Antigua and Barbuda was the first “independent” country that we visited on our cruise. I put “independent” in reversed quotes for the simple reason that in the Caribbean the notion of independence is very relative. In many ways the island mini-states here are closely tied to their former colonial masters, and their very economy is such that it’s built around visitors and the vast majority of consumed goods are imported. And yet formally Antigua and Barbuda is perfectly independent. The total population of this country is 80 thousand people, 98% of which live on the larger of the two islands – Antigua. Antigua plays the role of a transport node of the Caribbean – even though there are only cursory regular airplane connections between the various islands, the flights that exist tend to all connect right here in Antigua airport.

But the main treasure of Antigua are surely its beaches. They say there are 365 of them – one for each day of the year! It’s a kind of a long tale, of course, and yet it highlights the fact that virtually of all of the island’s shoreline is one endless beach. From above Antigua looks like a huge blotch of ink delineated from everywhere by virtually uninterrupted beaches. With our cruise ship acquaintance we headed to his favourite beach in the North of the island.

Continue reading Blotch of Antigua with its 365 beaches of eternal sun →