Antigua Day-5

We had to head out early this morning for our excursion, so we ordered room service breakfast and ate it on our balcony.  The ship had not yet docked, so we watched Antigua as we headed to port.

It was a beautiful morning, last night the weather forecast was for rain, so I had been a little worried, but it promises to be another fine day in Paradise!

Enjoyed a little breakfast, and a great view from our balcony.

It is pretty interesting to watch them tie up the ropes to keep the ship docked, a band was already set up and playing music.  Caribbean Music!

The plan  today, is kayaking, snorkeling and hiking!  This is a privately owned home, the owners run the business.  The son of the family was our guide.

If Dad is going to retire on St. Maarten, I might have to retire here!
I love all the beautiful flowers, trees, and this house is amazing.

We are walking through their side yard to their private dock.

We get into the power boats for a ride to where the kayaks are.

I love boats of all kinds, the wind feels good on my face.

The kayaks are all lined up waiting for us, We had to pick partners, Brian and I picked each other.

It was funny to watch some couples paddle, you have to paddle on the same side at the same time in order to go in the right direction.  We did good.

The bay we started in was pretty calm water, we saw a little colony of jelly fish.

Then we had to cross a channel, the water was a little choppier, but we were able to do well together.  One of the couples came up to us, the husband was in the back and he said, "will you tell her I'm paddling, she doesn't believe I'm doing anything."  We told his wife he was paddling, but she seemed like she didn't believe us either.

I was a little nervous about the rain clouds, but it never rained.  The color of the water is so amazing.  I had to stop and think--Wow-- I'm really here on this beautiful water.

We got to see and hold this huge starfish and a sea cucumber, we could see purple sea urchins in the water beneath us, it was so clear.

On the dock, after the kayaking, yea, we got a little wet.

On our way to bird island.

This small island is where pelicans were nesting, you can see them sitting on their nests, the male and female take turns sitting on the eggs and getting food to feed the young.

This is Bird Island

It was pretty fun to just pull up and hop out on a small island like this.

We docked the boats, then hiked to the top of this island and take a look around.

The area where the boats are is where we will go snorkeling after our hike.  Our guide told us it was a little rough today, and some might rather not snorkel, but we decided to do it.

Bird island is home to the Frigate bird, they are black and can have a wingspan up to eight feet

The birds are little thieves, they wait until another bird dives under and gets a fish, then they come diving at that bird and intimidate it to drop their fish, then the frigate dives beneath them, catching the fish they dropped and eating it. 

I love this little protected cove we docked in, too bad we didn't have more time to just enjoy the beach here.

We had a fun time snorkeling, we didn't see as many fish as the last time, and the camera didn't work.  But we enjoyed it.  We heard the horn blast to go back, and all too soon we were on our way back to the island to pick up those who chose not to snorkel.

Heading back to the home where we started

A view of the house from the dock. As we got off the boats, they handed us damp, cool towels to wipe our faces and hands with, we felt so pampered!

This old ship is abandoned.  The government will not let it be moved, because the owner died.  So it is just sitting out there rusting away.

In the back yard, we had home made banana bread from bananas grown in the backyard and either rum or fruit punch to drink.

The city of St. John

Listening to music played on these home made cymbal drums.

We bought our magnet, and headed back to the ship.

Antigua is such a pretty place, my favorite so far!

Enjoying the view, and relaxing after a nice hot shower, it is amazing how much sand gets everywhere when you swim in the ocean.

This is our table mates Kathy and John

and Kathy and Kyle

and Tim.

We really enjoyed eating in the dining room, they take such good care of everything, my water glass never got empty, no matter how hard I tried.  They had wonderful breads and rolls, and everything else.  We never ate the midnight buffet, by then we were too full and too tired.