Carnival St Thomas

Two-tier steel pan band float.

 We lucked out again, and found ourselves in St Thomas for their annual Bacchanal Carnival. Being the staid, go to bed at 8 cruisers we are, we skipped most of the festivities.  I should say, we stayed on the boat, but could hear and see most of the festivities.  We were anchored in the harbor off of Charlotte Amalie, only about 2000 feet from Carnival Village, where most of the concerts and partying happened.  There was plenty of really good music, really loud, really late. Sometimes as late as 0430.  Not that that kept either of us awake.  I would turn over in bed, still hear the thumping of the music and wonder at the people who could stay up past midnight.

We did hear some good reggae and salsa/Puerto Rican rhythms and lots of good steel pan bands. We heard the reggae version of "Take me home, country roads", we heard, as we have heard all the way from Trinidad north, a song that goes like this " Lord, don't let me cheat on my girlfriend, as far as I can see, she loves only me, but Lord if you can't stop me from cheating, don't let me get caught", and my personal favorite (and one I think written just for the occasion): "Enjoy yourself, it might be your last".

 We did manage to get to the Children's Parade.  They were SOOOO cute in their costumes, some of them too young to do much but walk the route and stare, some really hamming it up for the crowds. It was a really hot, sunny day so the route was about 2 blocks long. 

This woman was along the parade route, all dressed up. As she was walking along, her phone rang. She pulled out the big red hand piece from her bag. So funny to see her talking on it, she attracted a lot of attention.

Enjoy yourself.