Cruising the Caribbean, Part VII
December 12, 2011 - Antigua
15:42
We left the ship at about 09:00 intending to go hunt up some more hummingbirds to photograph. Only to learn that the ferry to the sister island, Barbuda, and, incidentally the place to go hunt for birds, had already left and there would not be another in time for us to go out there and also get back to the ship in time.
After that we spent some time trying to hunt up some moisture packs for my camera case, but came up empty. Despite trying a snorkel store, a camera store and a shoe store. (You can use silica beads, too. The kind that come in shoes and such.)
After that, though, we gave up in disgust.
Dad interrogated the locals about nice places to go, and came up with an itinerary for the day. By the time he picked out a driver to take us, we'd passed him once and come back. Compared to the others, you could tell he was fairly easygoing, and reasonably honest. And meantime he'd found another couple of passengers. Amusingly enough, two more of the Swiss contingent on board the Constellation. Out of about 1500-2000 other people, there are about 10 Swiss. At most. And we found two, at random. Heh. And they were two we hadn't met before.
And so we toured the island. Starting with the town of St. John's, the new cricket stadium (Sir Vivian Richards Stadium), then south via All Saints and Liberta to Shirley Heights. Which has a spectacular view, holy hell. After pausing to take some photos, we continued on to the guardhouse a short ways away, for a view of Nelson's Dockyard and Falmouth Harbour. We went down to see both.
I was a bit disappointed by Nelson's Dockyard. There wasn't much of anything to see there. A few anchors strewn about, some information placards, a marina, a lot of souvenir shops, and a few cannon.
On the way back, I asked to stop at one of the two dive shops we passed, in one last ditch effort to find my moisture packs, and failed again. Twice. Grr. Apparently no one here takes a camera on a dive or snorkeling.
But anyhow. We took the scenic route back to the ship, driving along Fig Tree Drive, so named because there are a lot of bananas there, and bananas are called figs, here. The road winds through the rainforest, quite steeply at times, until it reaches the coast, and follows the coastline back north a ways. It then becomes Valley Road, and re-enters the capital, St John's.
Getting back to the boat, we ate and now we rest a bit. I want to finish looking through my photos, and then I think I shall nap. Tomorrow I'll be diving once more, and again the day after. Mom and dad were going to snorkel tomorrow, but it got canceled. So I have no idea what they plan, and nor do they, I suspect. But St. Maarten should have some scope for fun things to do. And I still need my moisture packs. So I shall have to harass the guys at the St. Maarten dive shop to sell me some.
21:34
Mom wasn't feeling so good after the long day in the sun, and so had to abort dinner to go rest. Poor thing. Hopefully this passes quickly.
(Follow the fake cut to the photos)
15:42
We left the ship at about 09:00 intending to go hunt up some more hummingbirds to photograph. Only to learn that the ferry to the sister island, Barbuda, and, incidentally the place to go hunt for birds, had already left and there would not be another in time for us to go out there and also get back to the ship in time.
After that we spent some time trying to hunt up some moisture packs for my camera case, but came up empty. Despite trying a snorkel store, a camera store and a shoe store. (You can use silica beads, too. The kind that come in shoes and such.)
After that, though, we gave up in disgust.
Dad interrogated the locals about nice places to go, and came up with an itinerary for the day. By the time he picked out a driver to take us, we'd passed him once and come back. Compared to the others, you could tell he was fairly easygoing, and reasonably honest. And meantime he'd found another couple of passengers. Amusingly enough, two more of the Swiss contingent on board the Constellation. Out of about 1500-2000 other people, there are about 10 Swiss. At most. And we found two, at random. Heh. And they were two we hadn't met before.
And so we toured the island. Starting with the town of St. John's, the new cricket stadium (Sir Vivian Richards Stadium), then south via All Saints and Liberta to Shirley Heights. Which has a spectacular view, holy hell. After pausing to take some photos, we continued on to the guardhouse a short ways away, for a view of Nelson's Dockyard and Falmouth Harbour. We went down to see both.
I was a bit disappointed by Nelson's Dockyard. There wasn't much of anything to see there. A few anchors strewn about, some information placards, a marina, a lot of souvenir shops, and a few cannon.
On the way back, I asked to stop at one of the two dive shops we passed, in one last ditch effort to find my moisture packs, and failed again. Twice. Grr. Apparently no one here takes a camera on a dive or snorkeling.
But anyhow. We took the scenic route back to the ship, driving along Fig Tree Drive, so named because there are a lot of bananas there, and bananas are called figs, here. The road winds through the rainforest, quite steeply at times, until it reaches the coast, and follows the coastline back north a ways. It then becomes Valley Road, and re-enters the capital, St John's.
Getting back to the boat, we ate and now we rest a bit. I want to finish looking through my photos, and then I think I shall nap. Tomorrow I'll be diving once more, and again the day after. Mom and dad were going to snorkel tomorrow, but it got canceled. So I have no idea what they plan, and nor do they, I suspect. But St. Maarten should have some scope for fun things to do. And I still need my moisture packs. So I shall have to harass the guys at the St. Maarten dive shop to sell me some.
21:34
Mom wasn't feeling so good after the long day in the sun, and so had to abort dinner to go rest. Poor thing. Hopefully this passes quickly.
(Follow the fake cut to the photos)