Grenada Carnival 2012: Mind-blowing!

Monday Night Glow Mas... {A.k.a. Awesome Mad Chaos}

After five hours of parading/dancing in the costume, it was time to shower up and get dressed for Monday Night Mas! This was mind blowing. Literally. Those of you who are into glow parties, this is like the biggest/craziest glow party you would ever experience! We bought all of our glow products and t-shirt from the Carib {local brewing company in Grenada} "band" or team. So, this means, we would stay with this group all night to parade around. 

Pre-Monday Night Mas pictures :)

 Tammy, Me and Reina

 Cris and I! 

We planned to walk down the mountain... again... for the start of the glow mas, but rain made us take cover and almost instantly, a taxi van pulled up and asked if we wanted to go to Grand Anse for $3 each. {Note: $1 USD is equal to about $2.25-ish EC, but they use the same dollar sign as the US.} So, I had a bit of cash with me, so I said... Yup! Lets go. We pile in and luckily we were one of the first they found to grab. We stopped and several others piled in. I was sitting in the front row of the back seats and I was in the middle with a girl by the window, me, a woman and her two precious kids, and then the money boy. The two kids were very interested in my glow material, so I showed them my glow stick. Soon enough, I had the little boy {around age 6} asleep laying against me with his arm across my leg. It was too cute! Once the van stopped, I had to help usher him out because his momma was on the run!! 

Anyways, once we reached the stopping point where the van couldn't go any further, there was loud music everywhere and already saw different "bands" starting to parade around. The different bands had different glow apparel, t-shirts and different drink trucks for the night. Anyone who was apart of the certain band receive free Carib drinks all night, though it was so hot, the drinks were sweated out almost instantly.

Throughout the night, we danced and danced as we paraded with a mob of hundreds of people in our band. The music was so loud and at one point, I was way in front of the DJ truck! Everyone had their glow apparel on and was an overall blast! {By the way, this lasted from about 7 p.m. until about 4 a.m.}

The DJ in back of the truck!

{I hope this video works!}

Approaching my band, Carib

Pretty Mas {Last day in Grenada and Carnival event}

Just hours later after Money Night Mas ended and we hiked our way up the mountain to the house, we were up and at it again and getting ready to go dance and parade around in our pretty costumes! At this point in the trip and Carnival, I'm not sure how I was still able to function with the lack of sleep that I was running on and lack of food, I might add. But, good thing I was still going, because I didn't have much of a choice! :)

So, my cousin, Tammy, and our friend, Reina got ready and were ready to head down and cousin, Cris was the photographer for the day. This time, we were judged four times, but it was a little more laid-back and had a party feel. The drinks for the participants were free and there were millions of people on the side watching everyone dance by in their costumes. I think I shocked a lot of people being the only Caucasian girl in my costume group. All I know is that I'm in a lot of random people's pictures!

This Carnival celebration is a big deal! I met some people who came just for Carnival all the way from London and funny enough, I saw my friend's dad who I had met my last trip from London! Anyways, this event reminded me of marching in the Macy's Day Parade when I was with the Pride of Oklahoma in 2007. 

Enjoy all the photos and different costumes, received from Cris Martin.

 Tammy and I!

 Back of my costme

 I just had to insert Clive...

And AJ :)

Unfortunately, I had to come to the realization that this trip was coming to an end. It was hard to think that I would be on a plane just hours after Pretty Mas had ended. This will go on the one of the top most awesome experiences of my life, to date. Experiencing the culture, in which many celebrate around the world, was very eye opening. I know for a fact, this won't be my last Carnival to experience!

Thanks again to my wonderful cousins, Cris and Tammy, and all of the people I met in Grenada who I now consider friends. This is what I will never forget!

Love.