Stir Crazy

While the beaches here are, without a doubt, amazing, people like us can only lie in the sand so long before we start going a bit stir-crazy. Our friends George and Kelly were no doubt feeling the same way too as they were also up for a bit of an adventure. So, to satisfy this urge, about mid-morning yesterday, we all piled into their dinghy and set off towards Codrington, Barbuda’s only town, which is situated on the other side of the lagoon.

I pointed out in our last post that it’s possible to drag your dinghy across a small spit of sand to gain access to the lagoon. Alternatively we could have paid a water taxi to ferry us across, but where would the adventure be in that?

The mile or so trip across the lagoon in Earthling’s inflatable was slow and wet as we plowed into a 15-20 knot headwind. Once we arrived though, we were pleased to find a clean and friendly little town. Prior to yesterday, we had only had the opportunity to speak to four Barbudans, two of whom were security guards at the Coco Point Resort while the other two were the bartenders serving the outrageously-priced beer at Lighthouse Bay Resort. Those four people, and the dozen or so others that we interacted with on our visit yesterday, were all very friendly towards us, which to be honest, is what we’ve come to expect in most of the places we travel to.

As we walked around town, we saw a fisherman repairing his nets on the side of a road and a couple of others welding up some new lobster traps. It seems fishing is industry number 1 around here. We passed by an elementary school where many children were studying and were pleasantly surprised to overhear some steel drum music coming from a classroom. We assume this was band practice. Steel drums… how cool is that?

Having run out of a few essential supplies (bread, eggs, RUM!), we were grateful to find a local bakery and a fairly well-stocked grocery store. In addition to that, as you can no doubt deduce by the multiple blog posts that I was able to put up yesterday, we were also able to acquire internet access, something which sadly we have been unable to obtain on our boat. I should point out that, up to this point, we have not spent a single dollar since our arrival here in Barbuda, which is pretty easy to do because outside of the town, there is nowhere to spend your money. We do like that but if you visit here, make sure you come prepared with food, fuel and of course, RUM!

With the wind now behind us, the trip back across the lagoon was not only faster but significantly dryer, something we were all grateful for. As you might imagine though, after a full day of walking around in the hot sun, we were by then all ready for a bit more beach time. Bring on the surf!