On Antigua we went to the Valley Church beach to spend the morning and early afternoon.
When Azura sailed out of St Johns we were able to watch the Soufriere volcano on Monserrat pluming smoke and ash against the sunset.
St Johns, Antigua Tuesday 30th October
The ship had gently rocked in the night and then when always quiet and still it was 6.30 am and St John’s was there as we slowly entered the harbour.
It was so quiet at this time in the morning that we could hear a cock crowing as the ship slowed even more as it neared the cruise terminal.
After breakfast we tried again to sort out the extra item on our bill. Reception noting the problem on a sheet of paper and suggested we wait for a call in our cabin.
To the beach
Once we had walked down the key past a steel band, we looked for the ground transportation hut in the duty-free area. We asked for a taxi to a beach and joined a small group waiting to go to Church Valley beach. This was the beach that we had been to before on Antigua. The taxi ride was nearly 30 minutes.
We agreed with all the passengers to leave at 2.30 pm to go back to the ship. The fare was $16 each which included the return trip.
Once on the beach the Nest had the usual charges for sun beds and an umbrella this was $25. This was $5 more than our last visit.
The beach was not very busy and our sun beds were opposite the Nest’s bar and restaurant. The beach is very steep into the sea. After a couple of metres also swimmers were soon out of their depth. I had brought my waterproof camera and took it out for a swim before settling down to read my library book from Azura.
The special offer on beer was Coors Light. This was different from earlier visits when we had had Banks, the beer from Barbados.
Our lunch was up in the restaurant. I had a pepperoni pizza washed down by a bottle of Coors.
The wi-fi was not particularly fast and I could only initially manage text messages via Apple iMessenger. My WhatsApp images and email downloads literally took all all lunch-time. But they did work eventually.
Once back on the beach I went for a walk towards the cottages on the hills at the end of the beach. My waterproof camera had decided to stop working and when I pressed the buttons water poured out. I can only guess that the seals had perished.
