Kanaval 2012: Round 1 (Jacmel)

For our first round of carnival celebrations, we spent four days watching as the quiet and charming town of Jacmel, site of Haiti's best "cultural" carnival parade, transformed. Rara bands and street theater troupes rehearsed, costumes and paper mâche masks were completed, wooden stands erected, streets swept, advertisements and kitsch displayed, and tourists descended. Ben was busy working on a story (which he promises to show you eventually), so here is a glimpse of our days through my eyes:

And then, finally, came Sunday's parade. The whimsical, colorful, wonderfully satirical parade, depicting everything from cholera, safari animals, soda bottles, vodou spirits and seedy politicians to the darker side of Haiti's history -- slavery, dictatorship, the massacre of Creole pigs.