Goombay Fest!

Hooray for Goombay!! Held in October, Goombay Fest is a celebration of the different cultures of the Caribbean, ranging from traditional Key West foods and music to Haitian, Jamacian, even Mexican things. Goombay is an awesome way to experience what living in Key West is all about.
Everyone is there to have a good time, so the atmosphere is very laid back and chill. And it is such a variety of people too! We saw local, lifetime residents of Key West willingly rubbing shoulders and interacting with tourists and they in turn enjoying the variety of the Caribbean cultures around them. I've not ever really seen anything like it before, people seem very accepting down here, which is really cool and nice.
We not only enjoyed the atmosphere, but the people watching! What a wonderful opportunity for it! Little old ladies walking in stillettos (spelling?) and young women wearing grandma shoes. Traditional Haitian clothing and gothic kids running crazy. It really is amazing what people think is acceptable fashion sometimes, but these head scarfs are just awesome!

And while it is true that the headscarfs are awesome and I look totally killer in one, how about these masks?! The guy who makes these is a world reknowned artist and makes them for theaters and circuses and stuff. He is amazing, huh?!

So not only was wandering around fun and awesome and provided many opportunities of admiring crazy people and masks and art etc, but the food was superb! Hal and Marianna were really great about buying exotic foods for us, and Jen and I were really great about putting it away!

Nah, we all ate a lot, Jen and I didn't hog it all!

The craziest food we tried? Pig stomach! Which, once you got past the fact that it was pig stomach, was really delicious. I also really enjoyed the goat, and I totally thought of dad when we tried a corncake topped with swiss cheese. Good, but dad's corncakes are much better than the ones we had! Ah, Goombay was GREAT and I can't wait for it to come around next year!