The Last Night of Carnaval in San Pedro: More Dancing and Even MORE Paint

I went into town for the first day of Carnival (Lots of Dancing and Lots of Paint) and decided to brave Day 3 - historically the craziest day of painting.

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the festival. How often do you see a painted (because he lost a bet) Mennonite gentleman watching cross dressing dancers while his family sits in a sports bar? How vainglorious! Only in Belize.

I saw a few comparsas groups dancing, singing and raising money for good causes. The first one for me was a small group from Ambergris Caye Elementary dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

I love how most of the groups stop every half block and throw an extension cord over to get plugged in at the closest bar or restaurant.

And then the painting really got going...at one point we were almost caught in some serious egg cross fire.

Kids in paint love to pose.

I took the chance to get home early. Things were getting more and more crazy. I hope everyone had fun and was safe. See you next year!

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more paint ridden photos on San Pedro Scoop

El Gran Carnaval comes to San Pedro

It’s the start of the Lenten season; but for residents of San Pedro it also means that it is time for El Gran Carnival. Love TV’s Maria Novelo reports.

LOVETV

Carnaval 2012 Day 3: Dancing and Painting to the Max!

EL Gran Carnaval de San Pedro has come to end, for this year that is! Carnaval painters and dancers hit the streets of San Pedro early to enjoy the last day of Carnaval on Tuesday, February 22, 2012. The painting and dancing was at its max! Music and dancing by the comparsa groups livened up the streets of San Pedro and let us not forget the herd of Carnaval revelers running up and down the streets painting each other. Oh the fun of one of San Pedro’s most loved tradition! The following is a short description of the comparsas that were out on the last day of Carnaval and lots of pictures to enjoy!

Click here to read the rest of the article and see LOTS MORE FANTASTIC photos in the Ambergris Today

Celebrating Carnaval 2012!

Miss Carnaval 2012-2013, Miss Miriam Rodriguez

The annual celebration of San Juan Carnaval kicked off on Saturday night, February 18th. The festival commenced with a block party at Central Park with various dance presentations by the San Pedro Dance Company.

Following the dance presentations, it was time for the crowning of Miss Carnaval 2012-2013. With initially three young ladies vying for the title – the competition was cut when two stepped down, leaving one individual representing.

Miss Carnaval 2012-2013, Miss Miriam Rodriguez Shortly after 9PM, reigning Miss Carnaval 2011-2012, Miss Ileny Aguilar, took to the stage for the official crowning of Miss Carnaval 2012-2013, Miss Miriam Rodriguez. As part of the block party celebration, booths also competed for three categories: best decorated, best Carnaval platter and best Carnaval drink.

In the category for the best decorated booth; Bayside Bar and Grill took the prize, with their Carnaval theme and colorful decorations. Best Carnaval platter went to the Blue Hole Restaurant for their Pork Pibil and best Carnaval drink went to Nicti-Ha, with their concoction, dubbed the “Blue Sacrifice”, a delicious combination of Vodka, lime, sugar and Gatorade.

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the San Pedro Sun

Getting Painted at Carnaval in Ambergris Caye, Belize

This past weekend was the annual Carnaval celebration on Ambergris Caye in Belize. I had been planning a “work” trip down in February, which coincidentally just happens to be my favorite spot in the world.

What I didn’t initially realize was that my trip coincided with Carnaval so I was eager to learn what made up their local version of our Mardi Gras style celebration. I heard a lot of stories and read a lot of articles, but only two things really stuck out in my head.

Rotten eggs and paint.

I was warned that people bury eggs in the ground for several weeks and then lob them at passersby throughout the three-day celebration. Are you kidding me? And then there was the paint. After the rotten eggs description, I was not sure I wanted to know more about the paint aspect.

As I figured, festival-goers wind up being the canvas as children and adults transform each other into a walking rainbow of water-based paint colors.

At this point, all I am still thinking is rotten eggs + paint = destroyed DSLR equipment.

A little further investigative chat with my friend Dorian, the owner and editor of Ambergris Today newspaper, revealed that perhaps I would be ok as most people only end up with paint if they choose to participate.

Being the chicken that I am, my friend Krysta, who I was traveling with, and I set out on the first day with old clothes and a constant eye over our shoulders. We saw kids covered in paint, but we were almost invisible to them. Krysta finally asked if someone would paint her and the first kid looked absolutely terrified and just tried to hand her paint so she could paint herself. He seemed to gain some confidence when his companion offered to paint Krysta, telling her in Spanish, “get her in the face”. Ultimately, we set off with a few streaks of paint and went on about our day.

My friend Krysta getting painted by a local girl

I was warned that by the third day of the festival, it was mostly adults painting and things could get pretty rowdy. Thankfully I was leaving that morning so I just had to survive day two. And how bad could that be?

Day two started off with multiple mob scenes of kids chasing each other up and down streets with everyone nearly covered from head to toe in about five colors of paint.

Kids covered in blue paint

Another group of kids completely covered in various shades of paint

Things were definitely heating up a notch.

While walking around and photographing all the festivities, I managed to stay completely color-free. Later on in the afternoon, one of the staff members of Ambergris Today, Gerry Badillo, and I shared a couple streaks of paint after giving several local kids permission to paint us.

The kids who gently painted my cheek yellow-green

Gerry Badillo and I with our few spots of yellow paint

By this time, I was quite confident I had escaped the worst and was enjoying my introduction to the local Carnaval celebration with the tiny streaks of yellow paint on my cheek.

What subsequently followed was a mess…a hot pink mess.

We ran into Gerry from the paper again, only this time, he was out of his work attire and completely covered in varying shades of white, pink, and purple paint. He and his crew were carrying a giant paint can filled with hot pink paint and eggs.

The can of hot pink paint with bobbing eggs

One would assume the alarms in my head were going off, right? Apparently they were on snooze.

Agreeing to a “little” paint on my only my face resulted in my entire face, neck, and crownline covered in this thick oozy hot pink paint, and one of the guys was kind enough to add some white stripes to finish me off.

I couldn’t see out of one of my eyes, my hair was matted to my face, but hey, at least they had warned me to close my mouth, otherwise my teeth would’ve been pink too!

While some women can wear pink, I’m definitely not one of them. I was told I resembled an oompa loompa, a pink version of a dive flag, and by the end of the night, the paint had cracked in such a fashion that one bar owner took a picture of my forehead because it was a dead ringer for the Minnesota Vikings logo.

Gerry Badillo and I after his masterpiece was complete

It ultimately took five shampoos to get almost all the pink out of my hair, but I have to say it was totally worth it. Despite looking like a hot pink oompa loompa strolling around town, I had the time of my life and can’t wait to get back down next year for Carnaval again.

Just watch out Gerry…2013 Carnaval is payback time!

SOURCE

Teen Talk by Emilie Gomez: Is Carnival A Messy Situation?

Carnival has come and gone! Carnival is the time when streets get filled with unrecognizable faces covered with vibrant colours of paint. But more than that is the grand celebration of the comparsas around town and the community partaking in an enticing tradition. A three day spectacular that promotes fun activities that both locals and tourist can indulge in.

The commencement of Carnival this year was exceptional, the crowd gathered in the central park to initiate Carnival 2012 fascinated by the booths, dances by the San Pedro Dance Company and a re-enactment of past Carnival activities practiced. A wonderful flashback of how Carnival once was, including Los Marscarados, Las Chinitas, Los Negritos, Las Cubanitas, La Guaranducha, La Morena Trinidad, El Torito y los Inditos.

So this week I asked my peers: “Did you partake in this year’s Carnival, why or why not?”

Click here to read the rest of the article and see more photos in the Ambergris Today

Editorial: Contemplating Carnaval

Although the paint has dried from the Carnaval festivities a couple weeks ago, the controversy certainly has not. Every year the issue of rampant painting, and the result of damage to person and property is evident. Sure it’s lots of fun but there are no limits to it, and the practise of painting is especially damaging and costly to local business owners. Not only do downtown entrepreneurs have to absorb the time and expense of wrapping plastic around their store fronts and expensive billboards to protect them from paint damage, often the painters tear down the plastic and maliciously deface the property anyways.

What most likely evolved from the original tradition of tossing flour during this celebration, the practise of throwing paint is not one that many island residents appreciate. Held hostage by a minority of island merrymakers that take great pleasure in the behaviour, many of us plan our days around escape routes to avoid the unsolicited painting to ourselves, our vehicles and whatever it is we may be carrying. With almost a mob mentality that can be frightening to foreigners and locals alike, we watch over our shoulders with the paranoia of being chased down the street by a gang of paint wielding juveniles or drunken adults who are just itching for some violence. Ultimately this behaviour is nothing but a license to vandalize property and terrorize those who choose not to participate.

Is this how we as a community should live during the days before Lent? Allowing a small group of rabble-rousers to instil a fear of being on the streets? Are we losing focus of what Carnaval is all about? Based on my internet research rampant painting during Carnaval is not widely practised and in areas where it does happen there are laws in place to protect persons and property.

Click here to read the rest of the article in the San Pedro Sun