Saturday, March 10th - we finally decided enough with sitting on our collective butts - it was time to leave the resort and see some of the Island.

My original opinions still stand - the people we encountered have all been great and the Island is very tidy compared to most of the others we’ve visited over the years.

So breakfast done, we hired a resort taxi driver for a tour of the things we really wanted to see. Factoids he shared:

Antigua is approximately 105 square miles.
There are approximately 89000 people living here.
All beaches, including those in the resorts, are public.
They are doing everything they can to maintain the heritage and integrity of the island.
There is crime but it doesn’t sound like as much of a problem as it is on SXM. He didn’t lock the van and wasn’t worried about any petty theft while parked.

Our driver took us first to a place he called the Block House which served at one time as a munitions storage depot if our driver was right. It was on our way to Shirley Heights and the vistas were incredible.

Next stop - the ‘Interpretation’ which was a twenty minute visual and narrative display about the Island from the Arawaks to the present day guests, and then we entered the actual State Park at Shirley Heights. It was very informative and the airco was wonderful. And then, on to Shirley Heights, one of the highest viewpoints on the Island. The breezes were lovely and the views were out of this world.......English Harbor all laid out in front of us. Our driver gave us some more of the history of the area. Believe it or not, he was an Antiguan native son and really knew his Island.

From there we headed into English Harbor and Nelson’s Dockyard. In all honesty, I wasn’t that impressed but I’m glad we saw it once and learned the lore. It was pretty cool to see some of the mega yachts but we typically see a lot more AT SXM. It was interesting to see the area where the careening was done - a term whose origins I’d never known before. It’s where they would lay the huge boats almost on their sides to clean and/or repair and paint them, and then they’d flip them over and do the other side. It was a lot more interesting to hear them explain it but it was something new to me. The Dockyard area is mostly about a little history well integrated with shops and restaurants a must-do ONCE.

From English Harbor we headed out to another hillside where an old sugar mill is in the process of being restored. Again, interesting if you’re at all inclined to want to understand the history of places.

And lastly, we visited a place called Devils Bridge (could actually have been called Devils Hole?) and got the full skinny on its history. It seems the British hierarchy sometimes worked their slaves beyond that which was humanly tolerable and many a slave sneaked away to the bridge (hole) and jumped off the cliffs and committed suicide, thinking death to be the better of the two options. There was an actual natural bridge there in the cliffs and the waves pound in like crazy. It was a beautiful spot where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic. The surfs were running huge and the roar of the waves pounding the rocks was wild. I was so disappointed to get back to the resort and discover those photos didn’t take.

So, all in all, it was a very good day and one I would highly recommend. Our driver was Franklin - as in Roosevelt as he was happy to tell us, and our four hour private tour was only $160.00 US. The safari resort tour (that pretty much followed us the whole morning in an open and packed jeep-type vehicle) was $100.00 pp and there was no airco, so I absolutely think we got the better deal. If I see no more this trip I honestly feel I got a fairly decent over view of Antigua.