Fisherman's Birthday Celebration
Lasts For A Week

The Fisherman's Birthday festival honoring St. Peter starts Friday afternoon and will cap off tonight with a mini-carnival of soca music and fireworks.

When everything ends finally early Wednesday morning, Gouyave once again will have proved its reputation as “Action City, the town that never sleeps.” (See Gouyave's calendar for the event)

For some reason, St. Peter's birthday celebration is not an event that attracts that many tourists. I spot only a half dozen other tourists at the celebration the entire morning.

Before the fleet is blessed, a mass is held inside the local cathedral with lots of singing and speech making.

It seems few fishermen are interested into going indoors but would rather sit together on the beach talking and drinking Caribs.

They're more interested in the blessing for their boats than for themselves.

The mass begins an hour late and it runs long. The event is running on Caribbean time.

When the mass ends, about two hours later than scheduled, Father Anselm leads a procession through the streets that ends at a large tent on the beach.

He is accompanied by altar boys, trumpet players, bass drummers and most of the church goers.

It's well into the rainy season and showers have threatened all morning but they never materialize. Instead, the sun is intense.

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