St. John's, Antigua

This is Friday's post. Blogger has been acting oddly so I apologize if this post is a mess and has double photos etc. I'm redoing it, which may fix the problem.

Not too much blabbing from me today as it will be mostly pictures. We took a taxi to St. John's, the capital of the island and spent a couple of hours exploring. In the end, we walked around 10 km and saw some interesting parts of the city.

    

   We wanted to see the market which only opened on Friday and Saturday. When we got there, we found it was being renovated and only a few stalls were open.

However, there were a lot of stalls set up on the streets outside. They sold everything from clothes to food. 

    There's a large monument to Vere Bird near the market. He was the prime minister in 1981 when Antigua achieved full independence from Great Britain.

    In the touristy part of town, most of the buildings are well maintained and brightly painted.

    You do have to watch out for the sidewalks though. They're a bit of a nightmare for someone who is prone to tripping on flat surfaces. If you miss the edge because you're looking at your camera, it's a nasty drop into a ditch that is often filled with water and other stuff. 

    And then you arrive at the cruise ship dock. There were only two ships in while we were there.

    The ships are massive. I don't think we've ever been this close to them before.

    They drop off hundreds or maybe thousands of people who pretty much stay in the tourist area of town.

    This is the tourist area. Quite fancy with all the high end stores that are pretty much the same in every stop. I don't get how this constitutes visiting the island. You are constantly approached by people wanting to take you on tours which is quite annoying. We left the area quickly!

 We walked over the St. John's Cathedral, a 179 year old building that is being extensively renovated due to age and termite damage. It appears to be quite an undertaking that is moving slowly.

   

   As you move away from the tourist zone, you get a better impression of what the city is like. We were told that it was safe to walk around so we did. Everyone we met was very friendly although there weren't that many people around.

There were lots of little places to eat and some had quite interesting signs.

I know this will sound like a rerun, but we spent most of the afternoon by the pool. The volleyball game was the entertainment!

I also managed to catch another one of the tufted hummingbirds eating. We've figured out that they approach the hibiscus flowers from the back which helps a bit when trying to capture them with a camera!