Antigua and Barbuda, two pearls of the Caribbean

Ever since our wedding, almost two years ago, we have been looking forward to repeating the experience of another plane trip to exotic shores and therefore to another continent, so, finally today we have the chance to do it. We leave home very early in the morning and after an endless train journey we arrive at the station of Milan. From the centre of the Lombard capital we then move, by coach, to Malpensa airport and from there later we take off, on a plane of the charter company Air Europe, facing the Atlantic crossing that will take us to the Caribbean Sea. Our destination is the island of Antigua, the largest of the so-called Leeward Islands, with its 280 square kilometres, which together with the island of Barbuda has formed since 1981 an independent state within the Commonwealth.

We fly in the same direction as the sun, so even though we take about nine hours, gaining back six in time difference, virtually we arrive three hours after departure at V.C. Bird International Airport in St. John's, the capital of this tiny and semi-unknown state. We collect our luggage and at the exit we find waiting for us the representatives of Viaggidea (our tour operator for this trip), who accompany us, by now in the afternoon, to Jolly Harbour, a tourist complex located in the south-east of the island and which will host us for the first ten nights of the holiday. We take possession of our small apartment, spread over two floors of a characteristic terraced building, and then we immediately run to the beach to watch the fiery sunset that can be enjoyed from there over the legendary Caribbean Sea.

After spending the first night in Antigua, because of jet lag we wake up very early and, having had breakfast on the little terrace of our apartment, which romantically overlooks a placid inner lagoon, we try to organise as best we can the period of our stay on the island. Today the sun is not shining nicely, on the contrary: the sky is overcast and at times it rains heavily, this does not however prevent us from meeting the Viaggidea representative and with him clarifying quite a few things, starting with the rental of a car for the next few days, and ending with the booking of a catamaran excursion to discover the small surrounding islands.

In the afternoon the weather continues to be temperamental and certainly this is not the start we dreamed of, but if we had to choose a day not exactly exceptional from the meteorological point of view we would certainly have chosen this one, provided that from tomorrow the sun shines again!

No sooner said than done!... Today the sky is clear and sunlight floods everything, so, having been given the rental car (a green Feroza Dhaiadtsu off-roader, with which to tackle even the most impervious situations) we start exploring, first of all, the areas adjacent to Jolly Harbour. We venture into the peninsula located a little further north and in this way we reach the solitary beach of Five Island Harbour, located in a deep bay... and there we begin to savour the intense colours of the Caribbean, starting with the blue-green of the sea, moving on to the deep blue of the sky and the green of the groves of palms but also of the numerous cacti scattered here and there. At Five Island Harbour we don't stop for long and, having taken the road again, we head back south, pass Jolly Harbour and continuing along the coast we arrive, right after noon, at Darkwood Beach.

The stretch of sand, all of light-coloured sand, is perhaps a little too close to the strip of asphalt, but it is very beautiful, with a splendid sea and several palms leaning towards the water's edge that create picture-postcard views... There we spend the whole afternoon in complete relaxation, until we decide to make our way back to Jolly Harbour, accompanied by the magical light of the sunset, to bring the first true Caribbean day to a close in the best possible way.

Breakfast eaten on the terrace of our apartment, which overlooks the sun-drenched Jolly Harbour lagoon, in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1st, is almost a daydream and gives us the right boost to face, again today, the road that will lead us to discover the most remote corners of the island. We set off with our bow pointing south, pass Darkwood Beach and continuing along the coast, with a small detour, we reach the delightful palm grove that precedes Carlisle Bay, then the picturesque promontory of Curtain Bluff, which is home to one of the most prestigious hotels in Antigua. The town of Old Road is located at the bottom of the wide Carlisle Bay and to the east of the built-up area stretches a beautiful, semi-deserted beach, where we go to spend some time...

But the most interesting stretch of sand in the area is Morris Bay, located near Curtain Bluff, and that is where we go to spend most of the day, cheered by a lovely palm grove and a stunning sea in which enormous starfish abound that we have fun catching, photographing and then putting back in their habitat, almost asking their forgiveness for the disturbance. In the late afternoon, returning to our village, we stop to capture the promontory of Curtain Bluff in the warm atmosphere of sunset and with that snapshot in our eyes we bring another slice of Caribbean holiday to an end.

On the morning of Thursday, March 2nd we set off again towards the south of the island... and around 9:00 we are already at Shirley Heights, a hill from which you can enjoy one of the most beautiful views of Antigua (and perhaps of all the Caribbean) over the natural harbour of English Harbour below... Here, in colonial times, massive fortifications were erected by the English (whose remains are still clearly visible along the road) to face possible invasions, which never occurred, by the French, stationed on the nearby island of Guadeloupe. Once we have come down from Shirley Heights we retrace our steps for a few kilometres to the town of Falmouth, where we start looking for the road to Rendezvous Bay... Just the name (rendezvous bay... secret) says it all, in fact there are no signs at all and we are completely disoriented so much that we think about giving up.

Only then do we meet another off-road vehicle (of Italians) and together with them we venture along a very rough dirt track at the end of which we find the inlet which, they tell us, is usually reached by sea. Rendezvous Bay is very beautiful, there's no denying it... above all not crowded and with a picture-postcard sea, but we really cannot enjoy it because of our worries about the road back, with those potholes and those prohibitive slopes, so, after a nice swim and a hastily eaten lunch, we return to Falmouth letting out a big sigh of relief and thanking our faithful Feroza Daiathsu for its providential four-wheel drive! In the early afternoon we go to the much quieter English Harbour and more precisely to the place called Nelson's Dockyard... the historic site par excellence of all Antigua.

If it was Christopher Columbus, in 1493, during his second voyage, who discovered the island and named it thus in honour of Santa Maria de Antigua, the miraculous statue of the cathedral of Seville before which he had prayed a few days before setting sail, it was another admiral who made it famous: Horatio Nelson. The hero of the English navy came here in 1784 as second-in-command of the Royal Navy (which since 1670 had turned English Harbour into one of its bases in the Caribbean) and remained there for three years, until 1787, patrolling the surrounding waters and enforcing the strict "Navigation Act", a law issued by the British Parliament that closed all English ports to the ships of the then newly born United States of America.

Nelson then returned to Antigua almost twenty years later, in 1805, for just twenty-four hours, before leaving for the Battle of Trafalgar, which would give him glory and victory over Napoleon, but would cost him his life. Nelson's Dockyard comprises several buildings dating back to colonial times, carefully restored in the fifties, and today on the docks where the ships of His Majesty once moored are lined up the most beautiful cruising boats in the Caribbean area. With the image of Horatio Nelson firmly impressed in our minds we then go in search of a beach where we can spend the rest of the afternoon... Taking advantage, then, of the rule that provides there are no private beaches on the island we go to the stretch of sand of the exclusive St. James Club, in beautiful Mamora Bay, and there amid suggestive flights of pelicans we bring an intense and unforgettable day to an end.

In the very early part of the day, still accompanied by a magnificent sun, we head towards the centre of the island and pass by the Betty's Hope Plantation. Sugar cane was introduced to Antigua around 1650 and at the time of the maximum development of the plantations, in the eighteenth century, the island had over two hundred windmills to grind it... Today, however, the verdant carpet of cane has disappeared, replaced by a yellow-grey scrub dotted with the ruins of abandoned mills... Betty's Hope was the first plantation in Antigua, which passed in 1668 into the hands of the Codrington family, who introduced sugar production on the island and maintained it until 1944. For 250 years Betty's Hope was one of the most prosperous properties on the island. Its sugar industry closed in the twenties, but sugar cane continued to be cultivated until the seventies.

Today, however, thorny acacia bushes have sadly invaded the old cane fields and only one of the two windmills has survived, though perfectly intact and working... All in all Betty's Hope is nothing extraordinary, but indeed it is a milestone in the history of Antigua and a little stop is absolutely a must. Back in the car we reach Indian Town Point, that is the north-easternmost tip of land on the island, where the fury of the Atlantic Ocean has shaped cliffs plunging sheer into the sea, as well as the curious Devil's Bridge, a natural rock bridge over which the waves crash noisily. In the nearby bays, which are more sheltered, the sea is instead calm and beautiful, with its extraordinary colours, especially at Long Bay, where we arrive before midday...

The place is truly exceptional, with the coral reef just a few dozen metres from the shore and with scenic palms stretching towards the paradisiacal crystal-clear waters, a shame only about a few too many buildings in the immediate vicinity. At Long Bay we pleasantly spend all the rest of the day, totally immersed in the most classic tropical dream, until we decide to return to Jolly Harbour to attend, in the evening, a Caribbean music show.

With the rhythm of reggae still in our ears today we visit St. John's, the island's main town, as well as the capital of the state, where on this day of the week the traditional market is held, which frankly doesn't thrill us that much, nor do its streets, scattered with anonymous shops and rather chaotic... we then decide to go to the sea following the road that reaches the westernmost tip of Antigua, where Hawksbill Bay beach is located. Cheered by crystal-clear waters we spend in the quiet inlet an afternoon of complete rest and exclusively seaside life, until we decide to rush to Jolly Harbour to attend the now classic sunset show...

In the Caribbean they say there are the most beautiful sunsets in the world and this evening's really doesn't disappoint, with soft golden clouds in a fiery red sky, embellished by a thousand shades of yellow that look like so many brushstrokes of an expert painter... but the curtain soon closes and the night, inexorable, takes over.

Good fortune assists us on this holiday and the curtain reopens on another beautiful and sunny day. After having been, yesterday, on the cape facing west this morning we completely change cardinal point and go to the easternmost tip, where Half Moon Bay beach is located. The stretch of sand, very white and washed by a sea that is nothing short of stunning, is one of the best known on the island, but it cannot be said to be crowded for that reason, indeed we find it semi-deserted and surrounded by practically untouched nature, with schools of fish swimming almost right up to the water's edge, not at all intimidated by our presence, and with many hummingbirds fluttering around the agaves behind the inlet... in short, a little paradise, where we deliberately stay a long time, immersed in another daydream.

After spending a good part of the afternoon at Half Moon Bay too we then move on to Shirley Heights, where we had already been a few days ago... On this hill, a natural balcony over the English Harbour below, every Sunday evening a folkloric local band plays Caribbean music incessantly, until the magical light of sunset floods the whole bay, creating breathtaking views. Enriched by the thrilling experience of Shirley Heights we make our way back in almost complete darkness to Jolly Harbour, also travelling along Fig Tree Drive, an area of rather dense and eerie vegetation if lit only by the headlights of our Feroza Daiathsu.

Having survived the night-driving experience we begin a new week of Caribbean life wandering around the island of Antigua, with which we are by now quite familiar. We try to grasp the small details, which until now had escaped us, such as the simple Creole architecture of the local houses, and summing up an intense first part of the trip we go and stop at the beach that perhaps more than all had impressed us for its characteristics, namely Long Bay, in the north-eastern part of the island. We spend on the stretch of sand wonderful slices of seaside life, intent on basking in the sun and exploring the coral reef, until we decide to return in the direction of Jolly Harbour, taking the coastal road that follows the southern profile of Antigua, including Fig Tree Drive, which in daylight has a completely different effect.

Having handed over, a little reluctantly, our car, at the first light of dawn we prepare to set off, aboard the catamaran Falcon, from the little harbour of Jolly Harbour, for a trip by sea along the northern coast of the island. As soon as we get out into the open sea a spectacular rainbow welcomes us that seems to rise from the waters, then, having set our course, we sail placidly for several hours so as to land for lunch on the solitary and unspoiled Bird Island. Adjectives are wasted to describe this little handkerchief of land cast by a skilful hand, a few miles off the coast of Antigua, into the stupendous waves of the Atlantic Ocean. We drop anchor in the small sheltered bay that faces south, whose crystal-clear lagoon seems to shine with its own light, and we settle our things on the exclusive beach of very white sand.

We take an unmissable swim and consume a primordial meal, then we set off on foot to explore Bird Island. It takes us just a few minutes to reach the highest point, from which with a single glance you capture the whole island, on one side lapped by placid transparent waters and a thousand shades of blue and on the other by the fury of the ocean, which has also given rise to a scenic natural rock arch. After the walk we return to the beach and treat ourselves to another swim, before setting off again towards Jolly Harbour, bringing to an end a truly unforgettable experience... Just as unforgettable is also the last sunset caught a little later from the bay of the resort, because tomorrow morning we will leave the island of Antigua.

After breakfast and once we have handed over the keys to our small apartment, a Viaggidea minibus shows up to pick us up, with which we leave the attractive Jolly Harbour behind to reach the nearby airport and from there then take the flight to the island of Barbuda. The crossing, aboard a small propeller plane, is very short and already from above we notice the flat morphology of the island, of coral origin, which extends for 160 square kilometres and is inhabited by no more than 1500 souls... We thus touch down on the only little strip of asphalt on Barbuda, namely the runway of its tiny airport, and just after 10:00 we are already at the Hotel Palmetto, about halfway along the west coast, which will host us for the next four nights.

The resort, small in size and under Italian management, is one of the three on the island (the others are: the Coco Point Lodge, open only a few months a year, and the exclusive K-Club owned by the designer Krizia) and overlooks the very long Low Bay, also called Pink Sand Beach because of the characteristics of its sand, which has evident pinkish shades... There, in an almost unreal environment, perhaps because of the very sparse vegetation, and ideally suspended between land, sky and sea, we spend all the rest of the day, shamefully idling, but also trying to organise the next days dedicated to discovering the island.

In the morning we immediately take part in an organised excursion that leads us to explore, with the help of small motorboats, the Codrington Lagoon, a brackish basin that occupies almost a third of the surface of the island, but above all the area of the Nature Reserve of the Frigate Bird, the largest nesting site in the world of frigate birds (about 2500 pairs). The birds, of a brilliant black, have a wingspan of two and a half metres and fly up to 600 metres high launching into dives that exceed 400 kilometres an hour and that earn them the fame of being the fastest living beings on the planet...

There are really many of them, perched among the mangrove plants, and at this time of year you can still see some males displaying their showy red throat pouch as a mating ritual, even though most of the couplings have already long since taken place, as witnessed by the many chicks present, which are covered in a curious completely white down. It feels like living inside a documentary and it is an experience that will certainly remain impressed on us: this is what we think on the way back to the Palmetto, but it wasn't a particularly long excursion and we are only halfway through the day, so we organise ourselves to spend the afternoon. Together with other Italian tourists we ask for a taxi to be sent...

and we let out a big sigh of relief when we see it arrive because, they tell us, in full keeping with Caribbean rhythms, today (an ordinary day) the taxi driver could also have decided to take the day off. We have ourselves driven around the dusty roads of the island. We first pass by the Martello Tower, a massive tower, gloomy and overrun with weeds, built by the Spanish and the only historical testimony of the era. We cross Codrington, the tiny main town, the only village on Barbuda, and following tracks lined with numerous cacti we reach the east coast, washed by the restless ocean, at beautiful Two Feet Bay. Here nature dominates unchallenged and civilisation seems light years away, if we exclude the presence of our battered vehicle.

In the surroundings there are also caves where we observe some sparse engravings attributed to the Carib Indians, the first inhabitants of the island, now extinct. Enriched by another experience we thus return to the Palmetto and later, with a fiery sunset, we worthily bring a very intense day to a close.

Never satisfied with exploring the place where we are we are again aboard a boat, with the bow pointing towards the southernmost point of the island, so along the way we also have the experience of trolling... and we are rewarded with the capture of a very voracious barracuda. By mid-morning we disembark at Spanish Point, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet, and on the beach washed by the latter we set up camp... Wonderful!...Very white sand and a sea that looks like liquid crystal, in which enormous shells abound (the giant conchs), with astonishing pinkish shades. We also go snorkelling in the nearby coral reef and for a few moments we even spot a nurse shark (completely harmless, but for an instant the adrenaline shot through the roof!). On the side washed by the ocean, as often happens, the coast is instead rugged and lashed by foaming waves.

We spend practically the whole day at Spanish Point and when we leave we leave a little piece of our heart there, because it is a small masterpiece of mother nature and a still unspoiled corner of the Caribbean, which we hope will remain so forever. In the evening we have fun watching the really soft pace of the local waiters, who take several hours to set a handful of tables... and our frantic daily work, by comparison, seems to belong to another dimension!

The holiday is now drawing to a close and today is the last full day we will spend on Barbuda... We thus have ourselves driven to Cocoa Point, also in the south of the island, to another sensational beach. There is the K-Club there, at seven million lire a day, but we don't stand on ceremony and carve out our own corner of paradise. With the coral reef just a few metres from the water's edge and a sea with astonishing reflections, we treat ourselves to unforgettable swims in the company of colourful fish and surprising turtles... a worthy epilogue to a wonderful journey under the Caribbean sun. At Cocoa Point we spend all the time at our disposal, until, back at the Palmetto, we also enjoy the last spectacular sunset... before retiring to our room to pack, a little melancholically, for the return.

We leave the Hotel Palmetto and a little later also the island of Barbuda aboard the usual small plane. Having landed in Antigua, however, we have to wait several hours before boarding the Air Europe aircraft that will take us back to Italy. In the late afternoon, finally, we take off, but we don't stay at altitude for long, in fact, while darkness falls we descend on the island of Jamaica for a technical stopover. Before returning to soar towards Europe, midnight also strikes.

We face the night over the Atlantic Ocean and only in sight of the dear old continent does the sun reappear on the horizon, ideally reopening the curtain on daily life and its many headaches, but leaving intact the beautiful memories of Antigua and Barbuda... Then the landing in Milan Malpensa and the nerve-wracking train journey home.