Yesterday four of us went to Petit Goave (about 45 minutes away) to witness some final Carnival celebrations. Carnival is celebrated in Haiti for several weeks leading up to Mardi Gras. They have parades, floats, masks, beautiful and interesting costumes, food vendors, street dramas, and music... lots of music. It's everywhere and it's loud. It's blasting from parked cars, restaurants, and sound systems on the floats. Supposedly the first Carnival was celebrated in 1804, the same year Haiti was liberated from France. Some of the parades have kings and queens, similar to what you'll see in the Mardi Gras parades of New Orleans. 

Up until yesterday I'd yet to witness any of the events and parades. Honestly, I've never been that interested because big crowds of people gathering in Haiti isn't typically my cup of tea. But our new intern Molly wanted to at least experience a bit of Carnival, so we decided to see what festivities were left. Had we thought about it in advance, we should have tried to go to Jacmel, which is known for it's colorful parades, street dancing, and good music. But we waited too late and missed out on going there. All that was left outside of Port-au-Prince (no way) or Cap-Haitian (too far) was Petit Goave. 

We took a crowded mini bus from Leogane to Petit Goave, which costs 50 gourdes per person (around $1.25US). We found our hotel, put down our bags and headed for downtown. Around dusk, the festivities begin at the top of town and end downtown. We grabbed some griot, barbecue and fried plantains for dinner and waited. There were brightly colored decorations everywhere. A group of security guys on power trips were keeping the peace--mostly just turning that section of the street into a pedestrian path for the parade, directing the motos to another route. The power went out while we were waiting on our food so we just sat in the dark and chatted. It was about 7:30pm when we finished eating. There were more people around but not much was happening yet so we decided to start walking back towards the hotel until we found some moto taxis... that way we'd at least be walking distance to the hotel whenever we were ready to call it a night. We were told it would be another 2 hours before the parades would reach us. After walking for about 15 minutes, we met the parades. We stood by and watched. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get great photos because there wasn't much lighting and there were people everywhere, but I tried. After they passed, we took some motos back towards the hotel and stood around and listened to music and people-watched for a bit longer. Once back at the hotel we climbed on the roof for an aerial view. "Blasting" doesn't even begin to describe the music. I'm surprised any of us were able to fall asleep... some did better than others!

Here are a ton of photos to give you a better glimpse into Petit Goave's Carnival...