CARNAVAL

CARNAVAL

The finale night of Carnaval was postponed because of rain so I was luckily able to catch some of it. The event usually lasts for two weeks and includes parades of floats each morning and entertainment at a makeshift stadium they construct near Place Massena each night. The theme this year was Le Roi de la Mer, or King of the Sea.

Here's the ferris wheel. They put it up right before Christmas in the dead of winter and took it down right after Carnaval just as the weather was getting nice!

Here are some of the floats.

Here's us loser poor people catching a glimpse of the proceedings on the triple-play jumbo-tron.

On the last night of Carnaval they ritually "kill the king" who they place on a little boat and then blow up. Remember this is a country that killed their own royal family and whose version of Daily Show-style political satire is performed by puppets (and not cool realistic puppets like Yoda, crappy puppets like Punch-and-Judy ones). 

Anyway, after they kill the king everybody cheers and then they launch a fireworks display from the water (sorry no pictures of that but it was pretty good).

The king is dead! Long live the king!