Barbuda
Of the sister islands, Antigua is bigger and busier and one could easily forget the splendour and beauty of Barbuda, which starts, but doesn't end with it's magnificent pink and white sand and azure waters, a unique and one of a kind phenomenon in the world. The highest peak at Barbuda is only 125 ft above sea level and is a limestone area known as the Highland. The island is almost completely surrounded by magnificent coral reefs, which have claimed their fair share of ship wrecks, offering what a friend called an Aladdin’s cave of opportunity for snorkelers and scuba divers, but also boasting a beach so calm you can only dream of. By the time the creation of this island was completed, about 10,000 BC, it also left a web of lagoons which today support an abundant diversity of wildlife and fisheries. With a population of only about 1,500 its resources are safe and Barbuda, as the first of our two hot Caribbean islands deserve a special mention as the perfect spot for eco loving, stressed out city dwellers to come and unwind, relax and find themselves again. It boasts luxurious accommodation facilities, of which more detail can be found right here.
For a more detailed history of Barbuda, just click here.
For a more detailed history of Barbuda, just click here.
Antigua Click to enlarge
The island of Antigua comprises 108 square miles of Caribbean land, forest and fabulous white beaches, home to approximately 85,000 inhabitants and thousands of visitors, relaxing and enjoying the
peace and tranquility that's here. Antigua was formed when about 30 million years ago volcanic activity gave birth to where we now live. The highest peak, used to be called Boggy Peak, at 1,319 feet and following the 2008 US presidential elections, was renamed Mount Obama National Park. We have seen descriptions of the island as being largely flat land with a few small hills, but living here and seeing the sizable hills around us, we often wonder where a description like that comes from. For example, straddling the entrance to Jolly Harbour is the spectacular 'sleeping Indian', a formation of overgrown and sheer rock formations clearly showing what looks like a giant American Indian lying on his back, including the shape of the head and nose and the imaginary hands on the chest, as one could imagine a great warrior having an afternoon nap – have a look at the picture, which you may enlarge if you want to.
Antigua has a colourful history, with the first inhabitants apparently having been Amerindian settlers, dating back to around 200BC (some sources use the figure of 3,100 - 2,400BC...) - imagine the courage to row across wide open ocean! They were chased out by Arawak speaking Saladoid people who introduced agriculture and the first to harvest our now famous Black Pineapple, as well as corn, sweet potatoes, chilies, guava, tobacco and cotton. The Arawaks left Antigua and those who didn't were raided by the Caribs, an Amazonian tribe who derived their name from the Spanish word 'caribal', which means 'cannibal' and they also arrived with superior weapons, introducing enslavement to the inhabitants and maybe even cannibalizing some. The island became known as Wadadli until 1492 when Columbus, who never actually made landfall, sailed by and named the island in honor of Maria de la Antigua, the saint he worshiped in Seville. The English eventually took control of Antigua and more than 150 sugar estates sprang up all over the island, spearheaded by Christopher Codrington, who saw the potential of vast open fields, a cool breeze and mega profits if he could establish a sugar producing system, but which labour force was slavery, until it was abandoned in 1834. Some of the most famous personalities were Lord Horatio Nelson and Christopher Codrington, whose name became dotted all over Antigua and Barbuda, either as a street, area or bay name. The English retained control over the islands until 1981 when Antigua achieved independence.Much of this information is available at Wikipedia as well as the CIA World Fact Book and a PhD thesis of Dr. Susan Lowes, Associate Director for Research and Evaluation, Institute for Learning Technologies, Teachers College, Columbia University. Jump to the next page or go back to the previous one. |
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