Land ahoy! After almost a week at sea, we sailed into the pretty harbor of St. John’s in Antigua. Contradictions abound here – from the ship, the water was beautiful Caribbean turquoise, the sun was gleaming, and it looked like paradise. Close up, it lost some of its luster and was another story. Walking into the port, we first walked through a tourist-created area of jewelry and souvenir shops. It was nice, and it was clean, but it felt artificial. We found the contradictions of the city when we walked into town. From an attractive area of manufactured retail shops, and gorgeous views from the ship, we walked into a fairly poor Caribbean city. A lot of it was downtrodden and fading, but some businesses had newly painted their building and tried to perk up the neighborhood. Many people set up umbrellas that shaded tables out on the streets, selling both fruits and vegetables as well as textiles and souvenirs. There were 3-4 places that had music blaring so loudly that none of the (mostly older) cruise passengers would enter, and in fact, walked by more quickly to save their hearing.
By the time we had gotten to Antigua we had had five days of poor ship internet. The ship had told us that the area we were passing through had only intermittent coverage. So we were looking forward to catching up with our blogging and other business using fast land-based internet. We were disappointed when neither our Google Fi SIM, which supposedly covered Antigua, nor our Discover+ 130 Country SIM, which also supposedly covered Antigua, gave us any data transmission. We finally bought an eSIM that was meant only for Antigua and Barbuda, and it provided marginal and inconsistent service, reaching only LTE from time to time. It doesn’t appear, from our one-day experience, that their wireless data system is at all robust or reliable.
One thing we have noticed in the dozens of ports we have visited throughout the world is that those tropical island “paradises” that have a connection to a larger, wealthier nation tend to be more pleasant places for visitors. Puerto Rico, where our next blog will be written from, has had endless discussions about becoming independent, becoming a US state, or maintaining its current status. Since a majority of the populace never agreed on any change, it has just stayed a Commonwealth and unincorporated territory of the US. We have been there many times and find it vastly more pleasant. Some of our other favorite islands are the US and British Virgin Islands, Tahiti (a French territory), Saint Martin (French and Dutch), the Canary Islands (Spanish) and of course, the Hawaiian Islands. It is great that people have the chance to follow their own path, but realistically, it is hard for a small island or group of islands to create a wealthy society. It is a little heartbreaking to see people trying so hard to improve their lot in life, but knowing that as long as they stay on their poor island, they won’t be able to make much advancement.
On our Transatlantic voyage, it was surprising that it was never cold, even in November. Most of the days were nice enough to sit on the outside deck for meals, and Antigua was our very first “tropical heat” day, as the temperature was in the high 80s. It was also rather humid, but that is why people flock to the Caribbean, particularly during the winter – it is always a nice escape from snow, ice, and cold.
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