Happy Tuesday!
Having Photo Monday on Tuesday may seem weird to some , but hey – we’re on St. John and we celebrated the 4th on the 5th down here this year, so it seems quite normal to us. This week we’d like to share a few of the many photos we took yesterday in Cruz Bay. It was Parade Day, and the culmination of our annual St. John Festival (our island version of Carnival).
The delightful Gypsies are a perennial delight and always a colorful addition. They got everyone in the crowd on their feet and dancing alongside them as they passed.
Can rain stop a Carnival Parade….?
Not on St. John.
Off and on showers just made parade day cooler for everyone. So what if there was even a deluge at one point? Drink, dance, throw some beads at the crowd and be happy!
This marked the beginning of Caneel Resort’s floupe. (Parade troupes that have floats are called floupes – really.) Their theme was Guardian Of The Children and they led off with this dragon protecting the castle of St. John…or, is that the new entrance gate at Caneel? No matter.
The Westin Floupe theme was Birds of Paradise and they even had a caged beauty on their float! Of course there were lots of mocko jumbies too in the parade and one troupe even lined up to create a long tunnel through their legs which they invited carnival goers to walk through. You can see how doable that is by the size of the stilts on this lone jumbie.
The Shaka Zulus Troupe was on St. John in force - looking fierce and spectacular in their traditional garb. Others in the parade were not so fierce looking.
Can you say Princess? There were also queens and kings, majorettes and steel pans, reggae and salsa, and so much more. It was all very exciting.
It was a long day, so afterwards we retired to our little cottage above town, sat on our rocking chairs, set our cameras onto tripods and adjusted the automatic timer so it could take pictures for you while we took a rest and enjoyed fireworks like eveyrone else. Not bad for a mile away!
Until next week,
Bob and Karin Schlesinger
Your Island Photographers
p.s. – Look for many more photos of Festival to be posted on Flickr soon. Just look for “tropicalfocus” and be sure to share with your friends.
