Jane Not In Spain: Antigua & Barbuda

It’s the end of January and we still have about 20” of snow on the ground. And today, when I’m leaving for Antigua-Barbuda, it’s raining on top of the 20” of snow. Not a good combination. The temperature is above freezing so the 3:00 am drive to the airport shouldn’t be too treacherous.

After taking off from Miami it’s about 1,300 miles to Antigua.

We flew over some inhabited islands and some that were not. Beautiful to look at with swirling shades of turquoise blue and soft sand colors.

We circled a couple times before landing at V. C. Bird International airport and the view was spectacular. Pastel colored houses, the craggy shoreline, mountains, islands, beaches.

We have arrived! Arrived where? The official name of this country is “Antigua & Barbuda” a pair of islands described in many ways. They are the Leeward islands (a group of islands situated where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic ocean), the Lesser Antilles (a group of Caribbean islands that are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc between Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America.) Also, you may hear it referred to as the “West Indies” (a combination of the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.) Some of these West Indies islands are not physiographically connected but have a common history and cultural ties.

It gets dark around 6:00 pm and we drove across the island to our accommodations near Falmouth Harbor and the English Harbor.

The island is only 12 miles long x 9 miles yet it took us forever (an hour) to reach our destination. Adding to the fun … we’re in a former British colony which means the car’s steering wheel is on the passenger side and we’re driving on the wrong side of the road. Lots of potholes, pedestrians, dogs, cats, cows and other distractions. It was a very long day.