Antigua - Thursday, 10 February 2005

Antigua was another favorite!  The morning was actually pretty mediocre.  We took a catamaran ride to a beach that was good for snorkeling.  The ride was nice, but it was very cloudy and the water was pretty cool.  This was our first attempt at snorkeling we simply could not get the hang of it!  Lanny decided to give up and stay on the beach and play in the water a bit.  I was determined to like snorkeling!  So I tried a little harder, but kept struggling with water getting into my mask.  I would hold it tight against my face with one hand while I swam.  I saw some fish, but not tons.  The water was not sparkly-clear since it was a cloudy day and it was not as warm as I had hoped.  There was lots of coral, which was fun to see, but I scraped my legs on them a little.  Both of us got sunburned under the cloudy sky.
   

For the afternoon trip, we took the "Best of Antigua" tour.  We loved our tour guide, a black island woman named Mary.  She was terribly sweet and great fun, and simply made our trip wonderful!  Our driver Shane was also very nice.  At one point we passed some people selling bags of cut sugar cane by the side of the road.  I asked them to stop if there was an opportunity to get some later.  Shane immediately stopped the bus, ran back to the stand, and bought some for me.  I had no idea how much it was because when I tried to pay him for them at the next stop, he refused.  We tipped them both very well at the end!
   

Neither of us had any idea prior to this trip that some Caribbean islands were dry and had cactus!  Some, like St. Lucia, are volcanic and covered with rain forest and rocky cliffs.  Others, like Antigua, are made of coral and are flat and dry, with more sandy beaches.  The contrast was startling.  Another thing that we found interesting is that there are goats running around loose on many of these islands.  Mary told us that they just go home to the right farmer's barn at the end of the day.  We asked if it was legal to let them roam loose, and she said no, to peals of laughter.  They were everywhere!
 

Views of the very picturesque Nelson's Dockyard:
       

Other views from the same overlook:
     

The desert islands go to great lengths to stretch the limited annual rainfall.  Each house on Antigua had its own water collection system.  People use this as needed, which stretched the water provided by the island.
 

We ended up at a beach for fruit punch and swimming.  I gathered some shells for my kids.
 

At dinner, I tried my first cold soup, which was marvelous!  It tasted of green apple and peach.  My vegetables were fascinating to me, as well.  They fried pieces of potato into a shape like a little whicker basket.  Inside the basket were teeny cooked vegetables, carrots and broccoli and tiny green and yellow squashes.  It was incredibly cute, though hard to describe, and it tasted good too!  After dinner we went to see a show with a comedian and juggler.

Sailing away from Antigua: