Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is country number fourteen for me. We arrived on Saturday and spent eight nights and almost nine days doing nothing. Well, nothing provided that your definition of “nothing” extends to snorkling, walking, enjoying the flowers, the lizards, the crabs, the birds, and the mongeese (mongooses?), taking pictures, playing cards, reading, kayaking, doing puzzles, and learning to windsurf. The most blissful nothing indeed.

Sunset Champagne

The resort was lovely (all kudos to Deb, of course), the sun hot, the water cool and crystal clear in the magical turquoise way of the Caribbean Sea, the rain brief, and the winds tranquil.

Winds in which I did manage to learn to windsurf, provided the ability to go a few hundred hards from shore, turn around, and come back (usually) without falling in is consistent with your definition of learning to windsurf. I'm still mostly at the mercy of the wind, not yet grasping such essential maneuvers as tacking, but I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to give it a try.

Galley Bay

Two observations about windsurfing: first, large schools (pods? spreads?) of jellyfish provide ample incentive to stay above the water (happily, only a few strayed into the places where we swam). Second, you can't wear too much sunscreen. I got a little crispy around the edges the first day because I hadn't realized how intense the sun would be, both directly and reflected off the water.

Jellyfish

A final gleeful discovery about Antigua: they have spring peepers! Well, not Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) exactly, but frogs that peep just as delightfully (a little web surfing suggests Eleutherodactylus martinicensis). Next time, I'll bring a flashlight and return with pictures. They peep all year long!