November 24 - St. John’s, Antigua

Happy Thanksgiving from Antigua!  This is the capital of the nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which has been an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations since 1981. As with so many of the islands in the Caribbean, this one was discovered by Columbus in 1493.  On that voyage he had made a vow to honor the Virgin Mary so  he named  this place after La Virgen de la Antigua in Spanish, meaning the Virgin of the Old Cathedral in Sevilla, Spain. In 1632 a group of English settlers established a colony on Antigua and it quickly became a very profitable sugar colony.

Between 1784 and 1787, a very famous British naval officer was assigned here and was charged with enforcing the Navigation Acts which Britain had enacted to prevent trade between the islands and the newly born United States of America.  The man was Horatio Nelson, the hero of the battle of Trafalgar about 20 years later.  Unfortunately, Antigua depended on trade with the US so Nelson was hated by the local merchants.  Because of his lack of success, Nelson was denied a promotion for a period of time after his service here.

I was here exactly one year ago today and the difference between now and then is very obvious. Last year we were the only ship here (with about 290 passengers) and tourism had just opened up.  This year there are two ships here, one Celebrity ship that’s much larger than the Sojourn and we’re pretty full.  I don’t know about the other ship, but there were many more people ashore.  I’ve done tours here in the past and everything offered this time involved beaches and sun which are not my thing anymore.  Instead, I walked ashore and took some photos.  I think I lost my sunglasses on my day in San Juan with Juanito, so I bought a new pair.  Tomorrow we’re having our beach barbecue and “caviar in the surf” event on St. Kitts and I know I’ll need them then.  That will be my one beach foray on this trip because it’s such fun and really shouldn’t be missed.

Main shopping street 11/24/21 - Do you see any people?

Roughly the same place today. There aren't mobs of people but at least there are some.

It's much later and I had the loveliest evening.  We aren't leaving Antigua until around 11 PM so tonight before dinner up at the pool we had a concert by the Hell's Gate Steel Orchestra.  They are the longest continuous playing steel drum band in the world; they were formed in 1945 and have been playing ever since.  They were given some kind of national honor here in Antigua and Barbuda and were given the land on which they store their instruments.  Let me tell you, they were absolutely fantastic! They played for more than an hour and I don't know how they had the energy to do it.  Anyway, I made my first attempt at using my phone for a video so I'll try attaching one here.  I think I should have let the video run for longer, but as I said it's my first attempt and you'll get an idea of how good they were.