LeBleu Pack: Quadding the Island

Today was a great day here in Antigua as Craig and I went on a tour of the island on ATVs. It was good to get on a quad again but even better when it was your quadding in 28'c weather. We did hit a wee bit of rain a couple of times, just enough to cool you off. We started the tour around 9:30am with 6 other guests from another resort. We had two guides for this tour, James was the lead and Kenny was the caboose. Both were very happy to know that all of us had experience driving a quad as it made their life easier which also means we could go faster.

We drove through the village on paved roads and finally hit the dirt trails. As soon as we came to a clearing we were shown how far we were heading and it was way up a hill. We drove mostly through agriculture land but not like we are used to seeing growing up in Manitoba, these farmers really have to work hard to make a few dollars. We came across a couple of workers in a large field who had a very small garden tiller and they were working the land but this land had so many large rocks I couldn't comprehend how they could do their job. We also had to wait for a herd of sheep to get off the road at one point. Sheep here look very much like what we would call goats, except here if their tail is down they are called sheep and if their tail is up they are called goats. We seen many horses, sheep, goats & cows on our travels. We seen a few old windmills that used to provide power to the sugarcane crops and also small railroad tracks that the slaves used to use to transport the sugarcane. Sugarcane is not produce in bulk on the island any longer as the government found out it was cheaper to import than to export the product.

When we finally got to our destinations it was the best view of Shirley Heights, the harbour and the ocean, 650 feet above sea level. It was a fantastic ride up this hill and on the way back down we were treated by driving a different route. We drove on some pavement and it was difficult at first to get used to driving on the left hand side of the road - complete opposite of what we are used to.

When we returned we met up with Sandy and Keith where we exchanged stories of our excursions, they went to Stingray City. This afternoon the boys headed to play some darts, Sandy had a little siesta and I edited tonight's pics. After dinner the resort treated us to a Fire Eating Show. This guy was a little crazy and involved the audience with his fire and the limbo.

Tomorrow is a day of relaxing at the beach - hope the weather cooperates.

Talk soon!