... we were dropped off at Darlene's house where Marcel and Marcus are staying, to get ready for J'ouvert.  J'ouvert is a very big street party or parties. I looked it up and it looks like there were 7 party groups. Each group follows their band/DJ, food truck, and  pee-pee truck dancing around Port of Spain-the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. Each group has a different route around the city. If your house is along the route you can depend on no sleep for the whole night! Many people were out on their decks or in their yards watching the festivities-hoping not to get drenched with paint.

We paid to get a wrist band(good for food and drinks as well as your pass to get on the pee-pee truck), t-shirt, Reggae hat with dreads, a cup for those having mixed drinks off the beverage truck, and a beaded necklace. Some got a waterproof neck pouch for money or phone. I put my phone in a ziplock bag-thankfully. The group of us had 4 bottles of paint to 'share' with the crowd--but mostly with each other.

Ever wonder what I would look like in dreadlocks? Me neither.

But here it is. The hat is to protect my hair from globs of paint being 'shared'.

I couldn't stand that "hair" on my neck so I managed, with Saurel's help, to

get the hair tied on top of my head.

 We bought our tickets from a group called Red Ants. We were told to meet them in a specific location where we would begin and end our party-along with a few hundred other people.

Red Ants is a company that puts together the trucks(music, food, bathrooms), and security people. They had a paint truck so we could refill our paint bottles along the route.

There were enough people so they had two music trucks for us to follow on our course.

Here's our before photo- about 2 am!

There were eight of us in our group. Amazingly we didn't get lost in the crowd and pretty much stayed together.  If I got away from the group, I always looked for Marcus' straw hat towering above the masses of people to get myself back with the group. It also helps if 7 other people are looking out for you. On the left is Alison, a friend of Saurel's from Toronto (she's involved in a non-profit in Haiti) and on the right is Devon (Susan's cousin), who graciously drove us around.

This is the pee-pee truck that followed the crowd of partiers( a few port-a-potties situated on a flat bed truck/trailer). 

I tried to get onto one of the bathroom trucks but I had the wrong color wrist band-meaning I was not a part of their group. No amount of begging got me relief on that truck!

I opted for a squat behind where our car was parked, before and after the party.

A girls gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Not a very good photo of Susan and Saurel with Marcus' back to me-taken though my ziplock bag.

Too much paint flying to risk taking my phone out at this point!

The Red Ants DJ's on this truck. Music and Bass blaring!

It's about 7 am and Saurel and Susan are covered in paint.

Paint was distributed in water bottles that could pop open and then we could fling paint in every direction. Or take direct aim as we did with each other!

Seemed everyone was out of paint so I risked taking my phone out to take photos. 

It's clearly daylight now!

Here's most of our group passing by...Marcus followed by Marcel followed by 

Susan and Saurel hanging onto Susan.

The rope is security but I'm not sure what they were protecting and from who??

Post party photos around 7-8 am...didn't wear my watch...0ur after photos. We made sure each other was covered in paint. At one point Saurel was so delighted to get "brown" paint...I found out later it was chocolate.  That stuff was nasty and caked on the skin.

The party is almost over and people are still dancing and jumping around! Me, I walked straight to Devon's truck and stood on the back to take these photos as people passed.

I feel I am in shape and work out for about an hour at times...

                                          but I have not spent 5 hours in the gym in one sitting!

Today, I need to do lots of stretching (so I'm not walking bent over), taking a remedy for muscle pain and foot pain and will schedule a massage when I get home.

J'ouvert definitely a young person's sport-however I wasn't the oldest person there!

Everyone is exhausted...Marcus catching a snooze before they go out again in a few hours to Carnival Monday.  I was laid out next to him earlier but no one caught a photo of me!!

Shoes did not escape the paint--mine and Marcel's feet are tired!

Marcus with paint in the eyebrows, beard, nose and eyes...Happy to be snoozing.

Couldn't get a smile from Marcel-too exhausted.

However, after a short 2 hour nap they were out in the streets again!

And Saurel decides to take a nap on the curb while waiting for our ride!

Proof positive of the truth of what I have said... that Saurel can sleep anywhere!

Look who else is partying in Trinidad! Fastest man in the world-Usain Bolt!

He's clearly a head taller than the rest of the crowd.

I stole this photo off Marcel's phone since I wasn't out partying the morning after J'ouvert like the young men were.

Susan, Saurel and myself are taking it easy the rest of the day. I napped for about 4 hours since if I get more than that and I won't sleep at night.  Went to Susan's cousin's house for dinner and conversation. Around 11 pm I couldn't carry on too much of a conversation-so exhausted!!

Back home to sleep and Susan sits down to a full glass of Rum!

Oops...it's coconut milk from the trees in the backyard put into a rum bottle!