The kids were still sleeping so we left them aboard ship for this outing. We explored St Johns the capital of Antigua, an island of the West Indies. Andrew organized a taxi tour with Derek for $25. He promised us 2 ½ hours seeing rich man, poor man, beggar man, tief! Antigua seemed a poor country having got it’s independence from Britain 30 years ago. Slavery abolished in 1843 and the red in their flag represents the bloodshed. People used to jump off Devil’s bridge rather than be taken as slaves. Houses were colourful, some brick and some wooden, many off the ground on stilts due to the hurricanes and flooding they experience. Annual rainfall is 48”, last year they had 5” in an hour. Very lush vegetation, grow bananas, coconuts, pineapples, papaya, dates and sugar cane. Tourism is an important source of income and they have a medical school that many people from neighbouring islands come to study at.
We stopped at Nelson’s dockyard and enjoyed some fruit punch heartily laced with rum, their museum didn’t have too many exhibits apart from the one Andrew took a fancy to. Next was lookout point where we met “sexy Lou” she was such a character I had to take her photo, and there we saw the original canons that had guarded this bay, as well as Eric Clapton’s house and the rehabilitation centre he founded.
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