The locals do it for themselves. I’m Haitian American and the stories of those Mardi Gras are insane!
They each (Guadeloupe, Martinique, etc) give in their unique flavor of their respective cultures. I’ve seen true Mardi Gras celebrated on St Maarten twice in 19 years. The first one was over a decade ago when we happened to be on backstreet near the old Heineken plane restaurant. We just got caught up in it and watched to go by over 20 minutes and it seemed to traverse a decent amount of streets. It was wild!
Then maybe three or four years ago, we knew it was gonna be going through Marigot and my brother flew in from Miami to watch it with us. It’s the closest we can come to feeling like we are in Port au Prince without getting killed. Again, it’s a real true celebration of local culture not geared towards tourists. We just happen to be in the way. 😂
The Grand Case MG that Carol was talking about is totally touristy.
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