows maybe I’ll be back in 2020.
I leave you with my blog on how-to-attend-trinidad-carnival-on-a-budget and Paco's Carnical Mon & Tue recap video… enjoy!!!
