January 26th- Carnaval cont'd...

The melee begins when the tree falls... Can you see Ben with his grab from the "Gringo" tree!?

When you get too messy or hot you can just jump inthe river...

Ben and I marching around the Carnaval tree

Ben takes his 1st whack at the tree!
The Chino Band gets down!
Ben gets down while sitting in with the Chino Band!


I was really ready to smear some annatto on someone!!

The tourists march around the tree.

I totally got hit in the face with a pail of water when I took my 1st whack at the Carnaval tree.

Ring around the Carnaval tree!!

Ben chops again!!!

Cami takes a whack at the tree!

Look out!
This little boy perfectly shows the excitement that all the village children felt while running to get gifts from the tree!

The little ones were playing in the mud!

This is a serious endeavor!!



The tree is falling!!

26/01/08

Carnaval continued throughout the afternoon...

"After returning to the lodge to have lunch we all went back to Chino for the afternoon Carnaval festivities. When we arrived at the villagers, the celbration was already in full swing. the Chino band was playing, people were dancing and Dolly explained to us that we re fully expected to dance around the trees, throw mud and water on each other and get smeared with as much annatto and mishquipanga as we could take!! The dancing and revelry went on for about 2 hours, before we finally got to take turns chopping down the tree. In this village, the tradtion is that the tree is decorated with gifts and the villagers dance around and take turns trying to fell the tree, if you happen to take the lucky or unlucky chop that brings the tree down it is your responsibility to provide the tree for next year. The lodge had provided this years tree. Jose and Christian explained that in some villages people had to try to climb the tree to knock down the gifts and sometimes the types of gifts were the most exciting aspect- things like chickens and tortoises!! The Chino village tree didn't have any tortoises thank goodness!!"

If your wondering why we are covered in mud, water, and natural plant dyes part of the joy of Carnaval inthis region is to "play" with water and to really get as messy as possible. Plus, it was super hot that day, so getting a pail of water on your head cooled you down for a few minutes at least.