Antigua

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Antigua, the first settlement dates back to 2400 B.C. Antigua and Barbuda are located in the centre of the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean. Antigua is the largest of all English speaking Leeward Islands and has a population of 85,000. Antiguan’s love their cricket and is home to some of the best players ever to play the game, namely Viv Richards, Richie Richardson, Curtly Ambrose and Andy Roberts. Today we did a tour of Nelson’s Dockyard who in 1784 would have had little reason to believe that the port would develop into one of Great Britain’s most important military bases. The influence of Admiral Nelson can be seen in the dramatic architecture of the forts that dominate the landscape. Nelson’s Admiralty house sands tall in the dockyard unfortunately he never slept there as it was built 50 years after his death.

Antigua is typical of a lot of places there is a lot of impoverished people living in hovels and yet when we went to Shirley Heights we could plainly see Eric Clapton’s house and the house of Larry Flynt . We also drove past the house where Viv Richards was bought up and his mother still lives there, it is not much of a house, Viv no longer lives on the island.

We went for a swim in the Caribbean Ocean very salty, and murky, at least we can say ben there done that. Had a traditional West Indian meal for lunch consisting of spiced chicken, macaroni and cheese, vegetables, salad, and rice, very tasty.

The four wheel drive was a bit rough, I think the driver thought we were all 20 years old and he could go flat out, however we both pulled up okay.

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Photos

Nelson's Dockyard
His house in the background, he never stayed there as it was built 55 years after his death

Shirley Heights
The point in the background is where Eric Clapton has his house.

Very Colourful
We are going to ask Val for permission to paint our house in the same colours.

Antigua
Typical streetscape, this is a local casino very suave!!