Adventures in sunny Antigua

So I finally got around to editing the photos from the honeymoon. This is us at the main Sandals pool. It had a swim-up bar, which was most excellent.




Here's our view of the beach. Since the beaches in Antigua are public, the weed salesmen would wander up and down the shore all day harassing tourists.



Shot from our balcony.



Here's the view from our spot next to the main bar. Almost the entire resort was open-air, except for a few restaurants. Very cool.




Shelly the Master Photographer getting some purty flowers.




Here's us reflected in the hand-painted mirror while we get ready for dinner.




I forgot to pack any dress shirts, so I ended up wearing this blue striped one every night. It was a little gross by the end of the trip.

Sightseeing

These are mostly from our tour of the island - we went to Shirley's Heights, which is where this was shot. It was an old British naval fort that overlooked the main harbor.



Shelly shot this - I don't know anything about plants, but I think it's a hibiscus, their national flower.




Some freshly-picked cashew fruit. The nut is the green thing on top. I ate some of the yellow bottom part - it tasted like a peanut and a pineapple had a baby.




Shelly checking out the harbor. You can't see it in this shot, but this is where they had a bunch of cannons back in the armada days.



More from Shirley's Heights. In the background you can see Nelson's Dockyard, which was the biggest shipping port on the country. This is where they would unload slaves from Africa. The slaves worked on sugar cane plantations, eventually harvesting enough sugar to make rum back in England. The rum paid for more slaves and the process went on until slavery was outlawed.



Me and Shelly at a random scenic spot.



One of the first beaches we saw, other than the one at the hotel.



Our guide took this one.



Sun = really bright.



The obligatory shot of our feet in the water.

More sightseeing

Another one from Nelson's Dockyard. By pushing on this wheel, Shelly was actually providing enough electricity for a family of seven.



Holla!



I wasn't really paying attention, but I think they guide said this was where the cannoneers hung out when they were on duty. Antigua never got attacked, though, so they probably had a lot of free time.



Some vines in the brick.



Watch out for those cacti.



Another one of me and Shelly, overlooking the harbor this time.



This dude is Roger - he was our tour guide.



Just a quick portrait I grabbed at the hotel.



Apparently they have an issue with people peeing in the alley.



Here's me after doing a jungle zip-line course. They hooked us up to these cables that ran about 50 feet above a ravine/creek and we would swoop across. Definitely worth the price of admission, except that they never sent us the action photos we bought.

A trip to Hell's Gate

So this is from our final tour. We hiked up Bird Island, which has a lot of...birds. Then a trip to Hell's Gate, which was a big volcanic rock with a cave eroded out by the sea.



You can see the rock bridge in the back. We got to walk across it when we climbed up through the cave. Pretty cool.



Afterwords we did some snorkeling. It was ok.



Snorkeling Vol. 2



This is inside the cave itself. The way the rock got eroded left it really jagged and sharp. Treacherous stuff.



And the view from the top.