Carnival in St. John

Christy and Colette ready to get started at Juve!

Well, it was a very long, very busy, very crazy weekend with lots of new friends. . . I took the ferry over to St. John for their island's big week long celebration (carnival) which culminated on July 4. . . with the looooooooooongest parade i've ever watched. Gathering a bunch of stuff for the weekend and throwing on my new brown dress, i took off for the ferry. I found the lot that Sarah suggested to me that was a stone's throw from the ferry and a bit cheaper than the ferry company's lot (10 bucks a night). . . supposedly. . . so i pull in to the parking lot and this older gentleman walks up to my car and tells me that two nights will be 20 bucks. . . i was confused so i said, "oh, but i heard that this lot was actually five bucks a night" and he looked away, sighed, looked back at me and said, "ok look. . . the best i can do is 15 dollars" . . . i mean seriously!? bartering at the parking lot!? whatever!! i took the deal . . . then as i was scooting onto the ferry, one of the many customs guys who was checking my id, commented that another officer was from st louis. . . and right as he does so one of the other customs officers gets right in front of me and says, "i'm not sure we should let this one through. . " jay, who i had just gone scuba diving was working there!! it is such a small island down here. . .

i met an interesting (to be nice) guy on the ferry that ended up attaching himself to my hip for the next 3 hours . . ate my first Roti (a burrito-like curried Trinidadian dish). . . navigated Cruz Bay . . . ran into a guy from a boat trip i went on 3 weeks ago. . . woke up at 430 for the early morning (late night for lots of people) parade. . . was a wiener girl/beer girl at my new friend Collette's bar called I Scream On the Rocks. . . watched a 5 hour, no joke, 5 hour parade . .. watched fireworks over the Caribbean. . . enjoyed great company over a plate of yummy fettuccine . . . met lots of new people (met the boys who started their own beer company, Virgin Isl Pale Ale, which i've been pushing at Jen's just cause it tasted good!) . . . slept a little . . . ached a lot. . . but had a blast. . . here are some cool shots of the weekend!

my beer/hotdog stand partner in crime, christy, who we sadly said goodbye to tonight as she gets ready to leave island to move back up north :(

some shots of different groups in the noon parade

These are from Juve. . . which is their sunrise parade. . . i'm not sure the whole history of it but its definitely an experience. . . luckily my experienced counterparts knew it would be best for us to go home and sleep from about 11pm-4am before joining the festivities. .. . as you can see, not everyone chose to do that :) . .

Below are pictures from the two parades. . . can you tell the difference??