This year I had a two week break between my summer school and fall semester so we decided to take a vacation. We were trying to figure out where to go and I just had one request, I wanted to go somewhere I could lay on the beach in the sun and be as lazy as I wanted before my crazy final year of grad school started, with that being said we landed on ...Antigua!
When we were booking the trip we had no idea how close we were to Nita and Wayne. I think we figured out we were about 200 miles from Bonaire so I waved to them from the coast. Here's a little fun fact, Antigua is a country with the island of Barbuda as well so you will always hear their names together but their is an active volcano an the island of Barbuda and because of that Barbuda has a beach that is covered in pink sand! We heard it was beautiful to see and we should go there but we didn't ever make it on that tour.
The best description I can come up with for Antigua is Green! It's probably because I live in the desert now and I notice how green places are when we travel but Antigua was lush and green and mountainous and beautiful! We thought it would be pretty similar to Turks & Caicos since they are both Caribbean Islands but they were complete opposites. Turks was more of a giant sand bar with a reef that surrounded it so the water was really calm. Antigua had your normal crashing waves and had more of a rainforest/jungely feel.
We arrived in the late afternoon on Tuesday and headed off to our resort,
Galley Bay. When we arrived we were greeted with a cool wet washcloth and some island punch before we were even checked into our room. After getting checked in, we were taken on a golf cart to tour the grounds and see our room. Our driver kept telling us how we had a really good room and we will be close to everything but I had no idea until I saw it.
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| View from our back porch (yes we walked right out onto the beach) |
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| View from our front door (the grounds were beautiful) |
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Once we were settled, we put on our suits and headed out the door to the beach and took a swim and before we knew it, the sun had set and it was time for us to get ready for dinner.
The next day we decided to try a few of the activities at the resort. We went sailing and saw a sunken ship as well as a ship that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Then we decided to go kayaking, apparently my right arm is a bit stronger then my left because I kept turning us in circles :) While we were out kayaking we stopped for a little while to enjoy the sites and I dangled my foot in the water but not for long because swimming right by was a JELLY FISH!! I didn't want to have anything to do with being stung and then getting peed on! I quickly pulled my legs back into the boat and we watched it for awhile, because they really are cool looking but then he recruited a few more friends and kind of freaked me out so we started paddling again. Day two ended too quickly again and before we knew it the sun was setting so we headed out to dinner. When we finished eating we headed over to the bar area because it is a deck right off the beach and they have rocking chairs and stuff and while we were relaxed I noticed some commosion going on right outside our room on the beach so we went to check it out. We headed over to see a Sea Turtle nest hatching and all the baby turtles heading out to the ocean. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen and sadly we didn't have the camera so we have no pictures! There was another nest on our beach too so we kept waiting for that one to hatch while we were there but no such luck.
The third day we headed off the resort to check out the rest of the island. When we signed up for the
tour we thought it was a boat tour that was going to go around the whole island but we were surprised to find out it was a jeep tour and we both agreed that this tour was the way to go. I wish I was a better writer and could give you a full description of our tour and our driver because it was definitely an adventure. We started off driving through town when all of a sudden our driver pulled over in front of a house then jumped out and started climbing on the hood of the jeep. We were all wondering what in the world was going on but he then picked some guava off a tree and handed it to us to try and he said you can never starve in Antigua because there is always a fruit tree somewhere growing :) He did that two more times on the tour and we ate cherries and tried this delicious fruit I had never had before called a Sea Grape and they aren't anything like normal grapes. They still grow in a bunch but on a tree rather then a vine and you have to take off the skin and inside is this pinkish flesh that you suck on until you get to the seed in the middle then you spit out the seed. While we were driving around the island we saw fields of lemon grass, tea, sugar cane and the rastas growing the 'happy tabaccy'. Then we stopped at the one and only place Dane wanted to see while in Antigua...
Stingray City. I had my reserves because Stingrays are incredibly creepy and hello remember Steve Irwin! Apparently this place has 4-6 foot wide Stingrays that you swim with (AHH!!) so we got our snorkel gear and headed out on the boat. I was expected a cove thing but instead we stopped in the middle of the ocean and tide to a dock and it turned out to be a giant sandbar. I jumped in and the water was right below my neck and suddenly the first stingray swam past me and brushed my leg! I was completely freaked out and before you judge me, yes they all still had their stingers, the very same stingers that killed Steve Irwin! I did my part though and held one with Dane and took pictures of Dane feeding them. While I was standing perfectly still not moving one swam toward me and usually they turn at the last minute to go around you but not this guy, he swam right up on me and was out of the water flaling his wings! I am not kidding when I say he swam on me, he was on my chest touching my face! Soon after (it felt like forever) he figured it out and reversed his path and swam away from me. We were there about an hour then we piled back in the boat and headed to land, Dane however was keeping a secret from me until we were safely back in the boat, apparently he had been bitten my one! While he was feeding it, holding a baby squid for it to swim over then suck up like a vacuum with its mouth, it started to suck on Dane's arm thinking it was the food and left Dane with a giant hickey! He had a nasty bruise on his arm the entire rest of the trip! (we tried to get pictures of it but none of them really worked)
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| Stingray City (don't mind the kid in the background striking a pose :) ) |
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Our next stop was a delicious homemade lunch at
Betty's Hope which is the islands first sugar factory. Then we ended at Devil's Bridge, it is a part of the ocean coastline that has carved away the rock but left a bridge.
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| Devil's Bridge |
The fourth day it rained all day, so we did a lot of reading and walked the grounds. The fifth day we snorkeled a lot. We saw all kinds of cool things and one thing was a giant school of fish that swam right around us!
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| The best picture of the school of fish with an underwater camera. |
The rest of the trip was full of relaxed, more sailing, kayaking and snorkeling and we can't wait to go back!
(it's probably about time I request a digital copy of our pictures so Dane's tux doesn't look like he got splashed with mud :) )
