Carnaval

Male Carnaval attire

Female Carnaval attire

Yesterday was the first night of Carnaval in San Ignacio!!  I didn't really know what to expect, but what I saw was a lot of glitter, feathers, very high heels, and booty shaking.  And there's a big cultural difference between booty shaking in the US and booty shaking here: in the US the booties are at least minimally covered, and here the cheeks are on full jiggling display.  Another cultural difference: the glitter and feathers aren't just for the women: the guys playing the drums in the parade wore bright blue tights with skirt-like pieces of fabric hanging down, along with sparkly, feathery shoulder adornments and head decorations.  The women dancing wore very, very high heals, which were obviously quite sparkly.  They also wore varied amounts of glittery clothing, ranging from not very much, to very, very, very little, and had harness-like frames of feathers strapped to their backs and on their heads.  Everyone in the parade, both male and female, was coated with glitter. 

Here's how my first night of Carnaval went: I finished work at midnight and headed out to the center with some friends, coworkers, and guests at the hostel.  We met up with some other friends and bought some 1-liter cups of beer the start the party.  Then the parade started, and we watched the procession of dancers and musicians pass by, as the drunk men made obnoxious comments, and I thought to myself, "I can't believe it's legal for women to dance in these (lack of) outfits in public with little kids all around!!" 

Video of the dancing and music of Carnaval - the previous paragraphs should have you prepared for what to expect.  PG-13

 

 

When the parade finished around 2:00 am we went to the internet lounge to have some more beers, as there are no real bars in San Ignacio.  After than I came back to the hostel around 4:00 am with the intention of going to bed, but ran into some friends who were headed to the river, so I went along.  We got there around 5:00 am and decided that the perfect way to watch the sunrise would be while swimming in the middle of the river, so we headed out on the boat for a pre-dawn swim.  Since it's been in the 100's every day for the past week (and many days for the past few months) the water was quite pleasant.  We stayed out there and watched the sunrise, and then headed back to shore and back to the town.  The others bought some food for breakfast and went back to the river until about noon, but I was the party pooper who went to bed early at 7:30 am.