Mystic Journey: Carnival Grenada

So here we are ready (and willing) to head back to Canada to see our new grandchild, our "old" grandchildren, our families and our friends - but first to Carnival in Grenada.

Carnival is a huge thing here, as it is on most of the Caribbean islands. In a sense it reminds me of the winter carnivals I used to attend (in a manner of speaking) at different military postings. Although the carnival is actually only two days long, it begins much earlier than that with all kinds of events - crowning of carnival Queen and King, selection of the best Soca band, the best Calypso band, the best Steel Pan band as well as the more tongue in cheek crowning of the "Queen" - as in men dressed up as princesses, all occurring before the actual carnival starts. There was also the Dimanche Mas and other events that we didn't know about until after.

We attended two main events. If Mystic Journey had still been in the water we likely would have attended more because we could have gone back and anchored outside St George's harbour, which would have allowed easy access to the whole carnival. As it was, with Mystic Journey on the hard, the bus service was a bit awkward because Lagoon Road and the Carenage (road around the waterfront downtown) were periodically closed due to events. So, we did the best with what we had.

The first event we went to was Panorama, the Steel Pan Band competition. This took place on Saturday night and involved the top eight Pan bands in Grenada. The sizes of the bands ranged from 55 members to 95, with the number of instruments varying from 150 to 200 for each band. It was really quite exciting to watch, as one of the criteria for the bands was to generate as much excitement and energy as they could. We went with Sue and Maurice from Strider, Don and Heather from Asseance and Dick and Jane from Cheetah II but when everyone was in the stadium and seated there were probably over one hundred "yachties" in attendance.

The competition started as close to eight as "island time" allowed (probably closer to 8:30) and

I must admit that we left before it was over - about 11:00 - as they were only half way through. The music was great although we personally think that the addition of drum sets of the same type as in rock bands detracts from the pan effect as in a couple of cases it was hard to hear the pan melody over the noise of those drums. The funny thing is that as we were taking the bus (Grenadian Van - we have told you about them) home the competition was on the radio and over the air you could hear the pan instruments a whole lot clearer.

We got to hear the band that won the competition as it played in fourth spot. They started out fairly slow but by the time they were finished the amount of energy and enthusiasm, both in the band and in the audience, was incredible. It is really something to see 70 band members jumping up and down and dancing while playing the pan, especially the very complex guitar and violin pans. These instruments have up to 30 striking surfaces and sometimes the players are playing on 2 or 3 at the same time. Although it looks to us like they are hitting at random, especially on the bigger pans, the sound they produce is fantastic. We didn't really want to leave but it had been a busy day and we were a bit pooped.

As an aside - a real plus for the island of Grenada is that we (Sue and Maurice and us) never felt any trepidation about walking from the stadium to downtown where we could catch a bus to our apartment. Grenada feels like a very safe island and in fact that was one of the recurring themes we heard over carnival time from the MC's and the media - be safe and be responsible and be caring. Overall Panorama was a really great experience and well worth staying up waaaaaay past my bedtime.

Our next Carnival activity was the Monday Night Mas. Mas is short for masquerade and consists of sponsored bands that march along Lagoon Road to the Carenage, the harbour in St. George's. The term band does not refer to a musical band, but to a group of people such as Robin Hood's Band of Merry Men. We joined the band sponsored by Lime - one of the telephone network on the islands. There were also bands sponsored by Carib beer, Heiniken beer and Digicel. As things turned out the Lime Band was the largest band there - 4,000 people. For an admission fee, $55EC, the sponsors provided costumes for their band members to wear. Ours consisted of a top hat, a t-shirt, a lighted baton, glasses, a lighted bracelet and free drinks from the drink truck.

We met our usual group of Canadian yachties at the marina and walked over to the staging area. We were told to be at the staging area by 7PM for an 8 PM start to the parade. We would be following a sound truck and followed by the bar truck. As per island time we did not get started until 9PM. Following the safety theme of carnival there were security staff that lined either side of the Lime Band. It was quite a sight to see all of the people with their lighted batons and bracelets crowded together behind the Lime truck, everyone moving with the music. Before the actual walk started all of the bands were staging in the same general area and all of them had a tractor trailer with a tremendous amount of sound equipment on it. Of course, in keeping with the general Caribbean trend, the music was going full blast, mostly Soca.

Soca is a type of music apparently based on African music but between you and me I think the resemblance ends with the steady bass drumming. Imagine Bruce Springsteen only with volume. The lyrics are extremely repetitive and at times very lewd and suggestive. There are apparently some islands that are working on banning Soca music from events like this and even from the radio. Some of the music we heard in Trinidad used such bad language and as well was so sexually explicit and very degrading to women that we were shocked they would play it at all where children (or me) could hear it.

Back to the Mas - as I was saying, the music was going full blast but not just from one but from three trucks that were all in close proximity to each other. You could pick the truck you wanted to dance to. Of course the bass was so loud that for safety's sake we picked one that was closest to our own heart beat because I think if we had picked something not in sync, we would have gone into heart fibrillation.

So - off we go in fits and starts, dancing with 4000 other people to the Lime truck music and waving our lighted batons, held up by our flashing-braceleted wrists. The proper protocol for these walks is to do a small shuffle step in time with the music. There is also a "pairs" dance that we saw some of the younger people doing but I won't describe it in case the kids are reading this blog. Since this walk was going to be going on for quite a while, there seemed to be no rush to start or to keep it going but no one minded.

An aside - another thing about Grenadians - they are for the most part very friendly. We walked the last 2 miles or so to get to the staging area and we passed lots of people who, on noticing we had our "Mas" costumes on, wished us well and told us to make sure we had a good time.

I had not mentioned that while we were working on the boat, I had twisted my back a little and my sciatic nerves down both legs started to act up - a lot. I had almost opted out of the Mas as a matter of fact but decided I really didn't want to miss it. The down side was that with all the standing around and non-movement (the problem isn't as bad if I can walk), the pain came back so after we had walked for a bit, I asked Cheryl if it was okay if we headed back to the apartment. She said that the people and the noise were getting to her too so off we went. In keeping with what I had said about the friendly people, when we were walking back to where we could catch the bus, we got teased by a number of people about leaving the Mas early. All in good fun though and as I said earlier, although we had to walk a fair distance to where the road was open and some of it in dark areas, at no time did we feel nervous. A lot different from Trinidad!!!

Right now we are in the apartment listening to the rain pouring down and feeling impatient for today and tomorrow to be over so we can be on our way home. There was a parade of bands today that we considered going to but considering the rain and my back we decided to give it a miss. Mystic Journey is almost ready for us to leave - I will go over tomorrow and do the final steps and hand the keys over the Spice Island Marine. Cheryl has all of our clothes clean and we are ready to go.