Intentional traveler: St. John's, Antiqua & Barbuda

When we first booked this cruise and the itinerary showed St. John's I was very excited to be docking on the spectacular St. John's, USVI! Oops! This St. John's is the capital city of the island nation of Antigua (pronounced as though there were no U in it) & Barbuda. The nation encompasses several smaller islands including Guadalupe and Montserrat - also not the famous places you think of when you hear those names! It is the largest of the Leeward Islands and has been established as a center for the Royal Navy. It does have beautiful beaches, 365, one for each day of the year! There is a challenge someone might like to take up.

We had a leisurely morning including a Port Talk on St. Kitt's, our next stop. Met Allan and Mary for breakfast and agreed to have an early lunch and set out to walk around town on our own before our included tour. When the boat docked we finished getting ready and spent an hour strolling through the tourist gift shop and stall area next to the port. We ventured further into the town to the Heroes Park and the Market and Craft Market. Elva bought a little cabana suit for the new great grand baby, Felix. Then we found a shady spot to wait for our tour. If we said no thank you to one lady selling her hand made jewelry or baseball caps we must have said it to fifty. (And they remember you! Coming back after the tour, they would say that you said no before but now you could say yes. Or if I said it was beautiful they would say I don't want to hear that I want a sale!)

Heroes Park

The tour was in a cramped Nissan 15 seat van with jump seats so that there were 22 of us in ours. Elva and I were up front with no where to put our feet so I sort of sat sideways and would occasionally stretch my leg, one or the other, over the console. I don't know the young guide's name but she was enthusiastic. Pointed out every gas station, pharmacy, church, school building and even stop lights! She pointed out and described the tall palm trees that were struck by blight and therefore had no fronds. Also the coconut trees with no leaves or fruits that were now extinct on the island. I really had to contain my laughter when she proudly showed us the Ashley Home Furniture store.

Clive the driver would reach his hand out and take the mic from her and add details. Like the Cricket Stadium that the Chinese built for them. The donors wanted it named after the panda city in China but the islanders said no, they named it after their most famous cricketer. His statue is in front of the entryway. We saw defunct sugar mills that no longer had their windmill sails and a rusted and bent smoke stack of the sugar factory.

St. John's does have a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We have visited so many of these over time. This was the fort and also the Nelson Dockyards. Here Horatio Nelson established the British stronghold in the West Indies at English Harbor. From the fort we saw clearly where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea. On a narrow spit of land is a long and subdued home of Eric Clapton. His beautiful and shining white house with sparkling pool had been sold as it got too crowded at the main part of the harbor and he lost his privacy. We later learned from Rosemary, who had a more informative tour, that he gives a concert in NYC every year and the proceeds support four locals in a rehab program for a year. It is $23,000 a month and obviously must mostly have non locals in it. I would be very surprised to learn that anyone here other than the highly advertised on every billboard government officials made even that much money in a year!

Can you see Eric Clapton's mansion?

At the Dockyard there is a pretty complex of original stone buildings, barracks, stores, and storehouses. The boats were maintained by a combination of slaves and shanghaied men. These men unknowingly agreed to a year of servitude by accepting a drink in the tavern. It was a strong rum and more than one usually. In the bottom of the wooden cup was a coin that they couldn't see until they had finished drinking. That coin was the job acceptance. You got paid, you now work. This is what later led to there being clear drinking vessels...today's glasses! The men worked the whole year with only Easter and Christmas off and were paid nine pence at the end of their 'contract.'

We enjoyed a rum punch - national drink of the island tour guides apparently - in the old tavern.

We did not add our names to the graffiti that covered the ceiling!

Boats were tied to the capstans and the ropes were twisted so that the boat tipped one way and the barnacles could be scraped off. Then reversed and tipped the other way to do the other side. It was wet, dirty, smelly work with poor conditions. A big part of the pay was all the rum you could drink so it took a long time to clean the boats because all the workers were drunk all the time. No women were allowed anywhere near the dockyard and lots of drunk, overworked, tired, bored men with no women led to lots of fights. The jail was kept pretty busy. Ironically, a woman now runs the whole complex.

Intently learning from our Dockyard Guide.

Nelson's Dockyard got it's name because Admiral Nelson used this area to maintain the ships of his fleet. It is a working dockyard still today.

The drive back was shorter but our sweet guide continues to point out unnecessary things to indicate like the food store, an ice cream parlor, a rum parlor. Of interest might be that in 2009 the islanders renamed their mountain Mt. Obama as 'an appreciation.' He never visited here but maybe they were hoping.

The sail away was pretty but really the prettiest part of the island. It is poor and not very attractive to me. But quite picturesque in the setting sun.

We had another and last delightful Italian dinner in Manfredi's. Rosemary and Phil retired to their suite and the rest of us went to Liar's Club Part 2! Again it was just hysterically funny. Crazy words including the Liar's Club favorite -Titup! But Ian's performance demonstrating Chubble was by far the best. It ended with him making an amazing leap into the air to pull pantyhose over his suit pants! Love the Liar's club on every ship but these guys were the best with their slides and demonstrations!