Antigua, a place to call home

 

The sun was high in the sky this morning bright and warm even with the cold wind blowing through the window i opened today did not diminish the feeling of joy in the air .but I would not mind sitting in the sun and get myself a tan ,my uncle who i took him to the airport on Tuesday travelled to Antigua and he is enjoying the warm sunshine and i must confess my skin is getting lighter  due to the lack of sunlight in the UK  LOL! .

So all i can do is get back to work and earn those little coins to make it to the sunshine this year. so my plan is going to be simple get myself a ticket for Antigua before the weather changes to the winter cold all over again

Antigua here i come

By Sarah Humphreys

Antigua is located in the Caribbean Sea. Their main languages are English and Antiguan dialect. Main currencies used on the Island are East Caribbean Dollars, United State Dollars and all leading credit card*s (*advise that most places accept credit cards and local or smaller shops take currencies). It has a population of 78,000 on a 108 sq mile (208 sq km) of land. Antigua is divided into six parishes which I later on explain.

I landed on the Island of Antigua on the 28^th of June. We circled the skyline of St John’s the capital of Antigua before touch down at VC Bird International Airport. The flight was eight hours long from the UK on my favourite airline Virgin Atlantic.  Do take note to be prepared for the heat that greets you at the exit of the plane’s door. Oh yeah! You immediately walk out into the sunshine (that is if it isn’t raining) from your seat. The immigration process takes approximately 45mins to an hour providing you have filled all the necessary paperwork before hand or else you would have to queue again. If you need assistance with your luggage there are porters in yellow and red uniform to assist you. If you are like me with loads of baggage do ask for one and make sure you tip* (*think of tipping in the USA) the porter’s right after their service is rendered. The last port of call is custom*. I repeat customs. *Warning -Do be aware they love to catch people unawares and give out hefty charges on electronicsJ. Think of things to declare before customs.

How would you like to visit a beach for each day of the year! Antigua has 365 beaches and I must confess they are all enticing but you will find one which has more appeals to your taste.   Love water sports such as snorkelling, sailing, and water jet skiing, you name it you will find a location to provide this service. The best reef for snorkelling is Cades Bay located on the southern- west of Antigua in the parish of St Mary. One of my favourite beaches of all time is Long bay located on the Eastern part of Antigua in the Parish of St Peters. The weather is fairly consistence but must guarantee to have the sun shining as early as six am. If you are not use to the heat I strongly recommend you a few have things in your bag such as good old fashion H2O, sun block crème, sun glasses and an umbrella for the occasional rain or sunshine. For the great adventure on the island you can use various mode of entertainment. Hiring cars are most popular so before travelling make sure you hire one to avoid disappointments. During peak times such as Carnival periods during the last week in the months of July and fist week in August, this can be very difficult to hire a single vehicle. I would recommend a private tour of the Island either by sea, land or air. I chose to go by land and found the service of a one to one personal tour guide called Shelley Jay’s jeep tours* (*. contact details are e-mail: shelleyj-tour@hotmail.com or telephone ++268  7721475). He picks you up for the tour either from your hotel or other accommodations on the Island.

I started my tour started from town centre of St Johns. The main landmark spotted in town is the St John’s cathedral located on a high hill, you can see the baroque towers of St John’ cathedral any where in town.  The cathedral was first built in 1845, eleven years after the emancipation of slavery in Antigua. It is a very fascinating building to visit plus it also holds regular Sunday services. There is one other tourist point of visit in town which is the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda located in the colonial court house built in during the year of 1747. A very distinguish building of our time, even I can not compare it to our British Museum building in the UK. I strongly recommend a visit, it showed me a lot about Antigua before and after, most especially before there was a land and how the volcano erupted to form this beautiful Island. There are other sights in town to visit such as the public Market on the southern end of town, best days to visit are on Fridays and Saturdays, there is also an Arts and Craft market right beside it. You will also find the local bus terminal across the street. This terminal is where buses take you to various part of the Island at local prices very cheap and reasonable. The Heritage Quays is another sight worth a visit and is located at the top end of town where the cruise ships dock for a spot of retail therapy tour guide of he Island. With luxurious shops and a duty free price tag, how can you resist?

 I went up on a hill called Scott’s hill to see the profile of St John’ and Potter’ village. One thing I noticed about Antigua, it may look hilly but in actual fact it is not in comparison to other Islands. Antigua is divided into 6 parishes namely St John, St George, St Peter, St Philip, St Mary and St Paul’s. They all join up in the middle of Antigua; due to this a village was derived from this concept called All Saints. Why are all the parishes’ names after Saints? Well this was down to the Anglican church at the time. It makes it easier travelling round Antigua to know which Parish you are visiting or if you needed to locate a person or place to have the name of the road and the Parish. You can never get lost with those facts. Subdivisões da Antígua e Barbuda - Wikipédia

Continued my journey on Factory road, it got its name form a sugar factory called Gunthorpes Sugar Factory located on the road, you can still see the ruins today. This was in used since 1890 during the sugar plantation period for producing cane sugar, molasses and rum. The factory stopped production from 1972 due to labour force not paid enough and competition from other sugar brands. Antigua is still brewery their local beer and various rums.

My next protocol was to a sugar plantation called Betty Hope. Most of the instruments and windmills were restored to original plan. It was worth the visit to see what slavery was all about before the emancipation. Although most buildings were destroyed due to diverse weather conditions but foundations of ruins were left to give you a great layout of the estate. It has a very peaceful ambience, very windy which was a good source of energy for the windmills blades to turn in order to grind the sugar cane into syrup. I was told that the instrument was used. It looked very simple but it can also be lethal, sometimes the slaves got their limbs stuck within the crusher, ending up crippled. On the plantation, it also has a trail you can follow to walk round the estate.

Earlier on mentioned Antigua having 365 beaches a year, well that is correct but I couldn’t visit all of them. One of my favourite all time is Long bay. We stopped to have a rest, swim, walk and lunch. Before getting to Long Bay we stopped at another tourist attraction called Devil’ bridge.  You probably wondering if the devil resides there, well am did not personally meet him but if you see the fierce of the water beating against the rock you will know that he is in. It is a bridge build over the years by rock formation. On very good weather you can walk across the bridge, otherwise don’t and I repeat DO NOT walk when the weather is very bad. It is located on the eastern side of the Island facing Atlantic Ocean. Standing from Devil’s bridge you can see Bird Island and Green Island where the rich and famous live.

Our next visit was to Shirley Heights where we watched the Interactive media of the creation of the beautiful Island of Antigua. There are two points on Shirley Heights to visit, the music venue and the look out post. Shirley Heights is a must place venue to visit. It has astonishing views of Antigua’ landscapes and the Nelson’ Dockyard, and they organise live entertainments on certain nights plus a meal and a drink voucher with your entry ticket. Eric Clapton is a residence of Antigua and also has a rehab institution for recovering alcoholism; you will be able to see his house from the look-out post on Shirley Heights. Not far from Eric’ house is the famous St James’ Club on the Mamora Bay. We came down from the Heights and we drove into Nelson’ Dockyard. This was where the museum was very informative about the dockyard. This is where the famous sailing week is held every year.

From Nelson’ dockyard, we drove through the greenest vegetation of Antigua. We drive through the “fig drive” –fig meaning bananas and various villages. Shekerley Mountains nurse the highest mountain on Antigua called Boggy Peak at a staggering 402 meters. Boggy Peak can be reached by jeep alone, I would not personally drive anything less than a jeep up the mountain. I mentioned earlier on about the 365 beaches on Antigua, this is where you experience them after leaving Old road. You will come across Fryes beach, Cades bay, Darkwood beach, and the pineapple plantation. One of the biggest tourist settlements on the Island is Jolly beach. Considering the tourist residents it is also one of the most expensive places to live. From Jolly beach the drive is about thirty minutes back into St John’s town centre.

I would like to end this 360 degree and hope this was not just entertaining but informative about the beautiful Island of Antigua.