Carnival season is past and ended with another great "Best of the Best" Carnival/ Carnaval on the Malecon (Ave. George Washington) in Santo Domingo.
The place was packed full of all sorts of people. Young and old alike. People dresses in elaborate costumes, some with painted faces, others maybe only sucking on a pacifier maybe trying to regress back to childhood and others just observing the antics of all the above mentioned.
There was no room to move as I entered the throbbing crowd. making it fun and a bit frightening at the same time.
Most were enjoying all the activity while others were there to take advantage of the festivities and rob or hurt others.
But, all in all, it was very enjoyable for the short time I was amongst the crowd.
The most frightening mask for me was this pink clown-devil man. The mask had huge flat teeth inside a gaping mouth. The bulging eyes and evil look of the face was made worse by the clown costume this devil wore. I'm not a real big clown fan myself. Clowns are just evil in disguise. It seemed that everywhere I happened to go that diabolical evil pink mask was there looking at me through its blood shot eyes. I even saw that face in my dreams that night!
After being bumped and shoved by the crowd all the while enjoying, I finally gave up the fight. I headed back to the safety of my friend Pepe's Pasteles en Hoja shop on Palo Hincado street and watched the people in the street from the doorway. It was much safer there for sure. The roads were congested with people coming and going while cars were still trying to go wherever in the street. There was food and all sorts of items being sold in every direction I looked. there were children walking sort of dumb founded being dragged along by their adult guide. It was just as much fun watching the people in the street leaving Carnival as watching the parade itself.
Here are a few videos I took of the parade to give you never-saw-Carnival-in-DR people an idea of what it's like.
Make sure to check out the Carnival pages and slide shows on the web site also.
"Los Lechones marching down the Malecon"
"Los Alibaba Drummers"
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