Fun Adventures in Antigua

For our first week in the Caribbean we visited Antigua for six days. It is a fun island with 365 beaches and plenty of sunshine. It was off season, so the beaches were quiet and the restaurants were not crowded.

Driving in Antigua

We rented a car so we could explore various part of the island. When the car rental agent showed us where the spare tire and jack were stored, it did not occur to us at the time that this would be an early warning of how bad the roads would be. They are not as bad as Nepal, but there are still plenty of potholes to avoid and massive speed bumps to crawl over. Also, people have a tendency to park so as to block one lane of traffic. Fortunately everyone is a relaxed Caribbean driver, so it all flows smoothly and slowly.

Our other driving challenge was Google Maps. It tried to avoid the main roads and take short cuts, leading us to some sketchy back roads and places where the roads did not even exist. It took a combo of one person full time navigating and the driver completely focused on road hazards to get around the island. To add to the thrill, cars have the steering wheel on the right, so we found driving was an interesting adventure in Antigua!

Dickenson Beach

Dickenson Beach was right next to our condo and a beautiful place to swim and relax.

Kon Tiki Bar

The Kon Tiki Bar floats in Dickenson Bay and is a fun place that we swam to (or we could have taken a small boat ferry) and enjoyed a cocktail. The bar is the same size as Kon Tiki, the raft Thor Heyerdahl sailed across the Pacific in, in 1947. The lower right is a a selfie with Eddie, the bar mascot (and former base of a coffee table).

We saw some fun caterpillars around the condo as well. It is harmless and felt like a tomato worm.

Visiting Beaches

One day we went visiting beaches on the Southwest side of the island. We started at Ffryes Beach but a series of localized rain showers prompted us to move on. So we spent time a bit further North at Jolly Beach and then the remote Eden Beach. The bottom picture is from the Hawksbill Resort near Eden Beach. You can see the rock outcropping in the water that is suppose to resemble the hawksbill turtle.

The Xtreme Circumnav

We took a speedboat tour around Antigua called The Xtreme Circumnav. It was a long day on a speed boat in the wind and sun, but we did visit some interesting and beautiful places along the way. One was Stingray City, which is touristy but still fun to hold a ray and watch them swim around. Another was Pinching Beach, which had sand as soft as flour and nice swimming. Overall we thought the trip was okay, but our ears were ringing from the wind and the sound of the boat long after we got off.

Nelson’s Dockyard

Nelson’s Dockyard was set up by the British in the mid 1700s as a ship repair base for their fleet in the area. It has a deep harbor surrounded by hills, making it more protected against hurricanes than other harbors. It was fortified since the French had their own base of operations only 60 miles away.

It is an interesting place to visit, emphasizing many of the challenges the British had in operating a fleet in the Caribbean. The pillars on the upper left were used to stretch out massive sails to look for holes that the sun would shine through indicating repairs were needed. We also saw a rowboat that was used in a race across the Atlantic from England to Antigua (top right, Worlds Toughest Row).

Scuba

We went diving with DiveCarib on the south side of Antigua. Over the two dives we saw a good variety of wildlife, corals, and geography. The guide was very professional, knew the dive sites well and pointed out huge lobsters, lion fish, and puffer fish. The huge swells on the first dive made exiting and entering the boat very challenging. But once underwater the surge was gentle.

Shirley Heights

We drove to Shirley Heights to enjoy the spectacular view and some rum cocktails at sunset. We were serenaded by a phenomenal (and ear shatteringly loud – but we still took front row seats) steal drum band while we were there.

Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary at the Bay House Restaurant. When we told them it was our anniversary they gave us some prosecco, a desert with mini fireworks, and played Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” that we danced to. It was a complete surprise and really fun moment!

Onwards

From Antigua we fly to the British Virgin Islands for the next leg of our journey. We had a great time in Antigua, but we are looking forward to more adventures!