Leah So­rias

Skin, skin and more skin was the or­der of the day yes­ter­day, as mas­quer­aders chose to wear next to noth­ing as they pa­rad­ed the city streets.

At the judg­ing point at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, well-toned women com­bat­ted the blaz­ing morn­ing sun in thongs and bra tops. In some cas­es, they wore un­der­wear, but on­ly body paint and glit­ter cov­ered their up­per bod­ies. Even the men seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show off their rock-hard abs with some wear­ing noth­ing but tiny, fit­ted shorts. The sex­i­ly-clad women had the heads of male and fe­male spec­ta­tors con­stant­ly turn­ing, while mus­cu­lar men at­tract­ed long stares from women.

Mean­while, there was a smooth flow of bands across the QPS judg­ing point. Big bands, like Tri­ni Rev­ellers' Fes­ti­vals of the World, Is­land Peo­ple's Kutchela, and Spice's The Spice Route, were some of the bands with eye-catch­ing cos­tumes that crossed the stage be­fore 2 pm. Mu­sic trucks lined the street blar­ing JW and Blaze's Palanc­ing hit, much to mas­quer­aders' de­light. Even pan bands like Des­per­a­does at­tempt­ed the song on steel. Cana­di­an vis­i­tor Aman­da Lind­sey said she was so im­pressed by the en­er­gy of the mas­quer­aders, she was con­sid­er­ing re­turn­ing next year with friends.

"I like it, the sun's hot, but the en­er­gy of the peo­ple is great, so I'm not too con­cerned about the heat," she said. "This is my first time in Trinidad. I just came on va­ca­tion, but I'll re­turn to play Car­ni­val next year." Lind­sey said she ar­rived in T&T with friends over the week­end and was stay­ing on af­ter Car­ni­val for Thurs­day's Be­y­once show. Re­tired bat­ting star Bri­an Lara was spot­ted walk­ing along the side of the road, but with­out a mas cos­tume. He said did not wish to speak to the me­dia.