St. John, Antigua

Thanks to Noel Jackson (Govinda’s Scooter Rentals), our transportation today was a Peugeot Scooter to traverse the Island with. He pointed us towards Darkwood Beach which was supposed to be an easy 20 min ride out provided we could find our way out of this hairy, congested little town of Antigua. After much cursing & swearing on Amanda’s part, we finally wound our way out towards the coast. Reg took a dip in the ocean at Darkwood Beach, then on to other beaches. We came across a fabulous spot called Carlisle Bay where we stopped for another dip, even found an empty conch shell as a keepsake. Our next destination was supposed to be the highest point but our gas tank was showing close to ¼ tank, there was no gas station in sight so we cautiously trundled our way through Fig Tree Drive (a rainforest grove), stopping to enjoy more coastal scenery until the signs led us back to St. Johns. Our Peugeot was not built for North American frames, towards the end of the day, Amanda’s thighs were crying out in pain. Noel was glad to see us back in one piece, with no dents or scratches to his vehicle. We did a walking tour of down town Antigua, stopping at the local market & chatting with a couple of vendors about spices. Stopped for a quick bite of curry chicken roti in a little side alley cafe (Paradise Cafe) washed down with a cold Wadaddli beer.  Amanda was able to supplement her sandal collection with a locally made all leather hand tooled product.

We are thoroughly amazed at how friendly and helpful the Islanders are in all these islands – one can never really get lost. It has been a godsend for the number of times we had taken more wrong turns than right ones. There are limited road signs & directions. I actually saw my life flash before my eyes when Reg took a turn towards oncoming traffic once and another time headed down a one-way street the wrong way! We were saved by a tooting horn behind us. I could just hear it……”G..damn tourists!”