Antigua
1999
At the north eastern curve
of the West Indies lies Antigua...a wonderful little island that Tom and I got to work and
holiday in this past January. Christopher Columbus named Antigua after the Santa Maria de
la Antigua Church in Seville, Spain. In 1674 Sir Codrington, a former governor of
Barbados, established the first large sugar plantation on Antigua. His accomplishments
encouraged other landowners to become involved in the sugar industry, and by the early
1700's the landscape was dotted with some 170 sugar mills. The ruins of many of these are
still seen.
Antigua's strategic position in the middle of
the Antilles chain, as well as its natural harbours, made it the chief British naval base
in the West Indies during the Napoleonic Wars and a prime U.S. base during World War II.
Nelson's Dockyard National Park built in
1743-94 is reputed to be the only existing Georgian Dockyard. It was used by a number of
British Admirals, including Horatio Nelson. Several buildings have been restored as as you
can see by the pictures, it is quite a beautiful memorial to what was...Tom is sitting by
the fortification wall and the pillars once had a wooden boat house on top of them...this
is all that remains.
St. John's is the Capital and it is a busy
little place...many tourists and the large cruise ships coming in. On our tour we drove
through Fig Tree Drive which is really a rain forest...so lush! I have a couple of
pictures - one of banana and sugar cane and the other at a street vendors picking up
fruit.
We stayed at the Jolly Harbour Resort and had
a wonderful view of all the boats coming and going into the harbour. You could also see
when it was going to rain as the clouds came from this direction as well. We had a little
golf cart to toodle around in so got to see quite a bit of the resort, the golf course and
market place.
I took some pictures of the local
flowers...hope you enjoy them...and the last picture is of the catamaran trip that was
Tom's Birthday present...now that was an experience!!
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