Sadly, I don’t have much to write about Carnival.  On Tuesday night, after hearing music for two nights, seeing people gather, watching fireworks, and seeing several stages from our apartment, we knew we had to walk down to check things out.  I was still really weak and not feeling well, but we decided to give it a try, and we would turn back if we had to.  So here’s a picture from our living room of the scene down the road.  We didn’t have all that far to walk, but it was far enough away that we couldn’t tell exactly what was going on.

Of course as it got later, more people gathered, the lights came on, and the bands started to play.  Around 10:30 or so, we started walking.  The plan was to get near the crowd and the closest stage, take a few pictures, take a selfie to show that we were there, then walk back.  I really wasn’t feeling great, but when are we ever going to have this chance again?

Unfortunately, when we got close, we saw this:

There were two huge lines, one for women and one for men.  For the first time in the history of the world, the line for the women was shorter.  Much shorter.  As we got closer, we discovered it was because the police were patting EVERYONE down, but the men were really getting searched.  I almost blushed when I watched what the cops were doing to these guys.  There was definitely no room left for anyone to be sneaking anything in.  Eric said that it looked like they were pretty standard pat-downs, but if it had been a law school exam scenario, I would have plenty to write about.  Looked pretty intimate to me.

At that point, between how I felt, the lines, and the required intimacy with La Policía, we decided it was time to call it a night.  We took our required selfie:

obviously not even taking time to see if it turned out well, and headed home.  The whole Carnival experience was not a complete loss, however.  We spent a lot of time both nights practicing taking night shots and photos of the fireworks.  We’re not experts yet, but I was especially happy with this one.  Eric understands the technical aspects of photography well enough to coach me, and sometimes we get lucky…

It could’ve been clearer if we’d had a tripod, but I’m really happy with it.  I love the waves on the left side, the lights from the Cinta Costera (Coastal Beltway) and Casco Viejo (the Old City) on the top left, plus the stages and all the people on the right.  This represents our experience of Carnival this year, and it makes me happy.