Antigua explored

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Sunday evenings in Antigua mean one thing: Shirley Heights. Tourists from all over the island gravitate to this old military post with fabulous views out over English Harbour. There’s a fantastic (and huge!) steel band, a reggae band, bars and BBQ. Party time! All great fun but we skipped the BBQ.

Since then we’ve explored gently east and west, looking at beaches and towns. More on beaches later. Yesterday we headed to the capital St. John’s. Somewhat run down but pretty lively. However the most significant thing we found were the TWO enormous cruise ships in harbour. The area around the cruise ship terminal was tourist central with a weird mix of tat and high end shopping...who buys diamonds when on a cruise? We’re convinced that not much of the tourist dollars coming in off the ships actually filters down to the local economy... We did find some decent shopping and a nice bar with a view...

Then a long drive around the south west corner of the island... entertaining, but you have to concentrate hard while driving.
Most afternoons we’ve ended up by the pool at our accommodation. This is basically a very good B&B with particularly good breakfasts served on the sun deck, overlooking the harbour. (Cj writes: Thankfully, mosquito nets are standard issue! We’ve certainly been bitten, although the bites stop itching after a day or so.

We’ve eaten well so far: English Harbour is full of Hooray Henrys of all ages, and where there’s money you find good restaurants. The local beer - Wadadli - is light but very drinkable, so what with one thing and another we’re managing to support the local economy).

Today we’ll probably do beach and snorkel...

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Photos

English Harbour from Shirley Heights
We missed sunset due to an incident of Satnav stupidity.
We’ll try again on Thursday

Party time at Shirley Heights
Every Sunday for the past n years!

Steel band. 16 players, very loud!
One song lasted 30 minutes