Carnaval

As of Friday, Carnaval in Cadiz has officially begun! The city of Cadiz (which happens to be just across the bay from Rota) lives to celebrate Carnaval, which is a 10-period of costumes, plays, music, and much more! It is said to be the third-largest Carnaval in the world after
Rio de Janeiro and Trinidad and has been going on since the 17th century.

I had two friends come down to visit me this weekend and on Saturday night, I headed over to Cadiz on the ferry to meet them. The first thing that I noticed was how dressed up everyone on the ferry was. Everyone from the toddlers to the groups of 70-year old women had on some sort of costume. Unlike at home at Halloween, it seemed like instead of each person trying to find the most unique costume, the point was for everyone to dress up as a group.

When I stepped off the ferry at 7:30 pm, the area around the port was packed with people. In all the plazas, there were booths set up selling every kind of carnival candy imaginable, different last minute costumes, drinks, food, and of course - alcohol! Not that any of the students in the main square seemed to have any use for the alcohol. They had all brought their own bottles of liquor, mixers, and glasses and were having a gigantic botellon all over the city! One group of guys had really planned out their night in advance and were actually using a shopping cart to bring all their bottles with them wherever they went!

Some of the costumes were outrageous, and all of them were very creative! The party was only getting started when I arrived, and sometime later, after wandering around the streets for awhile, we joined in the big parade of people following the drums and singing typical Carnaval songs. We soon learned the words to one of the shortest chants, so we were even able to join in!

Then later on, there was a big ceremony where everyone gathered to see all of the Carnaval Muses (a group of about 10 girls dressed up) parade onto an outdoor stage. Then they brought out the previous year's Carnaval Queen and announced the Queen of the 2008 Carnaval.

All in all, it was a pretty exciting night and I can't wait to go back next weekend, when 9 of our language assistant friends are coming down to visit!