We are currently on an Azamara cruise to some of the smaller islands in the Caribbean.  We boarded the ship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our first island stop was at St. Thomas.  Since we have been to St. Thomas many times (we even got married there), we just wandered around Havensight, ate lunch at our favorite fast food spot, Tap and Still, and met up with a friend for a drink.  

Our second stop was Antigua.  We booked a tour through Shore Excursions.  We were supposed to meet our guide in front of a shop, but I didn’t pay attention to the name of the company and we walked right by him when we got off the ship.  Luckily, people were really nice and helped us find him before we missed the tour.  

Our guide was named Carlin, but his nickname is Plow and that is how everyone on the island knows him.  He walked us over to a parking lot to an ancient Toyota Siena minivan.  It had great AC, so we didn’t care about anything else.  I was able to sit in the front seat, which was a treat because I didn’t get motion sick on the curvy roads. 

First we drove around St. John, where the ship was docked.  It was a typical island city with a central market, a beautiful cathedral, lots of shops, and quite a bit of traffic at 9am.  He drove by all the important government buildings, the old and new cricket stadiums (also explaining all the other types of festivals that  happened at those venues), police stations, prison, and hospital.  He explained all the different parishes on the island and named them all, which were all Saint names, except for the All Saints Parish, which had two together.  

Plow made sure to let us know whenever we drove through a new town.  He told us where he lived, showed us his grandfather’s house, and honked at or stopped to say hi to at least three of his cousins and a former teacher.  It was a unique experience and I loved it.  He explained that they speak English on the island, but they also speak what he calls, Bad English. They mash up words so they don’t sound like anything to other people, but the islanders understand it perfectly. He gave us a few examples.  I love languages so it was interesting to me. 

We passed quite a few churches.  There were several that had this neat green stone.  He said that there is copper in it and a lot of people use it to decorate their homes.  There was also a bright pink church that his friends affectionately call the Pepto Bismol Church.  

The drive took us to the central part of the island.  We drove up to Shirley Heights. This is where we had to pay an extra $15 each to enter the National Park area.  The ticket had two parts. It was extremely windy on Shirley Heights.  Our guide showed us where Eric Clapton built a house. 

The view was spectacular from this area. 

There were many ruined buildings, but the artillery storage building was very much intact. 

He took us over to the other side to view the waves crashing on the rocky shoreline. 

Then we drove over to a different area that was also on top of the mountain to a building that had a presentation about the history of the island.  We used one of the parts of the ticket at this area.  After the presentation, they took us out to overlook Nelson’s Dockyard. 

Our next stop was Nelson’s Dockyard itself.  We used the last part of our ticket entering this area. There was a Yacht show while we were there so our guide warned us not to walk on the dock area because only registered attendees were allowed near the yachts.  

We had a guide from the Dockyard who took us around and explained the purpose of each building and the year it was built. The newest building there was built in 1855!  

At the Dockyard they built the masts and sails and they brought in the ships and tipped them to the side in order to get rid of all the barnacles.  

The yachts there were very impressive as well. 

We enjoyed walking around and checking out different buildings. We entered the tiny grocery store and it was so small that my husband had to duck the whole time.  The bakery was located where they had a kitchen and we bought a few goodies that were quite tasty.  I had the carrot cake.  

There was a museum and several stores to look through including a sail store and one with hand carved wooden items. There was also a market set up with souvenir items as you exited the area.  I bought a t-shirt on sale and was pleased to find such a good deal. 

We were at the Dockyard for about an hour.  I was happy that someone explained the area to us and that we still had enough time to explore on our own as well.  

On the drive back to the ship we drove through the rainforest.  Plow stopped to show us where some pineapple was growing as well as a golden apple tree.  He pointed out another area that was filled with mango trees and when they are ripe, they are all over the place and anyone can stop and eat one.  

There were also a couple of very fancy resorts that we passed.  Plow works construction on the off season and that is generally at one of the resort areas.  

There are 365 beaches on Antigua and I know they love saying that you can go to one each day of the year.  Plow pointed out quite a few of the beaches and even told us which was his favorite.  

I learned a lot about Antigua on our tour.  I was happy that Plow talked so much about the culture of the island as well.  I like to learn about the people as well as the history and he did a great job with both.