Antigua Day 19

Antigua Day 19 - 19/08/09

For our last day in Antigua Yaz and I got down to the beach as quickly as we could to catch some rays and say goodbye to Antigua. We had intended to have breakfast on the beach in the posh waterside restaurant there but the hotel had closed while Hurricane Bill passes.

As the hotel was all boarded up we had the entire beach to ourselves! Just a shame that the once clear blue sea was filled with grubby sand because of the storms.

We finished off the day with an 8 hour flight to London.

I made good use of the free beer as you can see!

Antigua Day 18

Antigua Day 18 - 18/08/09

Today's been a jam packed last full day in Antigua with a relatively early start at Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour.

Yaz liked the cannons

From the fortresses we could see back across English Harbour to The Johnny CoconAT restaurant (left), The Inn Hotel on Galleon Beach (See Antigua Day 14) and Shirley Heights (See Antigua Day 16).

We explored the fortresses and saw English Harbour from a different angle than we have done before and then retired to an airy bar to cool down and relax with a beer. The ceiling was covered in tags, notes and messages from people around the world. We each had a nice ice cold Carib lager and left a note of our own.

Yazzy absolutely fell in love with the communal area of the hotel in Nelson's Dockyard with a plant filled courtyard and wood shutters against thick stone walls.

You might have guessed that my favourite part of the day was getting to wakeboarding again! This time was more fun than before because I'd already got the hang of being towed by a boat instead of a cable and I started to play with jumping from the wake of the boat. Ryan steered the boat really close to the dock where Yaz and her family were sat watching which was exhilarating.

Angus and Tony had a go after me and they managed to do it really well immediately!

In the evening we invited a few of the people that we've met and become friends with over the past few weeks to a huge barbeque.

Zakia with Anderson and Thami

Antigua Day 17

Antigua Day 17 - 17/08/09

As Yaz and I are flying home the day after tomorrow we woke early to soak up some sun like sun thirsty sponges and then drove across the island to Jolly Harbour for lunch and some beautifully air conditioned supermarket shopping. Yaz and I bought THE nicest pineapple and coconut drinks which we, along with Zakia, are completely obsessed with.

Before leaving we went 'window' shopping for yachts, I've decided that I'd like to have Wind Walker (pictured below), she's fit!

Some people have asked what the typical Antiguan house looks like so I snapped a couple of shots on the way home for you.

At the roadside you can find these massive Aloe Vera plants with sealed wounds from where locals have cut leaves for natural healing.

For sunset Yaz and I walked down to the marina and sat on the docks with some beers, gorgeous!

Antigua Day 16

Antigua Day 16 - 16/08/09

As you can imagine we didn't feel too pretty the next day. For some bizarre reason Yaz woke up at the crack of dawn feeling absolutely fine. I woke at about 3pm to find that Tony and Angus had prepared for Hurricane Ana (apparently due yesterday, not that we noticed it in our sleep) and Hurricane Bill (due at the end of the week). I went for a sobering swim and we all headed up to Shirley Heights, except Yaz who had been hit by a hurricane of her own and was now paying for our previous night's antics!

Shirley Heights is an old look out, built by Lord Nelson (you know the fella standing on a pole in Trafalgar Square - he's been standing there longer that David Blaine could).

It is a vantage point that has views stretching across English and Falmouth Harbour as well as far out to sea and across the north coast of Antigua a few miles away. Needless to say the views were stunning and it is only a shame that a photograph cannot do it justice.

In addition to the spectacular panoramics we were entertained with an incredibly synchronised steel drum band, dancing and beer. Street vendors stood by flogging us, but not hassling us, with miniature steel drums, maracas and jewelry.

Although a very over-touristy event, it was amazing to experience such magnificent sights and sounds... despite bumping into the occasional lobster look-a-like foreigner!

Antigua Day 15

Antigua Day 15 - 15/08/09

We started with a lazy sunbathe by the pool and followed it with a hot and sweaty trip to St. Johns for a little shopping, despite doing no shopping whatsoever. We didn't really have anything we wanted to buy in particular but weren't impressed when we couldn't find anything remotely Antiguan. Most of the shops resembled pound stores and bric a brac places we get back home.

The fruit and veg market did look good though with lots of Black Pineapples, Mangoes, Passion Fruit, Coconuts and more. We browsed the windless and humid town for a while, had some lunch and then headed back to the villa.

Upon returning we dropped off a tired Yaz and Zakia took me for a driving lesson around Falmouth and English Harbour. It was great fun learning to drive whilst trying to dodge goats, sheep, chickens, donkeys, cows, horses and not to mention pot holes!

After doing surprisingly well on Caribbean roads Yaz and I went for a nap before dinner (Rock 'n' Roll I know!). After dinner I thought I deserved another nap so went for it. At 11.30 Yaz woke me up and I got showered and we headed down to English Harbour to a cool club called Abracadabra's, or Abra's for short.

For some reason we can't really remember much and didn't take that many photo's (Sorry Paris!).

We met up with Duncun, his girlfriend and brothers and Anderson. We ended up leaving early, about 3am because we didn't pace our drinks and couldn't tae it anymore! Ha ha ha!

Great night though!

Antigua Day 14

Antigua Day 14 - 14/08/09

After a late night (for us) yesterday and a rubbish night's sleep we had lay-ins and woke slowly. Today we went to a gorgeous hotel named The Inn on Galleon Beach next to English Harbour. With an infinity pool and bar on the beach along with hammocks strung between palms this place could not have been more perfect! If you don't believe me, check out the piccy's...

After the beach we headed back and Zakia gave me a driving lesson on an empty piece of land near where we're staying. We also went into the police station to ask about driving licensees and were told that all I need to do is "know how to go forward and backwards and do a test." Seems pretty simple to me!

P.s. Does anyone else think that crickets at night sound just like people inflating blow up beds in a campsite? I just can't stop imagining this when I wake up at night!

Antigua Day 13

Antigua Day 13 - 13/08/09

Today we woke early but lazed around with coffee in bed and Yaz did her favourite thing in the whole world...

She watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S in bed, with a hot drink and her blanket. I guess that even in a caribbean tropical paradise Yaz cannot be taken away from friends in bed!

The day was spent relaxing by the pool bowing down to the sun in worship. Yaz got very burnt and a little dehydrated whilst I turned out looking like Neapolitan ice cream!

In the evening we were picked up by Yaz's friends and went to a nearby bar, Abracadabra's, with them and Anderson. We had a few relaxed drinks before heading back at about 1am - the latest we've been up all month! We agreed to meet up again on Saturday where we'll go to the same place as there's a big pary happening.

During the evening we learned that there is a hurricane supposed to be hitting Antigua on Wednesday... THE DAY OF OUR FLIGHT! So it's fingers crossed for now, if we miss it we could have quite an ordeal getting to Italy!

Antigua Day 12

Antigua Day 12 - 12/08/09

Yesterday was amazing! Awoken to phone calls from Anderson, a guy we did the sailing course with, we got up and drove down to St. James' Club in Memora Bay. There we met Anderson, his boss Lance and the barman Reggie. Anderson had asked us to join them on a cruise to Green Island on a really nice catamaran. We chucked our stuff on board and started helping out by drying the freshly washed decks and taking in the fenders.

Once Anderson had navigated us around the reefs he gave each of us a go at the helm driving the catamaran towards The Verandah Hotel.

En route we saw The Mill Reef Club, an exclusive millionaires invite only club which apparently denied membership to Donald Trump!!! It's for millionaires but people are not assessed for membership based on income alone, other factors are considered and I presume that Donald Trump didn't fit the criteria!

Around the corner in one of the next bays was another posh looking place which is exclusive to FIFA. We were told that footballers can use the FIFA hotel and it's facilities completely gratis whenever they want.

As we arrived at Hotel Verandah a storm passed over and our nicely dried catamaran got soaking wet along with ourselves! When the storm had passed we went into the hotel and had a gorgeous buffet lunch and then used some of their facilities.

After lunch Anderson had 12 guests from the hotel to pick up and take with us to Green Island for snorkeling. They were all really nice, two couples from New York, a family from Richmond and an American family that changed their mind when they saw how wet and windy it was and we had to take them back to shore. By coincidence the English family live in Richmond AND the father is a strategist in a start-up advertising agency called DCH. By further coincidence he knows Yazz's dad and one of his colleagues is the dad of one of Yazz's close friends. Small world eh?

We all got completely drenched through but with it still being so warm our spirits were not dampened so we continued on to Green Island where the weather turned for the better and got real sunny again. We jumped off the bow of the catamaran and swam to the completely deserted island with cameras in a dry bag (since my 'waterproof' camera got wet and broke!).

Topped off with a relaxing bath and the nicest steak sandwiches, this day was fantastic!