April 2019
Antigua is the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda(population: 100,900), a member of British Commonwealth. We landed at the cruise terminal in St. John’s (population: 22,193), the capital city in northwestern part of the island. Having been to St. John, an island in U.S. Virgin Islands, a few days earlier, it was rather confusing to encounter another St. John name not too far away.
Just walking straight out of the terminal and continuing on till Market Street then turning left, you will come to Church Street. Turn right onto this street and walk a few blocks, and you will see the white towers of St. John’s Cathedral. You can actually see these towers as the ship enters the harbor. The church was under renovation when we got there, but the ground was open. There was a small tour group browsing the graveyard on the church ground, and their guide was pointing at different tomb stones to tell stories about the people under them.
Leaving the church, we walked around a bit and came back to Market Street and continued on for another 5 minutes or so till we found the Public Market. The first thing we noticed as we got closer to the entrance to the market was a giant statue of the first prime minister of the country, V. C. Bird, and it was the most colorful statue we had ever seen! People may say whatever they want about it, but, one thing that seemed clear was that V. C. Bird loomed huge on the country and its people.
St. John’s cruise terminal area has a fancier market/outdoor mall with usual jewelry and clothing shops right off the ship. Then there’s a souvenir market behind this area that sells usual nick knacks and such. The self guided tour of town barely took a couple of hours, and we did not find any restaurants that offer a tempting menu in town or this shopping zone. So we went back to the ship and had lunch. Having had not much luck with buying some souvenirs for friends back home in the entire Caribbean area that we had stopped at, I went back out to this market area to browse more. Luckily, there was a handy craft shop selling artistic stuff that were small enough and not too over priced in the outdoor mall. I tried to stand next to locals who were busy typing on their phones & use the Wifi that was supposed to be there. Well, the idea was there, but it didn’t really work.
Small Wide World 