ST JOHN’S, ANTIGUA
Today, after six days at sea, we finally arrived at our first Caribbean port-of-call, St John’s in Antigua.
It was nice not having to set the alarm, and to be able to get up when we wanted to. With no pressures on our time, we were able to step out onto the balcony, into the heat of the Caribbean, and gaze upon land… bliss!
After enjoying a leisurely breakfast, we headed for the gangway and went wandering off into the town. Our small shopping list consisted of masking tape (which we are running low on) and some laces for my trail shoes, one of which is showing excessive signs of wear. After dipping in and out of the local shops, we finally managed to bag ourselves 5 rolls of masking tape for $10 and a replacement pair of laces, which weren’t really the quality I’d been looking for, but would do in an emergency should one of my existing laces break.
We also ended up buying me a shirt and Tracey a caftan. We’re not big spenders, but sometimes you just have to, don’t you…
Satisfied with our purchases, we headed back to the ship, had a quick lunch in The Grill, and then went ashore again, in search of a beach. After a consultation with Maps.Me, we decided Fort St James beach seemed the closest, and a taxi driver in the town assured us that it would have loungers and parasols for hire. According to our faithful app, it should take us approximately 42 minutes.
It was an interesting 42 minutes, passing through Antiguan suburbia, which was very colourful. Homesteads varied considerably, with some looking quite rundown and many of them abandoned, whilst others were quite grand. All were very different and unique There were a few dodgy smells too; most houses seemed to have outlet pipes running into the road. That wasn’t quite so pleasant… all the locals very friendly, though.
Finally, we reached the beach, where a local parted us from $20 for two sun loungers and a wooden sunshelter. It seemed a bit on the pricey side, although he’d initially tried to charge us $25. Our hesitancy seemed to successfully drop the price, and I reckon if we’d stood our ground and started to walk away we might have managed to get a bit more off…
In the end, we didn’t really care about the cost. We enjoyed a couple of hours or so, swimming in the sea, watching horses enjoying the surf and some cows running rampant on the beach. A small saloon car turned up at one point, out of which emerged 10 children, 2 adults and a baby, some of whom were riding in the open boot. Watching them enjoy themselves in the sea was a joy. We walked back at about 5pm and watched the sun set from the quayside.
Dinner in the evening was a ‘Calypso Buffet’ served in the Lido with live entertainment from a fabulous local steel drum band, called Panache Steel Orchestra.
Tomorrow, we are supposed to be visiting the island of Nevis via tender boat but, because of the choppy seas, will instead be tying up at the quayside in St Kitts, which is right next door. Bring it on…
