Saturday was the kick off for Carnaval in Cadiz. Starting off in Marcos's neighborhood, we drank the traditional
sweet wine, made of muscatel grapes, and ate snacks while listening to the Coro's (choirs) in the street. Kids were running around, spraying silly string on business windows and other people, blowing kazoos and looking Oh so adorable in their Carnaval costumes. The choirs sing about compliments of Cadiz, and are very poetic. Each truck has a theme: Lion King, Chicago, Pirates, etc and they sing songs around the theme they have chosen. For example, the Lion Kings compare Cadiz to the jungle or the Pirates talk about invading a city and discovering Cadiz. Everything they sing about though is based around the city of Cadiz and it's people.
Since drinking in the streets is permitted during holidays in Cadiz, and restaurants and bars don't let the public use their toilets, the issue of bathrooms becomes a problem. There is a street that I call Dog Poop Lane because people never seem to pick up their crap. However, when Marcos and I went home to prepare for the night , tucked between each car on that street, people were copping a squat/standing and peeing. I have never seen so many adults peeing in public in broad daylight at once. It was actually quite shocking!
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| One of the many Coros we heard! |
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| This was a "small crowd". |
After a few hours of watching the choirs, we returned home and created ourselves into Tim Burton's Alice and Wonderland characters. Let us introduce ourselves ....
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| The Mad Hatter and Alice |
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| Marcos used contact lenses to create the "craziness" of the Mad Hatter. |
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| The boys of the night: Brave Heart, Mad Hatter, Crusader, Mark Anthony, and Brave Heart |
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The girls of the night: Alice, Cleopatra, & Greek Goddesses
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Remember the contests I talked about that we watched on Friday night? One of the groups that competed was a group of Mad Hatters. Below is a picture with one of them. Throughout the weekend, people would stop Marcos and say things like "You guys deserved first place, you were amazing, great performance." Marcos didn't have the heart to tell them that he wasn't the "real deal" and he would play along. Some would even ask "Are you performing tonight? When can we see you again?" and Marcos would make something up! That's how amazing his costume was!
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| Marcos Mad Hatter, Alice & Mad Hatter from TV |
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| Pacman and crew |
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| Another Alice and the Queen of Hearts |
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| Flamingos |
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| Flower Pots |
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| Fred and his Flintmobile |
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| POOOOOOOOP! |
About 3 am we decided to head home..... and we finally did get home at 5:30 am. Getting a taxi was near to impossible, or wait, it WAS impossible, as we never got one, and finally caught a bus ride home. We were exhausted! I didn't know what to expect of Carnaval, but I imagined more games or booths, like our 4th of July. Marcos explained to me though that it's more traditional, with Spanish songs, and Spanish traditions. It was definitely a fun night!!
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It's amazing to me, that each night of Carnval results in mass amounts of litter,
but by the next day it's all cleaned by City employees. |
More to follow friends! xo
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