Carnaval is a festive season that occurs before Lent, and the festa-loving Portuguese go all out in their celebrations.

Our home town of Sesimbra is one of the notable areas of celebration in Portugal, so we made the 10 minute drive to the area…  and then spent another 45 minutes trying to find a parking space. The little town was packed!

On Sunday they had a parade filled with colorful participants. Monday was clown day, almost everyone was dressed up as an authentic clown. I think they had a parade of clowns later, but we didn’t stay for that.

Tuesday they had yet another parade. Three full days of light-hearted fun and partying! You gotta love the Portuguese!

Being one of the rare Americans who live in Sesimbra, we were anointed King and Queen of the 2019 Sesimbra Carnaval. We couldn’t let them down so we bought the most elaborate costumes we could find.

Here below is a picture of us leading the parade.

As you can tell, our Aquasize class is really paying dividends for Carolyn, isn’t it?

Okay, so maybe Photoshop is the only thing that made us King and Queen. But we enjoyed ourselves anyway, even if we’re just the peasants.

Moving back to reality, the crowds were plentiful as the parade made its way down the Sesimbra boardwalk, which fronts the ocean.

They even lined the balconies above, like in New Orleans. No one’s throwing beads here though!

This clever float had these poor souls hanging on for dear life.

Okay, so it was the clever use of a mirror. Kind of like real-live Photoshop!

At the beginning of the parade route.

The eyes have it!

When people hear the word “Carnaval,” they often think of racy outfits like these.

But in Portugal, this is what you get. Ha!

People dress up just as colorfully, but generally it’s a lot more PG than R-rated.

It’s party time everywhere you look!

They even had mimes. Mimes! Who does mimes anymore? The Portuguese, that’s who!

Pipocas means popcorn. We think it’s a cute word.

The thing I love most about Carnaval here, especially on Clown Day, is that almost everyone participates, From one to ninety-one, people are dressed up as clowns. It’s especially nice that even teenagers participate and have the same kind of playful fun.

On top of the hill you can make out the outline of “Our Castelo.” The Portuguese don’t think much about their castles and the like, because they’re so used to them. But we still love our castles!

The March weather was kind, in the sixties (upper teens celsius). Just a lot of beautiful blue like it is so often in Sesimbra!

Even in our Aquasize class everyone got into the spirit of things. In the above picture we’re the ones in back, me with the big red nose. Below, we’re on the left hand side. We always occupy the deepest in the pool on account of our differences in height. 🙂

There we are with our instructor, Patricia. She’s an awesome teacher. She makes it easy to enjoy exercise!