KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's carnival season in Cuba beginning this weekend and dancing through the middle of August. CNN's Debra Daugherty gives us a closer look at the festivities.</s>DEBRA DAUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the opening parade, just one of the flamboyant celebrations that will reverberate throughout Havana for three weeks. The city's famous seafront, the Malakom (ph), will host most of the festivities, including parades, concerts and what may be some of the finest partying in the Caribbean.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: It's very lively, very colorful. Life is a carnival.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: There's nothing like this in the</s>U.S. UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: No.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: Nothing like this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: We don't have anything like this in the U.S. and I think the U.S. could learn a lot from this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED TOURIST: Yeah.</s>DAUGHERTY: As soon as one year's carnival ends, schools or dance groups begin working on costumes and routines for the next. Some of these groups can trace their heritage back for centuries to the time the Spanish conquerors followed by colonialism and slavery, when workers were brought from Africa to grow and harvest sugar cane. Their dance portrays the long, bitter days in the cane fields. For modern revelers, though, organizers have tempered the heat and humidity with special refreshment stalls and uniformed police keep a protective watch just to be sure that Cuba's carnival doesn't get out of hand. Debra Daugherty, CNN.
Carnival Season Kicks Off in Cuba