The Harmony Highway: Cruise 2012

Docked in Antigua: Waiting for Jimmy & Chell to get off the boat so we could go Kayaking!

Day 3 we arrived in Antigua. **Side Note: its pronounced An-Tea-gah not An-tea-gwah -- I learned this from the natives. :)** Since none of the four of us had ever been to Antigua, we opted to go on a kayaking/snorkeling adventure. We took a 45 minute taxi ride to the opposite side of the island. These bus rides were crazy. First of all, they drive on the left side of the road. Scary enough. Then to top it all off, they drive at about 90 miles an hour on some very holey and windy roads. There were several times that I thought my hips were compressing into my spine because of all the bumps and turns. I may have shrunk a few inches just from the bus rides. :) We passed some very sad looking houses and the cattle that were on the island looked like they'd eaten all of the grass 10 years ago. Strangely enough, they were all tethered individually to stakes in the ground. There were no fences to contain them. It was really strange. We were "lucky" enough to sit behind a very inquisitive older couple who were grilling the taxi driver about life on the island. It was very educational even if they were a little bit naive. The driver told them that the farmers on the island leave the cattle in a certain area with a cattle dog. If the cows start roaming toward the road or in an area where they shouldn't be, the dog will herd them up and get them back to the grazing area. The farmers completely rely on the dogs to keep the cows in line. Very interesting. He also told us that the children go to school through 7th grade and then 8th and 9th are almost a combined grade. Then they go to high school for 10-12th grades. We passed several school yards on the way to our excursion. They were very run down and didn't even look like what you'd think a school would look like. They almost looked like compounds. We too often take for granted the privileges that we have in this country.

Cricket Stadium

In Antigua, they play cricket. This (above) stadium was huge! It was also in the middle of nowhere, so it was a nice break to see on the drive through the island. Oh, I thought it was also really funny that all of the taxi drivers (its really a bus) would all honk at each other when they passed someone on the road.

They are going to sink that ship and make a reef out of it

We got to the kayaking place which was at the bottom of this really steep hill. Everyone took a bathroom break and headed out to the boats. We got on the boats and were off on a 20 minute boat ride to Bird Island. It is inevitable that someone will always lose their hat, even when the boat driver says, "Hold on to your hats!" When I say that we were F-L-Y-I-N-G on the water, I mean we were really flying. Its a wonder that no one fell out. So much fun.

On the boat to Bird Island

Welcome to Great Bird Island

I wasn't sure why they called it Bird Island until we hiked to the top. Holy cow, were there a ton of birds. It was like seagull hotel. The view from the top was unbelievable!

Yes, I know what this looks like. :-) haha No. No proposal this day!

It was incredibly windy, hence Nathan's "hulk" look - hehe

Exact quote: "Geez, the wind makes me look fat!"

Nathan took this picture for me. I was too scared to get that close to the edge with the wind. Well, actually I would not have gotten that close if there was no wind at all. :)

We wondered what was buried here

After we climbed down from the top of Bird Island, we went snorkeling. Jimmy and Chell opted to stay on the beach, because she was having some eye irritation. It would have been the perfect time for a proposal because there was not a soul around but he didn't have the ring with him!! (We had kept the ring for a few weeks and had it safely locked in the safe in our room-- since he planned on proposing in Tortola, he didn't ask for it]) We had a lot of fun snorkeling even if I did suck up half of the Caribbean when I jumped in. The water temperature was amazing! The current was really strong and we had to be careful of fire coral. I was too busy trying to stay above the water and recover from inhaling half a gallon of salt water, that I forgot to pay attention to the reef. I found myself right on top of one reef that was right under the surface of the water. I reached back to push myself off and Nathan says "Hey, watch out for that fire coral..." Yeah, good timing babe, little late for that! Thankfully, I did not push myself off of the fire coral and was ok. I paid closer attention after that. The snorkeling was a lot of fun and we saw a ton of fish. All shapes and sizes. After a little while, I'd decided I'd had enough and got back into the boat to wait for everyone else to finish. Nathan joined me a few minutes later and we hydrated and then everyone headed back to the shore.

The guides took us to the next stop which was kayaking in much, much calmer water. He told us that in Antigua, when they hear that a hurricane is coming, all the boats are anchored in the inlet because even though the weather might be bad on the outside, the current never changes in the inlet. All of the boats are safe there, even in bad weather. We got in doubles ocean kayaks and followed the guide around an inlet surrounded by mangroves. The boat followed behind the throng of kayaking tourists in case anyone was having trouble keeping up. At one point, the guide stopped, reached into the water and pulled out a HUGE starfish. It was roughly the size of a dinner plate. It got passed around between the boats and I was the last one to hold it. I didn't think that it would be rough and spiny but it was extremely spiny and prickly. I turned it over to inspect it and discovered that the starfish had several small shells stuck in its suction cups. I put it back into the water and expected it to sink to the bottom but it happily floated on the top until it filled back up with water. Unfortunately, the only documentation I have of that is on the video camera. A while later, the guide pulled a sea urchin out of the water. I didn't see this animal but Jimmy got to hold it. Also, the guide showed us a jelly fish that was ok to pick up because the skin on our hands is much more tough than on our arms, and we can't feel the stinging on our hands. He told us some story about how, as boys they would try to put the jellyfish down each others pants. Sounds like something my brother would have tried to do. :) As our trip came to an end the guide tried to organize a kayak race back to the dock. This turned into a massive boat jam and a bunch of splashing in the water. Nathan and I sat in the back and waited for everyone to clear out. We saw a bunch of sea cucumbers and more starfish. We could see the starfish very clearly because they were bright orange and yellow. It helped that the water was unbelievably clear and shallow.

We took a boat ride back to the Antigua Paddles loading dock and the owners had the most delicious banana bread and rum punch waiting for us. I only had the banana bread and it was YUMMY. We think that the owners were either British or Dutch, not sure which. Very nice people and it was a fun excursion. It seemed like we fit a lot into the time that we had but I didn't really feel rushed. Again, we headed back to the ship. Jimmy and Chell headed off to explore the town but Nathan and I again decided on late lunch and naps until dinner.