CARNIVAL ALEGRIA POR LA VIDA 2005
(Carnival of Happiness for life 2005)
Managua, Nicaragua – Saturday, March 12, 2005
NATIONAL POLICE
Buses full of armed police arrived early in the afternoon to oversee the setting up of the parade route for the Carnival just a block from our hotel room.
INTO THE STREETS
Sunset brought out the crowds.
Soon the streets were filled with spectators, vendors, families, carts and police all awaiting the parade.
DANCING IN THE STREETS
After a few vintage cars and a motorcycle gang, waves of dancers appeared.
The dancers in white appeared to be doing a Jamacian dance. The ladies in orange outfits who lined the streets for the dancers in the second photo were holding coconuts.
JAPAN
These young men with faces painted on their torsos were part of the Japanese outfit.
IMPRESSIONS
This troupe danced with paddles and left quite an impression on us.
BRASS BAND
The music kept getting louder. There were spotlights and speakers and everything was being filmed, live for TV. Note the police women in the foreground. We decided not to photograph the policemen with their heavy rifles who lined the edges of the crowds.
FINALLY, THE QUEEN
Irvana Molina, queen of the Carnival is supported by two men. They took their job very seriously, never loosening their grip on the queen. Their arms must have been numb by the end of the evening.
ROCK AND ROLL
This band played a pair of Beatle’s songs (“Come Together” and “She was just 17”) that brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes and set me to doing the twist while the TV cameras swept across the crowd.
When we had enough, we walked back to the hotel and stopped at the bar for a drink and to watch the Carnival on TV. The bartender served up two rum and cokes and told us he had seen us on TV a little earlier.