2022 Caribbean Trip - Antigua

Thanks to one of Clayton’s sisters and his parents, some flexible paternity leave, and 2022 being our 10-year anniversary, Clayton and I took a kid-free trip in June to Antigua!

*A*N*T*I*G*U*A*

Why Antigua? Before this trip I’d only heard of Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahama (don’t need no pretty mama), the Cayman Islands, and the Virgin Islands. But because we were going right after school let out, at the end of May/start of June, some of those islands were already pretty rainy.

Among the drier ones, we looked for islands with good snorkeling both from the beach and with excursions. There’s a place in the US Virgin Islands that has some of the best Caribbean snorkeling, but it was too far from civilization. Aruba and Curaçao are too dry and desert-y. So that left Antigua, an island I’d never heard of before.

In the country of Antigua and Barbuda, Antigua is an island with just under 100,000 people (3x as much as Pleasant Grove, but just ⅙ as many people as all of Utah County), and Barbuda with 2,000. 85% of Antigua’s economy comes from tourism, and 85% of their food is imported. So many things are imported that it makes things a bit pricey. There is no natural freshwater in Antigua; tap water is a combination of rainwater and government treated water, which is technically safe to drink, but water bottles were recommended and provided by all the restaurants if you asked for water. Drought is a big problem there.

The houses are so colorful. On a single corner you might find houses with blue, teal, orange, and pink exteriors. The banks and churches have the most money, so most of the big buildings were one of those. Cricket is a huge sport there and a very famous cricket player was from Antigua. (I had no idea what cricket was before this trip. Points for getting cultured!) Antigua was last colonized by Britain (they gained independence in 1981), so English is the official language, but the currency is EC (Eastern Caribbean dollar), which is fixed to the US dollar, so you buy in EC or US money, not British pounds. Antiguan Creole is the language of the people, so they all spoke English with Antiguan accents to varying degrees.

*T*R*A*N*S*P*O*R*T*A*T*I*O*N*

Our trip there started with two flights. We had a small panic attack when the first flight was delayed by 13 hours, meaning we’d miss the connecting flight to Antigua. Thankfully another airline had two flights that got us there on the same day.

Not only was this my first experience in another country, but it was also my first in a country where where they drive on the other side of the road from, you know, what I'm used to. We took a taxi from the airport to the resort, and our driver took some side roads to try and avoid traffic. This led us along some very curvy roads, and whenever a car appeared around a turn speeding towards us on the side I’m used to driving on, I just SCREAMED…on the inside. Whenever we came to a super crowded, unmarked intersection with people just seizing their chance and forcing themselves where they needed to go, but going opposite how my brain expected cars in crowded intersections to be going, my brain broke. I’d have gotten in an accident in about five seconds.

That was the only time we ran into that kind of traffic though. The other days, I experienced what Antiguan driving is normally like outside the capital of St. John’s. Most of the roads in Antigua are unmarked, winding, often uneven with speed bumps or dips or potholes, and wide enough to just fit two cars side by side. Cars are constantly parked or stopped on the road, which means cars on that side have to cross into the side of oncoming traffic to drive around them. Most of the time, if the stopped car or obstacle was on our side, our driver would wait for cars on the oncoming side to pass before going around. Other times it felt like a game of chicken as to whether they'd get around a parked car in time before the oncoming one got to us.

As a result of these road conditions, and with no speed limits, their driving is mostly speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down. They accelerate and drive fast when the road is clear, then immediately slow down for every obstacle. Half their time is spent in the other lane avoiding potholes or taking the flatter side of a speed bump or avoiding pedestrians and stopped cars or just enjoying having the road all to themselves. One of the drivers taking us to/from an excursion, the owner of that excursion actually, was British and talking to us about the driving. He shared what I thought summed up the driving well: “There’s no driving on the left or right side of the road, there’s driving on what’s left of the road.”

Some of those drives would have likely given me serious motion sickness, but I had discovered a wonderful medicine called Dramamine early on in our trip and it helped a lot.

Buses and taxis there are both van-like vehicles with yellow license plates. Bus license plates start with BUS and the taxi plates start with TX.

In the end, we wish we’d rented a car when we were at the AirBnB. To get to the grocery store, and the restaurants near it, we could walk a bit from our cottage and take the bus, which was super cheap. But the buses run primarily to take locals to and from work, which meant they didn’t run as often in the evenings, or on holidays—our last full day there was a holiday. Sometimes they didn’t stop exactly where they were supposed to, which added a lot to our walking. And the taxis, they were bonkers expensive most of the time. One taxi driver told us later it was because of how expensive gas is there. Not only is gas expensive globally right now, but Antigua has to import it, so the cost goes way up. And finally—except for one critical occasion—all the taxis and buses we paid only took cash. That put us in a pickle near the end of our trip.

*L*O*D*G*I*N*G

Galley Bay Resort

First, we stayed at an all-inclusive adults-only resort for a few days. We wanted a place directly on the beach so we could just open our doors and behold the aquamarine ocean in all its glory. Galley Bay is where we stayed, and honestly, it was a perfect place for introducing us to Antigua. The grounds are humongous; they even let you rent bikes to ride around the trails, which we only did once because we were too busy in the ocean. They have gardens and grow a lot of the food they use in their restaurants. It felt so tropical whenever we stepped outside the front door. And out the back door were the beach and ocean and, quite often, a view of a cargo ship or two on the horizon.

Food was provided at the resort restaurants. What I needed to adjust to was that they were only open for certain hours of the day—we couldn’t just buy food whenever we wanted. We needed to plan around it. We could, however, always get drinks at the tipi bar. I discovered a drink called Strawberry Crush which I promptly made my traditional drink and ordered at literally every single restaurant we went to for the rest of the trip, both within and without the resort. (It was fascinating to see them all make the drink slightly different.) But most importantly I, the heavy cold water drinker, was thrilled to be ordering a satisfying drink that wasn’t water.

And how did I, the picky eater, fare with food in a foreign country? Well, there was usually a meat option with a flavor I liked, so that’s what I primarily chose…but truth be told, while I’m great at eating little amounts of food I don’t like, I can’t get myself to eat enough to be full. With the sun and snorkeling zapping my energy by the minute, I did spend a great deal of my time with a small, underlying hunger. At the more “fast-food” restaurant they had, we found a beef and pork hot dog, so I got that several times. The flavor was strong and yummy at first, but I started struggling with it before the end of our time there. 

For veggies, a lot of the restaurants had spinach leaf salads, which I like, but not usually with dressings that I like. So how’d I survive? Bacon. They cook legit amazing bacon and break it into big enough pieces to savor each flavor and sprinkle them generously over the spinach salads. Just brilliant, I tell you. And the bacon taste was enough to overpower the dressings—one was cobb, which I didn’t mind too much, and another was honey dijon, which was, sorry, not my favorite. I discovered that I could handle oil and vinegar just fine too. But bacon always wins.

Outside of food and drinks, we also enjoyed a live band one night, got a couples massage, and had one fancy late dinner on the beach. At that dinner, the chef unexpectedly cooked baby octopus for us. I actually liked it, probably specifically how he made it, but neither of us ever want to eat a baby octopus again for several reasons. And don’t anyone dare tell my kids, especially Ariana.

AirBnB, Sweet Lime Cottage

We were in the smaller, higher cottage

The AirBnB was in an interesting place. It was within walking distance to one of the most amazing beaches in Antigua, and only a short drive/long walk to several other beaches. But right next to it is a monstrosity of villas that is expanding between the cottage and the beach. Everyone’s hoping the owners will still let people from the cottage, and the few condos beside it, be able to cut through to the beach after their construction is done.

The view from the cottage was lovely…but at the cost of a monstrous monstrous monstrous hill. Traverse that a few times a day and you’ll reach beefed-up superhero status in no time.

Jolly Harbour, near our AirBnB

At the cottage, we were in charge of our own food. I usually like that, but because taxis were waiting for us whenever we were at the store, we couldn’t take our time shopping and weren’t always efficient in buying things. But it worked out in the end.

*S*N*O*R*K*E*L*I*N*G* & *S*T*U*F*F*

So what’d we do in Antigua? Snorkel our faces off! I learned how to swim properly as a young adult, and love it. I love wearing goggles and being able to see underwater while I swim (and to also protect my ridiculously sensitive eyeballs). And I love being able to see without having to gasp for air every few seconds.

**Being the novice snorkelers that we were, we really did not take underwater pictures, so please enjoy our snorkeling footage in our amateur yet made-with-a-lot-of-love Antigua Trip video.**

Adventures at Galley Bay and Deep Bay

At the resort, we didn’t get in the water right away because the first couple days there, it was quite cloudy. Cloudy on a Caribbean island in the summer is perfect for strolling about, but as warm as I expected Caribbean water to be, it’s still ocean water and was a bit chilly for me without the sun. I was a little crushed at first. We did swim around some coral at Galley Bay, practically outside our room, and saw some fish. It began with us just standing in the water and one group of four fish, maybe Palometa Jacks, followed us everywhere we went—it’s fun seeing wildlife approach you on purpose and find you as interesting as you find them. We couldn’t help but grab our masks and snorkels and stare at them underwater. From there we snorkeled until the sun went down and I began shivering.

We tried snorkeling around a reef near the end of the beach, by entering it from a little cove on the other side where the waters were calmer. Anyone wandering by would have beheld the rather pitiful sight of two newbies spinning around on their bums in the water trying to put their flippers on. Apparently walking backwards with your flippers on is the way to go. It feels super awkward, but we got the hang of it. Eventually.

Newbie Mistake #2 happened soon after. The waves off Galley Beach were some of the strongest we swam in, and pushed us right towards the very shallow reef. Add that to my unreasonable but overwhelming fear of the jet skis driving around (they weren’t close, but sounded close and I was paranoid), and I didn’t keep far enough away from the reef. The waves slid us right over the top of it. Lemme tell you, once coral scratches you up, you don’t make the same mistake twice. Poor Clayton was right behind me trying to warn me away from the reef, but as we humans don’t communicate underwater, I didn’t hear and he got scratched too. Looked like some little three-clawed demon got him right on the chest.

I also learned that snorkeling in rough waves gives me motion sickness! That was disappointing, but was also when I started taking Dramamine, which helped so much.

Before our next snorkeling adventure, we had a mini-sailing adventure! Our resort had a couple of Hobie Cats, which are small catamaran sailboats—think Moana boats, kinda—and they have staff who will teach you the basics of sailing one. Clayton eagerly took them up on it. I merely sat and prayed we wouldn’t tip over, which is easy for a small catamaran like that to do, because it can be sailed leaning heavily on one side. The driver sits on the side that tilts up, which is the side Clayton and I were on, while our teacher sat on the lower side. The first time it tilted up, our sailing guy calmed the boat down; but the second time, the bar connecting the two rudders came unattached, and our driver—who was sitting on the lower side—fell backwards off the boat, his shirt catching on a piece of the rudder. After making sure he was okay, we waited for his instructions for what to do next. I now wonder if we should’ve offered him a hand in coming back up, but we were a bit astonished. (And to be fair, one time when he was sailing to pick us up, he tipped completely over on his own. So falling off a sailboat like that is kind of second nature.) Still, I never relaxed on those things unless they were staying slow and smooth.

Around a rocky outcrop from our resort, there was another resort with a very calm, very beautiful beach—Deep Bay. I think I rejected that resort during my initial search because the rooms weren’t directly on the beach and there were always jet skis zooming about. But I loved that beach and could have swam in it allll day long. Our resort ferried people to and from that beach on the Hobie Cats, so we gave the snorkeling there a try, and it was amazing! We returned the next day and it ended up being one of our favorite snorkeling spots of the trip with different types of coral and fish, large schools of fish, ribbons of sunlight weaving across the reef, and even shallow pockets of warmth by the surface.

Such a gentle beach. We snorkeled farther down shore.

We also snorkeled a shipwreck! Deep Bay was not actually deep, and there was a shipwreck close to the surface where we could stand on the bow with half of our bodies out of the water. So fun to snorkel! There also were translucent purple jellyfish floating around, the kind with only shroom tops, and no dangly zappers. Swimming with them in the wild was great…until there were too many. The boneless buggers like to hang out just under the surface, which happens to be right where you put your face when you’re snorkeling. A bit startling swimming face-first into one, to say the least. The rear side of the shipwreck, on the other side of the mast where the Hobie Cat was parked, had so many jellies that we didn’t even explore there.

But the snorkeling was wonderful! And I got my wish—bright, beautiful, toasty Caribbean sun. And it happily roasted our backsides. Yes, despite all the sunscreen we applied. That was really unfortunate because we were about to head to the AirBnB and begin three days of guided snorkeling excursions. 

Excursions

Excursion #1: Reef Riders. We met at Jolly Harbour, which was the harbor close to our AirBnB where we dined a lot. This group, owned by a couple from Britain who were very near to attaining Antiguan citizenship, operates their own custom-made motorized boats. The boats are like a cross between a jet ski and a dinghy. They felt very stable and were so fun to drive. They used to let people have some fun with them, but people being people kept wrecking the boats and they’re super expensive and inconvenient to replace. So all we did was ride to our destination, and ride back.

The destination was Cades Reef, a reef that protects a large swath of Antigua’s shores from the might of the ocean. It was amazing to snorkel a reef as vast as Cades, and in such crystal-clear waters. But we found the life there to be lacking. There really was hardly any fish, especially compared to the small reef at Deep Bay. Our guide looked surprised when he asked the group how it was and we shared our opinion. The tricky thing about that reef is that it’s a huge tourist place, so tons of people, even large groups of casual snorkelers on big boats, snorkel the reef daily. It’s probably a bit much.

Excursion #2: Turtle Bay Power Snorkeling. This snorkeling uses underwater motor scooters to pull you along. The waters by the shore were kind of murky, but much more visible the further we went out. We swam by what they call the Pillars of Hercules. This was also one of my favorite places to snorkel—we saw tons of fish, including huge schools of fish! One school swam right next to us, undaunted by our noisy machines, and another school was made up of hundreds and hundreds of teeny tiny fish swimming tight together in mesmerizing shiny movements. At one point I was nearly surrounded by them and that was one of the most amazing experiences of my life! I had a camera on my snorkel, but it was positioned slightly too high to catch everything I saw properly. A bummer because I could relive that moment over and over. The only downside to snorkeling that far out was the water was colder, and I found myself shivering in places. I definitely can’t stray too far from the warmth of beaches and shallow reefs without a wetsuit.

Closer to shore, we’d seen a beautiful spotted eagle ray on the way out. On the way in, we saw several turtles. Again, my camera didn’t catch them, but I scootered down and swam right beside them, I loved it. Looking back, I only ever swam from behind or alongside, and I wish I’d swam ahead and then turned and saw them from the front, like our guide would do. Oh well, maybe next time.

Excursion #3: Island Safari and Stingray City. By this time, no matter how much sunscreen we had lathered on our bodies, our backsides were crisp and red. Thankfully my burns felt great when in the water, and Stingray City wasn’t a full snorkeling excursion, so there was hope.

Our trip started in St. John’s, the capital of Antigua. I wish we’d been able to explore the capital more, but we didn’t have easy transportation there and we just couldn’t stop snorkeling, so we never visited beyond the start of this excursion. We rode in the open back of a safari-like truck with a newlywed couple from Britain, an older couple from Britain, and a mom and daughter from Britain who were originally from Antigua. From our guide we mostly learned about food and agriculture and how you can take someone else’s fruit off their trees if the fruit is hanging over their property lines. And other stuff. The ride was bumpy, and I thanked the makers of Dramamine for another clear-headed day of adventure.

At Stingray City, you get a quick lesson on how the stingrays aren’t going to kill you, then you’re off on a motorboat to just a short ways away. I consider those stingrays to be like half-domestic because they’re wild, and free, but are fed by humans every day. We got to hold a stingray, feed a stingray, and feel stingrays brush our legs as they swam by. I LOVED IT so much. I just love undersea creatures that aren’t freaky-looking or dangerous. I could have swam with those creatures every day. Also, to pass on the lesson: stingray stingers are barbs on their tails that are shorter than the length of their tails. In order to get hurt, our guide said, you’d have to apply pressure to stick the barb inside you. Like actually try, in other words. It’s never happened with these stingrays as far as we know, though everyone was careful not to step on any rays’ tails. We also snorkeled a little bit around the area.

To continue our safari, we stopped at Betty's Hope Historic Sugar Plantation where slave workers once made sugar. Antigua is covered in old mills, though not many of them still have windmills on them. We also stopped at a natural feature called Devil’s Bridge.

Excursion #4: Sailing! Our one unplanned, last-minute excursion was a sunset sailing trip. I’ve never been too keen on boats, finding them too jarring or unstable, but Clayton really wanted to go and I wasn’t going to say no. It ended up being a really cool experience. A sailboat feels very different on the waves than, say, a motorboat. Once our helmsman assured us that the boat wouldn’t tip over, and that even if it did it would want nothing more than to immediately right itself, I could focus on not feeling seasick.

Sailboats are smooth, but the motion of waves takes getting used to. The boat literally sailed with one side higher than the other while dipping up and down nonstop. It was ocean versus Dramamine in my head, and for a short time I feared the ocean would win. I tried to lose myself in the hypnotic fluid rolling beneath and around us for miles. It hit me, over and over, that I’d never seen waves like that with my own eyes before. I found it so fascinating.

And then, just like that—my body found the ocean’s rhythm and we were in sync. I quickly came to love the feel of sailing. (As long as I stayed sitting on the higher side of the boat—I didn’t fancy the lower side at all.) Clayton braved a try at the helm and was also first to clamber to the bow. I was getting ready to join him when we saw—wait for it—DOLPHINS! Such a thrilling surprise. Apparently dolphins like to play in the wake made by the front of a boat cutting through waves—they swam right beneath and alongside it for several minutes. I found it amazing that they could do that.

Nothing could have sent me scrambling to the bow faster than a chance to see dolphins. I grabbed the ropes and steadied my legs for each rise and fall of the boat in a similar way to how I steady my body while driving a 4-wheeler over bumps and jumps. The guides, who’d seen dolphins plenty of times before, and Clayton graciously allowed me the front. So there at the front of the boat, I squealed over and over and talked to those dolphins with my most out-of-my-mind excited voice. They swam at all angles so I could even see their sides at times. We think there were five or so.

Yes I’m a bit obsessed with dolphins. Thank you sailboat!

Snorkeling Darkwood Beach

The beach by our AirBnB was Ffryes, a perfectly gorgeous beach and another one I could swim in all day long. I found a ton of little seashells along its shores. But it’s not a snorkeling beach, so we found our way to a beach a little farther down the island called Darkwood. We entered the water and basically floated on the current for a ways with our faces in the water, pausing to get some close-ups of a lone starfish, a lionfish, a conch, and other fish. Then we exited onto the beach and walked back to our bags by where we’d started. Easy peasy!

I'm in love with this man

and also this beach

*O*U*R* *P*I*C*K*L*E*

Clayton told me we’d need to call our credit card companies to let them know we were in Antigua so they wouldn’t freak out and stop our cards from working. I called Capitol One and their automatic systems were all, “Hey, you traveling? You don’t need to tell us anymore that you are!” and we were like, okay, interesting. Unfortunately, in order to withdraw cash, I needed to know a pin for my credit card. We’re fairly certain we never received one when I opened it years ago, and when I called their customer service, she wasn’t able to tell us the pin either. She did try offering other advice before our AirBnB local cell phone ran out of minutes.

Clayton tried his bank debit card to withdraw cash and it worked, so we figured we were good to go. But we didn’t use his card for the rest of the trip, only using my card for payments, until our last night there. After our sunset sailing excursion, we had a taxi take us to the grocery store in Jolly Harbour and then to a restaurant. We were about to run out of cash, and didn’t have enough cash to cover the return taxi from the restaurant or the taxi taking us to the airport the next day. When Clayton tried to withdraw more cash, it failed and he got an automatic call asking to verify that it was really him trying to withdraw. He told it yes, but it still failed. It hit us then that he’d never called his bank to tell them we were in Antigua…because the first withdrawal had worked, with nary a call or message from them questioning it. Well, whoops.

Our taxi guy took us to the restaurant, but we paused there to figure things out. We explained that it had worked the first time (at a different ATM) and Clayton had verified himself to the voice machine, but now it wasn’t working. Our taxi guy was very cool about it and said he’d find us a taxi who had a credit card machine. (We were like, there’s taxi drivers with credit card machines??) To our surprise, he returned only a short time after we were seated at the restaurant; he’d found a taxi guy for us who happened to be dining at the same restaurant! But he also told us this driver didn’t have a credit card machine and that we just needed to try another ATM…we could only nod, accept, and thank him, but knowing this, I spent the entire dinner with my stomach knotted in panic. We had no way to pay him.

After we finished, this taxi guy, John, took us to the ATM where Clayton had withdrawn money the first time, but it still failed. John was incredibly understanding about it all. He offered to drive us to our AirBnB for free, and asked how we planned on getting to the airport the next day. We told him we’d call the bank in the morning and hope it’d be resolved. We were so grateful, but also still wanting to pay him so badly, so Clayton asked if we could pay via PayPal. He said he didn’t have PayPal, but a friend did, so we paid the friend and he said he’d check with the friend when he got home if it worked.

And it did work! Boy were we relieved. He’d offered to take us to the airport the next day if it worked since we knew we had a sure way to pay him, so that’s what we did. He was such a good guy, I’ll always be grateful for him.

*C*O*N*C*L*U*S*I*O*N*

It was hard to leave the beautiful beaches. I am in love with clear, beautiful, warm water. I love swimming and snorkeling. Visiting another country for the first time was a great experience, albeit a little anxiety-inducing at times, but it helped having Clayton there—he served his LDS mission in Brazil and knows more about visiting other countries in general. And there were a lot of good people in Antigua.

I would absolutely visit Antigua again. I don’t know if it’ll happen because of the cost, and wanting to take our kids with us on trips as they get older, and because there are kinda a lot of other islands worth visiting too. But we’ll always remember and thank Antigua for our time there.