Welcome to Antigua & Barbuda, my 137TH Visit & 132nd Run UN Country out of a UN total of 193. After my blog photos below are the key statistics, brief history and interesting facts about this destination.
I was off the ship first for the second day in a row at 8:07am. Bundy and I headed for Zone 7 to meet locally born Katicia, who took us to our car in a nearby lot. By 845am we were on the road headed to our first attraction. St Johns, the Capital of Independent but Commonwealth Antigua is terrible. Most buildings are fibro, unkept and in a state of disrepair. The inner-city streets are narrow with cliffs as gutters on either side so pray your car does not fall into them as you swerve to miss oncoming traffic. Most people are of African descent and the women dress beautifully with bright colours and floral themes. It is definitely hotter and more humid here. The landscape is mostly flat and the roads not well kept. This place certainly reminds me of the poorer Pacific Islands. There are no European influences here. Fort St James, built in ??? was used by the English to finish the job that Spain and Holland could not achieve – to colonise Antigua. This place is also unkept with not a soul in sight to charge us entry or make sure we do not burn the place down !!! It has a magnificent position looking across the heads leading into St Johns. There are several in-tact canons, one of which Bundy took for a test drive as you will see below !!! Our next stop was Dickenson Beach where all the resorts are and the most popular of the 365 beaches in this place – one for every day of the year !!! Amazing. Beaches are probably the main offering of Antigua. Another offering of note is Devil’s Bridge which is a natural rock formation weathered down by thousands of years of sea and wind. Oceanwater gushes through it and spouts up like a whale’s exhale just like a blow-hole. It is here we let up the drone for great shots of the entire island. We tried swimming in the bay close to Devil’s Bridge but it was too rough so we followed the small harbour inland to find Lover’s Beach which was deadly calm and part of a large resort. It is here that I launched myself and swam 1.5km to the next private beach and back – a terrific swim right next to Mangroves that hugged the coastline. The drive back to Port was easy but the traffic in St Johns is ridiculous. We wanted to return to Fort St James to drone St Johns but the traffic meant we could miss the boat so we aborted that mission !!! We made the car park at 230pm and by 3pm we were back on the ship for a 330pm departure. I will provide a special post soon called “Our Day in the Life of a Cruise Ship” which will summarise our daily routine for island hoping – we just need to do a few more to iron out the wrinkles. In the mean-time enjoy the highlights of Antigua…
.jpg)
ANTIGUA & BARBUDA IN A NUTSHELL:
Antigua & Barbuda is in fact 3 islands forming an independent country known for its African Creole heritage.
• Population: Approximately 94,800 (2024 est.).
• Capital: Saint John's, located on the island of Antigua.
• Area: 440 km².
• Ethnicity: 87% is of African descent.
• Official Language: English with Antiguan and Barbudan Creole.
• Life Expectancy: 76.9 years in 2021.
• GDP (PPP) Per Capita: US$26,400 (2022).
• Currency: East Caribbean Dollar (XCD), pegged to the US Dollar at 2.70 XCD to 1 USD.
• Main Economic Sector: Tourism is the dominant sector, accounting for over 50% of the GDP.
• Economic Growth: The economy is projected to grow by 6.1% in 2024.
• Unemployment Rate: 8.7% as of March 2025.
• Climate: Tropical savanna climate, prone to hurricanes, with the wettest period between September and November.
• Political Structure: A constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth realm, with King Charles III as the head of state, represented by a Governor-General.
BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTIGUA & BARBUDA:
• c. 3100 BC First settled by hunter-gatherers, known as the Siboney people.
• c. 35 AD Arawak-speaking peoples from South America succeeded the Siboney, introducing agriculture to the islands.
• 1493 Christopher Columbus sighted the islands, naming the larger island "Antigua" after a Spanish church icon, Santa María la Antigua.
• Early 16th Century Early Spanish and French attempts at colonization were unsuccessful, partly due to a lack of fresh water and resistance from the Carib population.
• 1632 The English successfully colonized Antigua, establishing the first permanent European settlement.
• 1674 Christopher Codrington established the first large sugar estate.
• 17th–19th Centuries A large population of enslaved people was forcibly brought from West Africa to work the brutal conditions of the sugar plantations.
• 1834 Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire.
• 1958–1962 Antigua and Barbuda were part of the short-lived West Indies Federation.
• 1967 The islands became an Associated State of the United Kingdom, gaining full internal autonomy while Britain retained control over defence and foreign policy.
• 1981 Antigua and Barbuda achieved full independence on November 1st, becoming a sovereign nation within the Commonwealth, with Vere Bird as the first Prime Minister.
• 1981–2004 The Bird family and the ALP largely dominated national politics for the first two decades of independence, focusing on tourism but also facing accusations of corruption.
• 2016 Nelson's Dockyard was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• 2017 Hurricane Irma devastated Barbuda, forcing the evacuation of nearly its entire population to Antigua.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ANTIGUA & BARBUDA:
1. "Land of 365 Beaches," with at least one beach for every day of the year.
2. Barbuda is known for its rare pink sand beaches, created by crushed coral and seashells.
3. Largest Frigatebird Colony in the Western Hemisphere on Barbuda.
4. Neither Antigua nor Barbuda has any permanent rivers or streams, so the country relies heavily on rainwater collection and desalination for its fresh water supply.
5. Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour, Antigua, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only continually working Georgian-era dockyard in the world.
6. The endemic 'Antigua Black Pineapple' is one of the sweetest pineapples in the world.
7. The Antiguan Racer, is one of the rarest snakes in the world, found only on Great Bird Island off Antigua.
8. In a quirky Christmas tradition, some locals hang their socks outside their windows instead of by the fireplace for Santa Claus to fill with gifts.
9. Cricket is a "Religion", producing legendary players like Sir Vivian Richards.
10. The country's highest point, formerly Boggy Peak, was renamed Mount Obama in 2009 to honour the 44th U.S. President.
END OF POST
No comments:
Post a Comment