Saturday, February 23, 2008

Junkanoo

A very uniquely Bahamian tradition is Junkanoo. This is normally held around Christmas and New Years and again during the summer. To keep this tradition active and growing the schools, both primary and secondary compete. As it happens the parade and judging for the Abacos was this week in Marsh Harbor. This was the main attraction that drew us to Marsh Harbor at this time. Junkanoo is dancing with colorful costumes, musical instruments, and featuring the beat of goat skins drums. We stayed for three hours, but on waking at 2:30 am it was still going, having started at about 7:30 pm.



From Marsh Harbor we moved on to Hopetown on Elbow Cay. Hopetown is just postcard perfect and features a working lighthouse, still with the original lenses and hand wound kerosene mantle. It is just awesome to watch the five beams of light above us as we are very close by on our mooring in the harbor. Hopetown is a charming village of pastel cottages, sandy beaches and a wonderful harbor.


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