Barbuda 2016- Parts 1 & 2

This post is long overdue

Last year (2016), I had to travel to Barbuda twice for work. There are limited direct flights to Antigua from Jamaica, so both times I had to transit through the  USA. The first time, flight unavailability was compounded by the fact that it was the week of Antigua’s carnival. Once in Antigua, you take a little propeller plane over to Barbuda (or you can take the ferry).

The first trip  involved three days of field work collecting baseline data for environmental studies for the development. The second time involved collecting geophysical survey data.

Here are some pics and tidbits about the trips.

First Trip- June 2016

• The property was gorgeous. Just at our doorstep, this was the view.
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• We went out one night to what would become one of  our spots, Uncle Roddy’s. Grilled lobster, chicken, fish and ribs were on the menu, along with the local Antiguan Beer Wadadli. Wadadili is the Amerindian name for Antigua.
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• Lunch Time view- no time to play though 🙁
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• So the night before we were due to leave, the project manager was informed that the morning flight to Antigua was cancelled. Just so. They decided to redirect the flight and left us high and dry. She had to scramble around to arrange a helicopter so that we wouldn’t miss our flights. This was my first helicopter ride and I was able to sit of front for a true bird’s eye view.
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Second Trip- August 2016

• Transiting Miami Airport continues to get worse…

• Have you ever gone to collect your luggage at the carousel only to get an awful, sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realize that your bag is not there?I waited and waited and then it became quite apparent that my bag was not there. Just as we were leaving in the airport and my mind was buzzing with the thought of replacing the items in the bag (not to mention starting my trip without the bulk of my clothes and gear), I heard my name called over the intercom. So we spun around and rushed to the appointed spot. A porter had mistakenly taken up my bag even . Luckily, the lady noticed the bag was not hers as it was going into the trunk. thank goodness she did, because her destination could have been anywhere and who knows when she would have noticed other wise. It would have been an absolute mess.
• We spent nine days straight working in the field from early morning, until beyond when the sun went down. The vegetation was a little unforgiving as there were macca (thorn) bushes everywhere. In order for the equipment to work, the cable has to be as straight as possible, so you couldn’t just walk around the offending bushes.
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• The day wasn’t over once we got in from the field. After dinner we spent hours processing the data we had collected that day.
• Unfortunately for me as a Jamaican, this second trip coincided with the Olympics in Rio. Our schedule and lack of cable meant that we missed out on most of the action. When we finally got in at nights, I had to rely on patchy streams, or videos of events after the fact. One thing that I definitely did not want to miss was the 100m final. I figured there HAD to be somewhere we could go out and watch it. So we drove into town and the “sports bar” I was counting on was having a party, so music videos were being shown on the TV. We almost gave up. However, I noticed a large group of men focused on what seemed to be a screen in the fire station. We dashed in and crashed their viewing party just in time to watch Bolt when yet another gold medal.
• More lobster dinners 🙂
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• We had a peek at the famous pink sand beach and Palmetto point which had one of the widest white-sand beaches I’ve ever seen in the Caribbean.
• We were finally, FINALLY able to unwind a little and actually enjoy the truly spectacular surroundings we’d found ourselves in.
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• Once back in Antigua, I had a few hours before I was due at the airport, so I finally got to have a little look around St. John’s.

Barbuda fun facts and observations

• There are more donkeys than people on the island. The donkeys roam freely, even in the middle of town. In fact they’ve become a bit of a menace (poop everywhere, they invade yards etc) and plans are afoot by the developer we’re working with to establish a sanctuary for them.
• There seems to be a somewhat strained relationship between Antiguans and Barbudians.  I was told that Antiguans actually tend to look down on Barbudians and view Barbuda as a drain on the treasury.
• Barbuda has a population of ~ 1600, while ~ 700 persons work for the government.
• No one owns land in Barbuda, all the land belongs to the governing council. All native Barbudians are entitled to a piece of land to build homes or businesses. That sounds great in theory, but there is a catch. Since they don’t own the land, they are unable to use it as collateral for loans to build etc, so development in that regard is stifled.
• There is one gas station on the island. You better get there before 5pm because chances are it will be locked up otherwise.
• They have so much sand, they are actually able to export some.
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