Jouvert in PoS

TRAFFIC WOES yesterday heralded the official start of the 2005 Carnival season, as traffic jams greeted scores of revellers trying to get into the nation’s capital in time for the 5 am start of Jouvert. And even after the revellers had stopped jumping, motorists and other travellers experienced a different type of problem, with maxis and taxis opting to work the shorter routes of San Juan and Curepe. From as early as 3.30 am vehicles clogged the nation’s roadways leading into Port-of-Spain, prompting calls for something to be done to deal with the problems that motorists have to face due to the increase of vehicular traffic over the two-day Carnival season.

At around 9.45 am, a few hundred revellers converged on City Gate in an attempt to get home, after a hectic morning of the “jam, wine, soca, rum and steelpan,” but were greeted by maxi and taxi drivers calling out “short Curepe and San Juan on the Bus Route.” The city was a scene of total chaos. Broken bottles, mud, slush, and garbage littered the streets, forcing pedestrians to thread lightly to avoid any “unnecessary accidents or injury.” Outside of the usual chaos, Carnival was relatively crime-free in Port-of-Spain and apart from the  arrests for carrying an illegal weapon, most people came out to have a good time.