Like a modern day Tarzan, I´m going to swing in and defend the honour of the Cabalgata, the opening parade of the annual Arona Carnaval. Many visitors to the south of Tenerife ask when is the Los Cristianos Carnaval? meaning the Sunday Coso closing parade from the foot of Guaza Mountain to the city centre. Arona municipality covers part of Playa de Las Americas as well as Los Cristianos, so they like to spread the love by having the opening parade from Veronicas to the Oasis Commercial Centre just before Las Vistas beach. With this years jungle theme vaguely in mind, 2019 brought another wonderful evening of colour, music, and laughter.

Coaches spilled their cargo of eager, young revellers with mountains of latex suits, feathers, and make up, and as the sun set, the frantic army squeezed into their weird and wonderful costumes. The main difference to the closing parade is the Queen, plus senior and junior versions have not yet been elected, so the public get a clear view of the candidates in open top cars, long before they are encased in their extravagant royal costumes. There is also more of an end of term feel to the Coso with many strange regular characters from history and cartoons. But the Cabalgata certainly isn’t shy, they were chomping at the bit to strut their stuff, and everyone was decked out from head to toe.

The cool of the evening is a marked contrast to the heat of the Sunday afternoon closing event, just right for those clad in heavy outfits. Big respect to the leaders of the groups, make up needed applying, emergency repairs cropped up, and fitting their charges into their allocated staring slots required planning, precision, and the odd ciggie or beer. The gathering area is right next to a strip of bars, everyone wanted a photo with the glittering stars, and their requests were met with smiles and a snazzy pose. When the drum beats started to sound, the tempo picked up and the seemingly rag tag bands of marchers formed a seamless sea of joy.

The turn out this year along the route was as busy as ever. Hotel lobbies emptied onto the street, meals were put on hold as photos were snapped, and every vantage point was used to the full. The journey took a good 90 minutes, everyone wanted to see the mobile show, it was like lighting the blue touch paper on this years Carnaval. Hold on tight, it´s a jungle out there!