Experiencing Carnival in Limon, Costa Rica

Caitlinepstein415/ October 23, 2017/ Latin America/ 1 comments

Experiencing Carnival in Limon, Costa Rica

Each October, the Limon Province of Costa Rica hosts a two week long party that leads up to a grand parade. This event, Carnival, is a celebration of the mixing of culture, with origins of the event relating to Christopher Columbus’ landing in Limon in October of 1502. I visited Limon a few weeks ago and attended a lecture on Carnival and other celebrations of the area. My classmates and I immediately made plans to go for the weekend of the parade.

Then, it seemed like our plans were for naught when the dates of the festival were pushed back due to bad road conditions nation-wide as a result of Tropical Storm Nate. Immediately following the new parade weekend, my classmates and I are traveling to different parts of Costa Rica to learn and work with different communities and organizations. With this trip starting Monday morning and massive amounts of homework, we debated going. In the end, we knew that we wanted to be a part of something that will only happen once while we are in the country, and something that we are unlikely to make it back to Costa Rica for. We said yes, and set out Friday, October 20th for Puerto Limon.

We arrived at the hotel late and went to bed so we’d be fully rested for the festivities on Saturday. The next morning, we ate traditional pinto con huevos (mixed rice and beans with eggs) and fresh blackberry juice at Limon’s most well known Soda, Soda Patty. For those that are unfamiliar with the term Soda, they are simply local restaurants that serve cheap yet delicious traditional Costa Rican fare. After breakfast, we put on sunscreen and gems, and then set out to get a spot on the parade route.

I spent the day with Ross and Melissa. Yes, Ross’ shirt has conch shells all over it. We looked fantastic.

We found a blissfully shady spot in front of an ice cream shop, where kind people let us sit in some seats before the start of the parade that was set to begin at 1. In true Costa Rican fashion, it started late, and finally made it’s way to us close to 2. We passed the time by people watching – seemingly the entire town and then some came out for the parade, and there were plenty of interesting characters. The parade itself was well worth the wait. We witnessed a colorful display of Limonese Afro-Costa Rican culture through dancing, music, and general merriment – and of course I did my best to capture as much as possible with my trusty Nikon.

The Dancers

Dancing dominated the parade – men and women in vibrant costumes twirled through the streets and lured parade watchers out to dance as well. The urge to dance was infectious, and I found myself swaying to the music the entire parade.

 

The Musicians

You can’t have dancing without music, so pretty much every dance troupe was preceded or followed by a full band. The bands even played songs I was familiar with, such as “Day-O” by famous calypso singer Harry Belafonte, “Despacito,” and “Rice and Beans,” a song that I learned this semester in my school’s choir (I have the solo in that song so I know it by heart now :-)).

Isn’t this little guy the cutest? He was jamming with other drummers in a band made up of primarily adults. Rock on, little man.

I took a photo of this girl because for some reason the balloon animals on their instruments made me super happy.

The Costumes

Many groups just walked with the parade in full costume. It had me pretty excited for Halloween.

A teeny tiny Wonder Woman. How much cuter can it get? Representation of strong women is so important – the proof is in young girls like this!

 

 

 

 

 

Other Notable Characters

This little old lady was having the time of her life – jamming and dancing through the streets. She effectively put a smile on the face of every person she passed.

These guys. I have a photo of them because they really wanted me to take a picture of them. They were super nice, though, and I had an interesting time watching their group communicate exclusively in sign language. Pretty cool.

This baby. Is so cute. Holy cow. Look at those chunky little cheeks! Swoon.

Also, oddly enough, I was asked to pose for a photo with someone during the parade. They asked nicely, so yeah, they got their desired photo with a gringa.

Anyways, the Carnival parade is an incredible way to witness a part of Costa Rican culture, and a heck of a lot of fun. The energy at the parade was unbelievable, and well worth the 4 and a half hour bus rides to and from Limon.