Carnaval!

Today was Carnaval! Honestly, we all agreed that it was the worst Carnaval any of us had ever been to, but I had fun out on Mao's main street, Calle Duarte, with Marxengels and several buddies. I met a bunch of new friends, as well. Unfortunately, the worst thing about this celebration was how many people decided it was pleito time. After just a half hour of arriving, a nasty fight broke out right next to us between a group of guys in their late 20's, early 30's. Everyone began running from the scene, and I thought one dude was going to put the other guys' head through a glass shop window. Ugg! There were several other times when people began running due to fights breaking out up and down the street. Enough to make me tremble all over! One young guy was shot to death by the police. This is becoming the thing to do nowadays when there's any crowd. Marxengels and I try to stay away from crowd situations, because something always seems to go wrong. Too much alcohol mixed with the heat and general problems people have with drugs, etc. Anyway, here are a bunch of colorful photos of the traditional Carnaval, which includes a huge parade and plenty of colorful masks and costumes. It's always held on Sunday afternoons/evenings in the month before Easter, and each city claims their own Sunday. So on any given Sunday, you could pick and choose which Carnaval you'd like to go to somewhere or another.