Break Out Your Whistles, It's Junkanoo Time

Saturday was the second and last day of the Goombay Festival. Nothing like a good junkanoo,

and moko jumbies.

How about the intricate braiding on the lady in that last picture?

We've gone to 6 or 7 carnivals throughout the Caribbean, and the guys on stilts are always my favorite, but I've never seen a costume like this.



He moved so smoothly. Can you tell that his butt cheeks are on display? It was pretty darn cool, although he had to be extremely hot.

Sunday? Zombie bike ride.

All events Sunday (lots more on Babbling' Conch's Facebook page):

Here We Go!

And it begins. Fantasy Fest is upon us.

It started with the Goombay Festival. You'll note that last year there wasn't a whole lot of Goombay going on. There were maybe two booths that could be considered Bahamian, the rest were basically street meat. Tons and tons of barbecued flesh all the way down the street. Yuck. The meat was still there, but there was much more conch, jerk chicken, peas & rice, handmade jewelry, rum drinks in coconuts/pineapples, Caribbean music (not really Bahamian), etc. - all booths run by African Americans (and Cubans), another change from last year - so good job to the organizers this time.

Also, last time, we hit the street fair during the day. We came after sundown this time, and it was much more crowded.

I know I said the heat broke, but that was just for a couple of days. It's hot again. We were shivering by now last year (and it was raining a lot), so it seems summer just doesn't want to let go this year. Trying to avoid the heat, we came later and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We ended up spending most of our time at the stage where different bands play all day. When we got there, The People Upstairs were just getting started. They play a really wide range of songs in a jazzy, reggae style. We had a couple of sad moments remembering being at the music concerts in St. Kitts and jamming to this stuff, realizing we wouldn't be doing that again anytime soon. But one guy, noticing me bobbing to the music, came up and asked Michael if it was okay to dance with me (I love that). And then off we went to boogie.



He asked me where I was from, and I told him we'd just come from St. Kitts. He told me he was from Miami, and then grinned real wide, revealing a number of missing teeth. He was a real gem and helped reset the mood.

As we were heading back to the house, we passed a bunch of drag queens, and Michael couldn't resist shoving a dollar in one guy's (gal's?) bra.



Yes, Fantasy Fest has begun. Rest up!

Easing In

Fantasy Fest eases in with the Goombay Festival. It's supposed to celebrate the Bahamian influence on Key West and took place, conveniently, in the Bahama Village. Now, we've been down here before, saw the hat store on the corner (playing country music, bleck) and moved on. We hadn't realized that this is more a neighborhood than a "place," and that there were more restaurants and stores down the street that we were missing.