Now don't let this price scare you off from Antigua. It can be done much more cheaply depending on where you choose to stay. But since money was no object during this virtual trip, I chose the best! What can I say? I'm a dreamer!
So we arrived in Antigua on Saturday after a relatively painless flight with one stop in Charlotte for only an hour and 20 minutes. We were checked in and out on the beach before sunset. After spending a couple of days enjoying all that Sandals Grande Antigua has to offer, on Monday we decided to rent scooters and spend a couple of days exploring this beautiful island. So far we've been to English Harbor where we spent several hours visiting Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, and the Pillars of Hercules. Then we drove up the coast to see Devil's Bridge and snapped a ba-zillion pictures there in order to get a perfect shot. Today we're going to finish circumnavigating the island on our 150 CC scooters from Cheke's Rentals. So let's head out!
Leaving this morning from the hotel, we'll be driving just a few miles on our scooters through Potters Village to the Stingray City Antigua headquarters for a morning of feeding stingrays. I've done this a couple of times before in Grand Cayman. But this will be my first time in Antigua. Once we arrive at our starting point we'll have a little time to enjoy the monkeys and parrots at the headquarters before boarding a speedboat that will take us out to Stingray City. Antigua's Stingray City is located not too far off shore in a shallow sandy bottom pool on a coral reef. Now, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that the stingrays don't naturally hang out there all day long waiting for squid to be fed to them by humans who come up on boats. They come there because, like Pavlov's Dogs, they know that when one of those boats comes up, there will be squid. They tolerate the humans because the humans have thumbs and can get the squid out of the buckets for them.
This whole Stingray City concept began in Grand Cayman on a sandbar a little ways off shore where the fishermen used to clean their fish in the evenings. They would throw their scraps out of the boat and the stingrays came up and fed on the scraps. It was an effortless meal for them. Over the years, the stingrays came to understand that when a boat stopped on the sandbar, they got easy food. So, they came up to the boats. Eventually, someone took a boat full of tourists out and let them feed the rays. Now it has become a multi-million dollar industry for Grand Cayman (and seriously most of the commitment in the business comes from the squid). There can be no doubt that someone in Antigua saw what was happening in Grand Cayman with the tourists flocking to pet a stingray and they found a good spot to start feeding rays off of their island.
Even knowing that the rays are just conditioned to come up to the humans because they want squid, it's still a thrill to get in the water with them and feel their weird alien bodies rubbing against your legs as they vie for a spot closest to the squid bucket. When one takes the squid from your hands it is a bazaar feeling. I'm totally against those dolphin swims in which the dolphins are in captivity and you get into their "pool" or even fenced in bay with them. But I really don't have a problem with feeding wild animals in their natural environment and then taking advantage of that conditioning to get close to them. Maybe some animal rights people would disagree. But I figure the animals can swim away whenever they want. They can go find their own squid that doesn't come in a bucket. Or they can tolerate me for a few minutes while I feed it to them. The choice is theirs.
So after the stingray swim, the boat takes us back to the Stingray City Antigua headquarters where we'll have a free rum punch and browse their gift shop before hopping back on the scooters. Oh, by the way, the headquarters has a coconut tree freshwater outdoor shower to rinse off once we get back. So, once we have most of the salt off of us, we can head back out and enjoy the rest of our day.
Out next stop will be Betty's Hope, an old sugar plantation which was established in 1650. It was actually owned and run by the same family from 1674 to 1944 but it is no longer operational and is now simply an open air museum.
Betty's Hope is really nothing more than a 30 minute stop to take a few photos and get off of the scooters. Then we'll be in route to another stop.
Our next stop will be Parham where we'll visit St. Peter's Church. Parham is the oldest town in Antigua and it was established in 1632. The church is beautiful, but here's the problem... or maybe it's not a problem at all.... you be the judge. There are very few pictures of it on line since it is sort of off the beaten path and not such a big tourist attraction. So, while I hear and read that it is beautiful and has a scenic graveyard, I'm not finding many decent pictures to illustrate this point. So your mission if you choose to accept it is to book a trip to Antigua (through your favorite travel agency - like.... let's just say.... Places You'll Go Travel), rent a couple of scooters for a day or two and visit St. Peter's in Parham and take some truly amazing pictures to send to me so that I can post them in a future travel blog. Your photos will be famous, you'll be celebrated! People all over the world will refer to your pictures when they speak of St. Peter's church in Antigua and I'll be able to show my 12 readers how beautiful the church really is! Win - Win! But for now here is a semi decent picture of the inside.
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| The ceiling is wooden and is said to look like the upside down inside of a ships hull. |
Okay, I have to admit, that the graveyard photo above is kinda creepy. But it's also kind of pretty in a creepy sort of way. Again, you go take some pictures and get back to me. We could make you famous to at least 12 people!
So, after the church and the graveyard, we have sort of hit most of the highlights that Antigua has to offer from a touristy point of view. I mean, let's face it. You don't go to Antigua for long drawn out museum tours with droning tour guides. Right? This place is all about sun, sand and salt water. So, after the graveyard, we'll spend the rest of the day riding our scooters along the coast just enjoying the scenery and stopping whenever the mood strikes us to take pictures or have a relaxing beverage. There is a donkey sanctuary that you can visit if you are so inclined. I just don't see that being a big draw for me. But you do whatever you want.
At the end of the day, we'll return our scooters and take a taxi back to the hotel where we'll spend the rest of the week being waited on hand and foot. Did I mention that our resort reservation includes a $100 spa credit? Yeah... going to have to make time for an open air massage. After all, you never know when you'll get another chance to enjoy something like that. This is a 7 day trip so we'll be leaving on Saturday. The flight on the way back has another quick stop - less than 2 hours and you'll be going through customs, so there really won't even be time to sit down and catch up on Facebook before you'll be back in flight.
I hope you've enjoyed this virtual trip to Antigua. I know I have. The only problem now is that I have another location to add to my bucket list.
Have a Happy New Year! Make 2014 your year to see the world!
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