We were only minutes away from missing our flight to Guadeloupe. The flight from Oslo was delayed because of weather. The Caribbean ocean was a bit colder than expected and it has also been raining a bit since we arrived. In the few days I have been here I have gotten quite a few mosquito bites some of which seem to be infected…

If reading the first paragraph made you happy, stop reading now!

Because despite these few minor problems we are having a great time enjoying wonderful Antigua. The rest of this entry will be pretty much praise.

We started the trip by flying to Guadeloupe and staying there one night to rest after what seemed like an endless flight. The next day we flew with Liat Air to Antigua. We weren’t quite expecting an airline that wrote their boarding card by hands and put us on a tiny little flight with only 21 passengers but we survived. It turned out quite nice actually because we got a fantastic view of both Guadeloupe and Antigua.

We are now staying at a little, cheap hotel, La Galleria Inn which is quite close to three wonderful Caribbean beaches which we have been spending our time at and we are “slowly” turning into what could be termed as red nosed lobsters.

We have also visited the capital St. John and English Harbor. We decided to take the bus, but were a bit concerned when a rusty, green minivan that seemed to be about to fall apart arrived. I don’t think that minivan would have gotten through the EU control in Norway but we made it to St. John alive. We even risked taking the bus again later that day to English Harbor. It was a bit interesting to take the bus. People just shouted “Bus stop” (loud enough to scare the hell out of you) when they wanted to get off the bus and some of the bus drivers played music at full strength in the bus. You don’t exactly expect to enter a bus with a young, hip black guy as the driver, playing Celine Dion at mind blowing strength. I guess he felt like he was making up for the missing manliness by driving like a maniac but then again they all did.

St. John was a bit of a downer. The town was full of cruise ship tourists which didn’t really make it enjoyable. English Harbor was also a disappointment with too many rich tourist stepping off their yachts. Thankfully, we live close to a small village which gives us a slight insight into the local live. The surroundings of our hotel are quite nice and we can watch goat herds and an occasional mongoose snooping around. When eating breakfast on the balcony we see an occasional humming bird buzzing in the trees and there are tiny little lizards running around.

That together with drinking local beer on those wonderful beaches really makes this a wonderful place to be!