Yesterday morning we went back to Pigeon Beach for a while, and then headed over to one of the stunningly beautiful beaches we had seen on the drive up to Jolly Harbor yesterday. We believe it is called Darkwood Beach, but we are not positive.

Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative. It has rained a lot every day we have been here. The rain tends to be hard, but normally it doesn’t last long before the cloud passes and the skies are blue again. However, yesterday it just wouldn’t let up. Rather than brief showers, we had brief periods without showers. After making a few runs to the car to get out of the pounding rain, we finally gave up and headed back to Kosmos.

On the way back, we stopped at a place that we heard serves great milkshakes. They have a variety of unique flavors, many made with liqueurs or Guiness. We don’t think we have ever seen Guiness paired with ice cream before. Neither of us was brave enough to try one of the assorted Guiness, ice cream, banana & egg concoctions. Eric got a “Sugar Dale”, made with coconut and rum raisin ice creams, banana, egg and nutmeg. Christi got a “Coco-Menthe” with chocolate ice cream and Creme de Menthe. Both were delicious.

We had a low key afternoon and in the evening we went out to dinner at a restaurant that had caught our eye. It is called the “Red Octopus”, and it is far enough from the marinas that you really need a car to get there. The owner runs it out of his house. It is a set menu whatever fresh fish he got from the local fisherman that day accompanied with whatever fresh produce happens to be ripe in his backyard garden that day, rice and beans. The food was simply prepared but delicious, and it is by far the best value for the dollar we have seen anywhere on the island. The owner is a great guy and we had a nice chat with him.

Today the weather was nicer. We started the day with an early morning walk over to the remains of Fort Berkley, which are on the small peninsula of land that marks the western edge of the entrance to English Harbor. It was originally built in 1704. Directly across the way on the eastern tip (where we went snorkeling a few days ago) was Fort Charlotte, and the two forts served as the first line of defense for protecting the Harbor from invaders. The underwater barricade that we mentioned in the last post ran between these two forts. There is a walking trail that leads from Nelson’s Dockyard over to the fort. The trail is well maintained, with gentle hills and signs telling what the local shrubbery was used for in the old days. The hike took all of 10 minutes to get to the fort’s entrance.

As you can see, there isn’t a lot here. The ocean side has a wall that was once lined with canons. Out of the original 25 canons, only one is left, located at the very end. The bay side is open, with pretty views of the harbor. There is a restored guard house, built in 1745. There is also a restored gunpowder magazine, which was built in 1811, intended to hold 300 barrels of gunpowder, and is supposedly bombproof. It is partially underground. You can see the gunpowder magazine in the background of the second photo.

It was a nice hike and a pretty viewpoint and definitely worth the walk. On the way back, we saw a couple baby goats, both sticking very close to their respective mamas. They were adorable.

The air conditioning repair guy was supposed to drop by this morning, so we made sure to be back at Kosmos before business hours to await his arrival. He came with a new blower in hand, but when he went to install it, realized the part he brought was the wrong voltage. It would still work aboard Kosmos, but wouldn’t work nearly as well. And he didn’t have the right voltage part in stock. The repair man said he would take our broken blower back to his shop to see if it was fixable. We also gave him the engine room blower to take back with him, too. A couple hours later he was back. The engine room blower was dead and could not be repaired. However, he was able to fix the air conditioning blower. He said the air conditioning blower wasn’t corroded and looked good overall, that it just needed to be “cleaned out”. He installed the blower and presto! We had air conditioning in the downstairs again. What a relief. Air conditioning is really a must for the downstairs. We asked about a new engine room blower and he said it would take a week to get the part shipped. We didn’t plan to stay in Antigua for another week and we figured we’d be OK with one blower instead of two in the engine room, so we passed on ordering a new one. He gave us our dead blower back and Eric set it aside.

Once the blower situations were squared away, we headed for the beach. This time our destination was Half Moon Bay, on the southeast side of the island. We took a main road east, then north around Willoughby’s Bay, then back south, then east. It was a lovely drive with stunning viewpoints along the way. Here is a shot of Willoughby’s.

The east side of the island is noticeably drier. There is still a lot of foliage, but it isn’t as lush, and there are more cleared fields. The houses are fewer and farther in between, and there seem to be more higher end homes. John says this side of the island reminds him of Crete. Once again, we saw a handful of fields with livestock in them, but virtually no crops. Where do they grow food around here? The goats are out in force on this side. Here is an idea of what the houses look like on this end of the island.

Right next to the beach at Half Moon Bay is a burger stand and bar that looks to be popular with the locals. We stopped in for a late lunch. The burgers were topped with onion, tomato, cucumber, lettuce and a slice of cooked ripe plantain. The flavor of a plantain is more mild than a banana, but tastes like a banana all the same. It was an interesting combo and we liked it. They were cheap, too.

The beach at Half Moon Bay was packed with locals. The little bay is fairly protected from the open ocean, but it does get some waves, which are fun to play in. The other beaches we have been to have been in more protected waters with little wave activity. This beach is beautiful, but no more so than any of the other beaches we have been to. There is not much swimmable area, as there are some hazardous rocks in the water. We’re not sure why the locals choose to flock here instead of some of the other larger, more open beaches around the island.

Anyway, it was roasting hot and the sun was strong, so we didn’t stay very long. We were worried about too much sun exposure. We have all gotten more sun in the last few days than we have in the last few months!

We continued north to the area around Mercer’s Creek Bay. This is probably the most attractive spot we have seen yet on the entire island. The northeast side of Antigua is surrounded by small little islands and it is so unbelievably scenic and picturesque it is hard to believe it is real. These two pictures are meant to be laid side by side to make one long photo. We love the signs as much as the scenery.

We got dinner at what seems to be the most popular restaurant in the English/Falmouth area. They are packed every night and you need a reservation to get in. The food choices were more interesting than most of the other places we have been to, but nothing unique enough to write about. While we are on the subject of food, we want to mention how disappointed we are with the lack of local color in the food here. Guadeloupe’s menus featured mostly locally grown foods, such as yams, sweet potatoes, and christopehene. Most of the food we see on the menus in Antigua aren’t tropical foods at all, but usually things imported from places farther away.

After dinner, we visited with the boats around us. This is the most social place we have been to in a long time, and we are really enjoying it.