Location: Green Turtle Cay, Abacos, Bahamas
Position: N26 45.780 W077 20.086
We have been in the Green Turtle Cay/Manjack Cay area for almost two weeks along with several friends we met last year. Our time has been spent attending a cruisers pot luck Christmas dinner on the lawn behind Brendal’s Dive Centre along with about 70 other cruisers; enjoying many long walks on the beaches and through the town; taking advantage of the free wifi off
ered at Manjack Cay, which gave us the opportunity to call family over the holidays; and attending several happy hour gatherings on the beach and on various boats.
The main reason for staying in the Abacos for so long was so we could attend the Junkanoo on New Years Day. Junkanoo is a street parade with music, costumes, dancing, drumming, cow bells, and various other noisemakers!! We had heard it was great fun and a real Bahamian tradition. Yesterday, New Years Day, we all dinghied into town around noon. The ferry boats that run back and forth to the main island, Great Abaco Island, were working overtime bringing spectators to see the parade. All over the town of New Plymouth booths were set up selling the local fare; conch fritters, conch salad, conch burgers, peas & rice, macaroni & cheese, chicken, ribs, all variety of homemade sweets and any rum drink you could possibly want. We spent the time before the Junkanoo started wandering between the stalls trying this and that and comparing notes with each other on which stall had the best food.
Finally at around 2:30 we could hear a big commotion. A long string of fire crackers pop
ped and the parade started. The first participants were the 3 local police officers clearing a path followed by 2 girls holding a big banner decorated “Lil’ Island Slammers”. All ages of girls followed from maybe 6 to 16 in colourful costumes strutting their stuff in time to the music. They were followed by adult women also in costumes that included large frames fitted over their shoulders and reaching maybe 10 feet high, faces were painted with an exotic flair. At one point one of the ladies lost her balance and fell. The costume was so heavy 2 or 3 people had to rush over to help her back onto her feet to continue on.
The next wave was the musicians, all male ranging from age 4 to 60, the main instruments of all size and variety being the drums, cowbells,
and horns. The beat was thrilling! Spectators were encouraged to bring their own noise makers - we had saved food tins and filled them with nuts and bolts. As the musicians passed by we got caught up in the beat and found ourselves moving to the beat and shaking our cans (both kinds ).
The parade was fairly short, it’s just a small community after all, so after it had passed we ducked around to the next block and waited for it to pass again. We watched it from the other side this time. After it passed we continued following side streets so we could pass it and get another viewing. We managed to see it a total of seven times before it finished. During each viewing we saw different things, different painted faces, pieces of costume, cute little children, tiring as time went on. What great fun. We can imagine that the BIG Junkanoo
parade in Nassau is much more spectacular and longer but we loved this small town version and were so glad that we got to watch and participate. What a great way to start our 2009. The thing that really impressed us was that this was not a big commercial tourist event; there were no T-shirts, no balloon and cotton candy vendors. This was an event by and for the local townspeople - we were welcome to watch and enjoy, no strings attached, but the focus was entirely local.
Happy New Year
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
Position: N26 45.780 W077 20.086
We have been in the Green Turtle Cay/Manjack Cay area for almost two weeks along with several friends we met last year. Our time has been spent attending a cruisers pot luck Christmas dinner on the lawn behind Brendal’s Dive Centre along with about 70 other cruisers; enjoying many long walks on the beaches and through the town; taking advantage of the free wifi off
ered at Manjack Cay, which gave us the opportunity to call family over the holidays; and attending several happy hour gatherings on the beach and on various boats.The main reason for staying in the Abacos for so long was so we could attend the Junkanoo on New Years Day. Junkanoo is a street parade with music, costumes, dancing, drumming, cow bells, and various other noisemakers!! We had heard it was great fun and a real Bahamian tradition. Yesterday, New Years Day, we all dinghied into town around noon. The ferry boats that run back and forth to the main island, Great Abaco Island, were working overtime bringing spectators to see the parade. All over the town of New Plymouth booths were set up selling the local fare; conch fritters, conch salad, conch burgers, peas & rice, macaroni & cheese, chicken, ribs, all variety of homemade sweets and any rum drink you could possibly want. We spent the time before the Junkanoo started wandering between the stalls trying this and that and comparing notes with each other on which stall had the best food.
Finally at around 2:30 we could hear a big commotion. A long string of fire crackers pop
ped and the parade started. The first participants were the 3 local police officers clearing a path followed by 2 girls holding a big banner decorated “Lil’ Island Slammers”. All ages of girls followed from maybe 6 to 16 in colourful costumes strutting their stuff in time to the music. They were followed by adult women also in costumes that included large frames fitted over their shoulders and reaching maybe 10 feet high, faces were painted with an exotic flair. At one point one of the ladies lost her balance and fell. The costume was so heavy 2 or 3 people had to rush over to help her back onto her feet to continue on.The next wave was the musicians, all male ranging from age 4 to 60, the main instruments of all size and variety being the drums, cowbells,
and horns. The beat was thrilling! Spectators were encouraged to bring their own noise makers - we had saved food tins and filled them with nuts and bolts. As the musicians passed by we got caught up in the beat and found ourselves moving to the beat and shaking our cans (both kinds The parade was fairly short, it’s just a small community after all, so after it had passed we ducked around to the next block and waited for it to pass again. We watched it from the other side this time. After it passed we continued following side streets so we could pass it and get another viewing. We managed to see it a total of seven times before it finished. During each viewing we saw different things, different painted faces, pieces of costume, cute little children, tiring as time went on. What great fun. We can imagine that the BIG Junkanoo
parade in Nassau is much more spectacular and longer but we loved this small town version and were so glad that we got to watch and participate. What a great way to start our 2009. The thing that really impressed us was that this was not a big commercial tourist event; there were no T-shirts, no balloon and cotton candy vendors. This was an event by and for the local townspeople - we were welcome to watch and enjoy, no strings attached, but the focus was entirely local.Happy New Year
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
http://svrachel.blogspot.com pictures on the blog.
For more info on Junkanoo see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
