January 8th Antigua Netherland Antilles

We wake up at 9, we are already in port but we didn't feel like waking
up at 730 when our ship arrived. This place doesn't look as nice at
first. The town is more run down than St. Thomas was. We decided to
walk around a bit, after getting bombarded by 20 rasta men asking if
we need a taxi or want to go to this place or that place. The stores
have nothing but crap. We went into a grocery store and the shelves were empty! There were only about 3 of each item on the shelves. I went into one of the higher end stores and see a shirt I
already have which I paid about 20 bucks for and they are charging 49!
WTF, we stop shopping right then. What a ripoff. I'd rather shop at
Bellesquare or downtown anyway. I just want the beach. We have gotten
very lucky with this trip so far, and I hope it doesn't run out
anytime soon. We run into a guy named Kurtis, we later find out his
real name is Kurleigh, which I liked better. Matt and I had a feeling
about him because he wasn't as pushy and crazy as the other guys. Matt
offers 100 bucks to drive us around for 3 hours and see all the really
good spots. I'm lucky I have Matt around because he is a total people
person. Matt hits it off with Kurleigh too! I love his accent! I only
understand about half of what he is saying but when I do understand he
is hilarious! He drives us around all the back roads, there are goats
everywhere! Just running around with no fences. I saw tons of baby
goats and baby donkeys and wanted to take them home with me. We saw a
mongoose running across the road too. Now that we are out of the town
and along the coast line I can see that the beaches are way more
beautiful than St. Thomas had. The say there are 365 beaches on
Antigua, one for every day of the year. They all are beautiful too,
white sand beaches, clear blue water, just amazing. First we head to
this one beach and see some naked ladies. We didn't like the feel of
the beach or the old naked ladies so we move on. Kurleigh takes us to
a place called Devil's Bridge. It is a natural bridge formed out of
rock that you can walk across. So we took some pictures and enjoyed
the view for a bit. We noticed some people on wave runners a couple
miles up the beach and we decided we wanted to do that! But Kurleigh
said he had somewhere better then that spot. So we traveled across the
whole island of Antigua and stop at this really cool beach. It was a
bungalow with two pool tables and a wave runner rental place. Matt and
I rode the wave runners for an hour. It was an absolute blast, it
started raining while we were on them which sucked but it only last
for about a minute, I'm actually becoming accustomed and liking them
more and more. I wish it rained for only a minute in Seattle though.
After our ride we ordered some drinks. WHile we were in the car we
noticed a pool stick case in the backseat. Turns out Kurleigh loves
pool, as do I. He said he really wanted to play me. It worked out
perfect that the bungalow had a pool table. But instead of playing me
Kurleigh set me up in a game with a local islander who looked like
snoop dog! There were about 5 of them hanging out there and they
seemed to be getting a kick out of it. Kurleigh even bet some money on
me that I would win, I started out kicking the guys ass and the locals
were going crazy that a little white girl was beating one of their
own. He caught up and beat me by one ball! When the locals talk in
their dialect it sounds like they are mad but Kurleigh said they just
give each other a lot of shit and joke around. We had a lot of fun but
had to make it back to the boat on time. On the way back Kurleigh
taught us some slang. Check me wah meh saay, which means listen to
what I'm saying. Yoo mahkin meh bust mah brains, which means your
making me think too much, and "giiiirrlll, yoo strasssin meee ooooot,
which means give me a break. Also three is tree to them. So when he
asked my age I said twenty tree. He got a kick out of that. you'reMatt
has been saying check me wah I say ever since. We got Kurleighs number
and gave him our cards and he was begging us to come back, not on a
cruise ship, so he could take us around and hit the night clubs in
Antigua which are supposed to be poppin, as he said. We might have to
plan a trip back to Antigua in the next couple months. I was sad to
say bye to our chauffeur, he was the funniest and most care free local
I have met so far. Back on the ship. We take a little nap before
dinner reservations with Ray the cruise director. We have hung out
with him the past 3 nights but never gotten the chance to really sit
and talk to him without blasting music around. We ate at the Asian
Fusion restaurant. We ordered enough food for a small army but it was
really good food. The best I have had so far, Le Bistro is in at a
close second for now. We pretty much talked about Seattle the whole
time, Matt and Ray were trying to figure out if they knew any of the
same people, it was a great dinner. I had my first saketini and it was
really good, I might be getting more of those in the near future. I
missed bingo tonight for the second time, but I am determined to play
before the trip is over. There is a deck party tonight out by the
pool, it's 77 out right now and it's 9:00pm! Pretty crazy! We plan to
go out for one drink, just one because tomorrow is Barbados and we
want to be up and out of here early so we can get a full day in! A lot
of people have told us Barbados is the best spot on our itinerary, but
I will decide that. I don't know if it will top todays adventures?