caribbean taste...

.. is the name of a nice, authentic Antiguan restaurant located on a dirt road behind the yacht club. a must if you want to enjoy fresh local west indian food in Antigua.

Let the work begin

Back on water where we belong. St Barts and the high life that is offered over there is occasionally nice and fun but nothing gives the sense of real meaning as does our self-chosen life at sea. Particularly now with our new boat which we'll slowly transform to a home and vessel of our dreams. It took us two long days to sail from St Barts to Antigua with a one night stop in St Kitts halfway. That passage is always a pain in the ass but this time it was harder than ever. 20-30 knots of headwind as well as a beat against currents, waves and continuous squalls. A good but tiring challenge with the new boat, happy to be back in safe harbor now though. Antigua will be Duende's and our home for the next 2-3 months and we have an extensive refit to look forward to, combined with as much work as we possibly will have time for, starting already tomorrow. I apologize beforehand to you non sailors/boaters out there for much boat renovation talk that I will share in this blog in the following few months. New travel and sailing adventures will begin again in March-April although I still have quite a few shots from St Barts to share with you all.

Saturday fun

Was a nice day yesterday in good company.

Our other home

Back in Antigua. Feels like our second home now. Staying around here until middle of Dec.

Pork and sweet potatoes

Rum baba is definitely our favorite of the newly opened restaurants in Antigua. Run by a French/Italian couple who are serving the best melange from both those worlds in an inspiring, busy and homey environment. Just by the road after the gas station and after the pizzeria, Falmouth Harbor. Check it out if you're in Antigua this season.

Just another season in Antigua

Locals are preparing their goods and making themselves ready for the high season. Empty market places have got new cement floors and the stalls are being filled with colorful clothes, jewelry and what else that tourists might be looking for on their vacation to this "historical and tropical destination". It is funny to see the differences of each of the two seasons. These more touristy places of Antigua - English Harbor and Falmouth Harbor - are quiet and almost dead in low season as most of the locals are living in villages outside, and slowly slowly it will all be changed into a mass tourist destination full of American, Italian and British tourists, served by those mentioned locals from other places of the island. In the beginning when we arrived here we loved the place and almost could imagine to move up on one of those hills here one day. Now when we have experienced it closely for a couple of months in varied seasons, we can easily say that we wouldn't go on with that thought. It's not that we don't like the place as it is still as beautiful as always, but it is the apparent distance between locals and expats, the overly commercial feeling and sadly the lack of authenticy that we are not too fond of. 

Green Island and the whole area of Non Such Bay remain as our favorite destinations on the island of Antigua for its natural atmosphere and the remoteness to (almost) all things commercial, as well as some of the smaller local villages inside of the island.