Round the world in 7 months

More pictures at: https://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/V.Pakulat/Trinidad
People say that there is only one reason, and one reason only, to go to Trinidad: CARNIVAL!
I am not sure if there may be more reasons, but carnival is definitely one! Carnival in Trinidad stands for a tremendous party with steel bands, fetes, masquerades, absolutely beautiful women and music.
Steel bands are bands that use steel drums only. The small ones have about 10, while the biggest bands have more than 100 drummers. The first week, the week before carnival, I stayed with a family, who plays in a steel band, so I was able to observe the preparation and even watch a steel band competition. It's a pretty serious thing to the bands. They practice every day for months before the carnival and then there are 1 to 2 competitions each week. The drums are on a truck or/and small platforms that have wheels on the bottom. The players push their own drums. The bands, sometimes more than 50 in one competition, have to move in front of a group of judges, play their song and then get out the way. There are many people coming to watch and TV is usually there too. The next day you can read the results in the newspapers. I had the honor of holding the flag for one of the bands, and I was on TV!!! Now I'm famous all over Trinidad.

Fetes are huge public parties. The week before carnival there are several of them every evening. they have live music and DJ's, who warm up the crowd. Of course they are really good at their jobs and they really get the crowd fired up, sometimes up to a thousand people. They sing and dance like "hell". The fetes start at 3pm and last until the next morning. With morning I mean 8 or 9 o'clock. It's hard work!
Masquerades (in short: mas) are like our carnival parades, just much bigger and with ten thousands of beautiful and very sexy women. They do not wear very much at that time and only about 10% are men - sorry girls! The parades are on Monday and Thursday and start at 8 am. They do not end until 8 pm. Even if you stay with it the entire time, you probably still haven't seen it all. It's just incredible! These people are dancing, singing, partying... and never get tired. It's a true experience and everyone should see it at least once. The strange thing is that after the parades at about 9pm it is total quiet everywhere. No fetes and no parties. The streets are empty and the people are at home preparing for the next day.