# 9: Antigua and Barbuda

I can see why people love cruising! You can honestly be as busy or as quiet as you see fit and today is one of those days where we are feeling a bit lazy on it. This is our 9th day of the cruise and we're realizing that you just can't do everything and at times you just have to put your feet up and actually relax!

It is normally over dinner of an evening that people make their decisions about what they plan on doing the next day. None of our touring group of eight had any plans for today and our new friends Roy and Sally had an excursion booked so they were busy. Mary and I thought that we would have a leisurely start to the day and then head off the ship and "wing it" a little to see what the day brought us. We had a good idea of what Antigua had to offer and luckily many of the attractions are close to the Capital and our Port in St Johns.

Antigua and Barbuda are a two Island Country with a history dating back to the late 1400's when Christopher Columbus discovered and named it. It has been under British rule since the 17th century until 1981 when they were granted their independence. The population is around 93,000 with English the official language. Like most of the Caribbean Islands, tourism is their main industry with nearly 50% of the population employed directly and indirectly in this sector. Antigua and Barbuda claim to have 365 of the best beaches in the Caribbean, this I feel is a very bold claim as I haven't seen a bad beach on any of the Islands that we have visited so far! 😁

On disembarking from the ship, we went for a short walk to Heritage Quay. This is considered to be one of the most prestigious duty-free shopping centers in the Caribbean, so well worth having a look. I don't know if it was just a coincidence or not but there were 5 cruise ships in port that day, so Heritage Quay was extremely busy with tourists. No wonder the locals had big smiles on their faces, they must love days like these! It not until you get down the street a bit and look back that you realize how massive the cruise liners are, and they tower over all the shops.

Heritage Quay with cruise ships towering at the port.

Antigua also has several Forts that were strategically placed around the Island to protect from any invasions from the sea, which was obviously the only way to be invaded back then. We decided to visit Fort James, which is the closest to the port. The fort is situated perfectly to protect the entrance to St Johns harbor and is recognized as one of the oldest forts on the Island and dates back to the early 1700's. It was quite a fascinating walk around the fort while trying to imagine the goings on back in the day when it was a hive of activity. The fort is also free to visit which makes for a nice change to most attractions we have been to so far!

Fort James at the entrance to St Johns Harbor, I couldn't help but think of the TV series "Black Sails" while up at the Fort with all the rape and pillage that was the norm for that era.

Bringing my mind back to the present day! 😊 We decided to have one more relaxing stop before heading back to the ship. Dickinsons Bay is only a short distance to the port and seemed like the ideal way to "chillax" before heading back on board. The beach is also the home of Sandal's Resort which sprawls out onto the public area of the beach, hence we got to utilize their deck chairs and umbrellas. I'm not sure if we were meant to be in there or not but we decided to chance it and get ourselves a cocktail, nobody asked for ID, so I guess we were okay? As per normal, the water was absolutely beautiful and a great way to finish our day of "winging" it around Antigua.

Dickerson's Beach and their famous phone box!

Once back on board it was the normal procedure of clean up and meet at the Ice Bar. I've realized that I have been calling it the Ice Bar through my previous editions, but the name is actually the "Martini Bar". We all just called it the Ice Bar because it is all covered in ice!

We had another superb meal in Blu Restaurant and got to know our new friends from the UK a bit better, which ended up over a few more single malts in Michael's Bar.

Alana and Dan had been to our next port of call in St Maarten previously and had fallen in love with the place, so it had been decided that we would tour en masse tomorrow, and they would be our tour guides. They had a plan, and all would be revealed the next day!

Mary's health is holding up well, but I could sense that she was getting a little tired towards the end of each day, (as we all were to be honest). To her credit though, she just ran with whatever was going on and still remained as buoyant and jovial as ever. She did say that at some point we need an early night..........nine days in and it hasn't happened yet! 😉😊

A typical view of the bays in Antigua, more yachts here than we've seen on our travels so far, we discovered that yachting is big business on both Islands.