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Day 4, St Johns Antigua, we were met by a welcoming Caribbean steel drum band playing Bob Marley on the pier. Hopefully they've set up the tone for the day, lively and fun.
We had a quick look around St John, more jewellery stores, duty free and loads of taxi touts before heading back to the pier to meet up with the tour.
We were driven 20 mins to where we were to start and all hopped on a speed boat to a pontoon in the mangroves. From there we were all in kayaks and paddled around the mangroves stopping now and then for a bit of an informative chat, not a lot new to us but it was a nice day for a paddle. The kayaks didn't have a back rest so I found it hard going til Pete decided to support it by putting his feet on my back, it probably didn't look good but from then on I was able to for it with the paddle in comfort.
After the kayaking it was back into the speed boat to another pontoon at stingray city. It was incredible, dozens of sting rays just cruising around, quite happy to brush against you or be held for a pic. Their undersides were so soft, like rubber and their tops more like sand paper. They swam amongst us at times almost climbing over us. One of the guys gave us squid which we held & they hoovered out of our fingers, awesome!!
We headed off to the side for a snorkel through the surrounding area and found acroporas, anemones, porites, a huge version of isis corals and lots more. Not as many fish as the other day but still some tangs and wrasses and small baby fish darting about. According to our guides many were babies of various types of snapper. Heading back towards the main sting ray area we found a large one asleep almost hidden in the sand.
Once back at the sting ray base we were given a rum punch, very strong! Pete decided between the rum punches and the ganga it's not surprising they all seem so happy lol
The ride back to the port was again interesting with our driver answering all sorts of q's re their island life.
Back at the dock we took a pic of the sign reading "Welcome to Redcliffe Quay Antigua" not often you see Redcliffe spelt the way weds at home :-)
W returned to the ship for a late lunch and then went back out to do some emails and post on line at a bar with mixed results, the connection was a bit shaky, I managed to post a blog from a couple of days ago and answer some emails but gave up after a while when it all got too hard so headed back to the ship to clean up.
It was a 5.30 return to ship tonight, we ended up leaving port late cos a couple were 20 minutes or so late. By the time they wandered back the decks were lined with people waiting for them, who cheered and cat called as they finally walked along the pier to the ship lol
We stayed on the balcony as the ship pulled out of port watching the frigate birds and terns checking out what the ship stirred up as it turned to head off out of port.
Another fun night at dinner followed by the pool party. We had fun watching everyone doing all the set dance moves, not our thing but funny to watch with a beer and aLong Island ice tea (super strong!) The eating never ends here, going to the pool party straight from dinner it was a little surprising to see how many we're tucking into the pool side buffet! After they cleared that away they opened the solarium cafe with pizza and hotdogs on offer. Some people must fair waddle off the ship going by how so many of them hit every buffet on offer.
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