Who is better? Tough call

I just played this game against this guy in live chess.  It is a Sicilian and we both ended up with bishops.  I have a pawn majority on the queenside, and he has a pawn majority on the kingside.  I wonder who is better in the position at the end.  Or an even better question is this...

Would you rather play as black, or white in this position?  And most important,

Why?

To answer the above question...we can post diagrams with move explanation.  Thanks everyone!!!!! Enjoy the analysis

white.

1...Ra8 2.Rc8+/Rxc8 3.Bxc8 still favor white but mostly drawn.

I have a good question here....which bishop should each side like to keep, and which bishop would each side like to trade off?  It seems like both sides really don't want to lose any of their bishops.  Am I right?

what about rooks?  If I understand the previous comment that black wants to trade down as many pieces as possible to activate the king then a rook trade only helps black.  So black wants to pressure white to trade rooks.  

But I have a question.  Can't black still bring his king out while keeping his rook on the board?   Or can white keep blacks king out of the action with his rook?  

It is funny that we are leaning towards black has a better endgame because during the game the reason why I traded down so much was because I felt like white would have a strong endgame with the queenside majority coming fast. 

another question....what if we take the bishops off the board, and replace them with knights.  How would that change the evaluation? 

It says white to move at the bottom of the last diagram but it is actually black to move.

Black is better for me. Look at the Black bishops, they have almost total control over both major diagonals; the Black rook keeps the White king from centralizing and attacks the e2-bishop; Black's c6-bishop is on a nice outpost; it's Black's move. The White bishop on e2 is blocked by its own pawns. White's pawns are scattered.

If I'm Black, I want to stop White freeing his e2-bishop and keep White's king from coming forward. I don't like Ra8 because it frees the White king to use the e-file. I want my g7-bishop on f4 or b4, or most desirable of all, c5 check.

So maybe:

More accurate, probably:

Definately a g7-bishop move for Black I think. Maybe even Bc3 looking at Bb4.

There are some ideas anyway.

i like black for both bishops and knights.  mostly because i think that the three pawns on the kingside are stronger than white's pair and two isolated pawns.  my thought would be Be5 as well.

There are soooo many potential lines here it is unbelievable!  I am extremely tired right now...and all evaluations here are done after being awake for 24+ hours so I am really not so sure how good the evaluations are...but some interesting ideas.  Looks like black is better in every line except the line where his light bishop gets trapped. lol

The position where I put knights in place of the bishops is delightfully complicated!  I think both sides have winning chances with the knights.

Why 12.c3? You could have played Nc5. And, if he threatened Nc5 with his pawn you could then have played your c pawn.

Bd6 is  played in the Dragon and Accelerated Dragon. though you need to be careful, I think the bishop is useful there.

yea I like this line better than what I chose.  Good idea sirVicious.  Thanks for the comment!

But I still ike c3 because I shut down his queenside knight, dark bishop, and I can recapture with the queen if he chooses to play bishop takes knight.  Now my pawns won't be stacked on the queenside so I have the nice majority of the queenside.  But your line above is better...more active.

lol,,,On second thought, it does leave your b pawn exposed to his bishop

If black takes the pawn and rook....we stick blacks king in the center, because the above analysis looks bad for black if takes the time to capture the pawn and rook...then attempt to castle.  The analysis in blue and red is most likely to occur than the analysis in black. 

So...maybe taking the rook is bad for black.  Lets analyse and see if black can just grab the pawn for free, then retreat the bishop home, to castle short.

The reason why I decided not to take the rook back in the above analysis by means of B x R is because of the potential of the dark bishop when black no longer has one.

This is if black just grabs the pawn and retreats home to castle short.

I see your point! Very nice analysis,by the way!