Stepping Out of the Boat

This past weekend Claire and I had to opportunity of experiencing a Dominican carnival first hand. February 27th is the Dominican Independence Day so every day for the week leading up to this day is a party here on the island. Because the carnival in Santo Domingo isn't until a little later we rode with some friends from school to a town about a hour and a half away called La Vega for the carnival.

We knew that it was a crazy party the moment we stepped out of the car. The town had multiple streets blocked off with vendors and very loud music lining the way. We started by walking up and down the road to check out all the places along the way before we settled on a place to watch the "parade." The vendor booths along the street go something like this: beer, food, toys/sunglasses, loud music, beer, liquor, loud music, repeat. Each music booth was put on by a different popular company on the island and was a glorified dancing area that had music playing so loud you could feel your clothes move. The top left picture is a loud music area. After a while of walking down the street one loud boom would fade into the next.
These carnivals aren't for the unaware, however. As you are walking down the street you have to be constantly watching out for people looking to hit you from behind. A tradition at the festival is to whip each other on the butt with inflated pig livers. Times have changed and the festival has evolved so it isn't inflated pig liver but a tightly stuffed pillow on a rope instead. Either way grown men are taking full swings at unsuspecting bystanders leaving marks as they go. Here is a picture of a vendor with a variety of "inflated pig livers."
After we were done exploring the streets we found a relatively quite place to settle and waited for the parade to start. The parade consisted of people dressed in extravagant devil outfits walking down the street posing for pictures and hitting people from behind. The longer the parade lasted the more crowded the streets became. Claire and our friend Pauline decided to stay close to a nearby fence for protection while the rest of us pushed our way to the front for the show. At one point it was a complete mosh pit with wall to wall people struggling to make their way through or avoid getting whacked.

Surprisingly we never saw any fights break out and everyone seemed to enjoy the music and the parade. Claire and I managed to make it through the day without getting hit. I wish I could say the same for a couple of our friends, Sonya and Kari, who will each have their own souvenir for about another week. We ended up staying for a few hours but we know that the party lasted well into the night with people dancing and celebrating in the streets.

Claire's opinion of the whole thing: What kind of person thinks it is fun to stand in the hot sun with four different kinds of music blasting so loud that it changes your hairstyle while thousands of drunk and sweaty people push you and step on your feet? Then, add to that the fact that crazy drunk men dressed as demons are running around trying to hit you as hard as they can on the backside with inflated pigs' livers. If hell were engineered just for me, it would very closely resemble La Carnival at La Vega. Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite thing.

My Opinion
I thought it was fun in a weird different sort of way. We knew going in about the potential dangers, but decided that the once in a lifetime opportunity was worth the risk. I mean where else can you get whipped by a devil wielding an inflated pig liver?

I have added a few more pictures of our day on the picture page so go check it out.