The day began with a gorgeous sunrise coming up over the town of St. John's, Antigua. Rain could be seen on the south mountain ranges. Roosters were crowing and the boat just slipped into the harbor of this sleepy town.
We had a quick breakfast in our room...oatmeal, boiled eggs, raisin rolls, pears, and hot tea. After a shower we hustled down to the dock around 8:30 to find steel drums greeting us playing some fantastic music...so tropical!
We walked through the tourist part of the town, on to where the natives lived and worked. We decided to head to the bus station. We found it after getting a few instructions from a couple of locals.
We passed several uniformed students were walking to school.
We boarded it, paying 3 dollars for a one way 30 minute ride. We waited about ten minutes...the bus slowly filled up before it headed out of the city. Larry and I enjoyed the sights along the roadway.
Fantastic views along the roadway!
Riding the local bus was jolly good fun!
They do drive on the opposite side of the road here too. We passed lots of businesses, homes, a couple churches while seeing lots of laid back living. Larry befriended a local....Radigam....quite a friendly Caribe.
Tree hugger....I just love these little palms.
We reached our destination...Nelson's Dockyard.... what a lovely place....now a restored National Park with a harbor full of fascinating sailboats. We met a gentleman from Maine who had sailed across the Atlantic along the coast of Europe on to Africa and back across to the Caribbean. This was his sixth crossing in his little 28 foot sailboat. AMAZING! What a bloak! He shared some interesting
stories.
Shortly, we spoke with three couples who flew from France to Guadalope taking a sailboat from there to Antigua. Another amazing adventure and fun group! Within the dockyard we enjoyed seeing the old Admiral's House, the shipyard, the blacksmith's, a Guard House, and various other buildings. The Caribbean was the scene of struggle for naval supremacy in which Britian, Spain, Protugal, and France were competitors.
Nelson's Dockyard Harbor
In a power contest of the 18th century, Britain's strength lay in her navy and the waters around the valued sugar and spice islands of the Caribbean. Nelson's Dockyard became the main naval base in the Eastern Caribbean for the British Navy. Named after Admiral Nelson, commander of the Leeward Island Station from 1784-1787. The harbor is a hurricane haven for ships dating back as far as 1671.
Admiral Nelson
My Admiral
We caught a cab from Nelson's Dockyard to Shirley's Height, a rough bumpy ride to the top of the mountain that backed up to the the entrance of the harbor. What a view! Spectacular!
The pictures do not capture the beauty of the scenery. We enjoyed the time on the mountain top before heading back to catch the Bus 17 back to St. John's.
Arriving back into town around 2 pm, we did some window shopping, caught up on the internet, and explored the town a bit....having just enough time to get back to the ship at the sailing time of 3:30. We had a very full day, but headed directly to the top of the ship...the 19th floor...to enjoy the ship's pulling anchor and the wonderful views of leaving the harbour of St. Johns. WHAT A DAY! We had five short rain downpours and a beautiful rainbow.
No worries, these showers provided us the opportunity to talk up close with the local folks. What fun! Generally, Antiguans are extremely happy folks who enjoyed talking with us. Even with the showers, the sun shone most of the day and the temps were perfect with the ocean breezes. Today was most enjoyable right up to the last waking minute!
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