Mission accomplished

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Wed 5 Feb 2014 23:54

17:03.9N 61:53.0W

 

Tuesday & Wed – 4th & 5th Feb

 

Up with the lark on Tuesday and pottered into Jolly Harbour in Doris (the dinghy) and made a good start when the marina office were able to hand over the magic yellow card.

 

We then used the marina showers before catching a bus into St Johns which is the capital of Antigua.  The buses are like those on most Caribbean islands and it is probably worth my while explaining a bit about how this all works.  They are privately owned and quite independently operated mini buses – think school mini buses here with around 15 seats packed in somehow.  The driver’s main goal is to pick up as many fares as he can and the entire trip is predicated on this concept. If you are leaving from a ‘bus station’  then the bus does not run to any sort of timetable but leaves when it is full – plain and simple.  Once on the road the sole objective is to pick up passengers at every opportunity and in islands such as Dominica, they do not let minor issues such as vacant seats cloud the issue at all.  There they run as a matter of course with some 18 packed in somehow.

 

But once under way the driver will be attracting the attention of anyone wandering along the side of the road with his horn hoping that they are potential fares.  Buses will stop anywhere at any time to pick up or put down passengers.  Laden buses ahead of you, that are slower are to be over taken at all costs so as to reach the next formal bus stop first.  These are where the rich pickings are as they will usually be a small group waiting.  But waiting is a relative term because there are so many buses completing that the wait is measured in only minutes generally – and if the bus arrives and cannot take everyone, there is no concern because the next one is probably only a minute or two behind.  So the trip is never without excitement as the vehicles leap frog each other as they either overtake on a short bit of road, or when one stops to pick someone up, the others can sprint past wanting to be the lead vehicle.  You do have to pay to be part of this excitement but the fare for a 30 min ride is around 75p with all the excitement and local colour you can hope for.

 

So we raced our way into St Johns and alighted at the bus station which is directly opposite the big fruit and veg market.  We wandered in and Sarah stocked up on some wonderful looking veg, which the lady running the stall was very happy to put to one side for us to collect later whilst we went off into town to fetch the parcel and do a bit of shopping.

 

We headed straight off to the High Street and soon found the post office close to the cruise ship terminal.  This was a fun exercise in itself and it worth knowing another time how this all works!  You present yourself and your yellow card at the counter nearest the customs desk.  (You may need to try imagining something akin to a large old empty shed with a long counter) They check your ID and fetch the parcel but now you need to wait for a Customs officer to appear which in our case was 20 mins as he had gone for an early lunch!  He then ushers you round the back of the security wall and through the cash desk (protected by bars at the front….) and invites you to open the parcel in front of him for inspection.  Once he is satisfied you go back (without the box) to the other side of the cash desk so you are now talking through the bars and pay the princely sum of EC$2 (50p), whereupon you go back around and pick up the box. 

 

We wandered round town for a while afterwards and then headed back to the bus station and picked up the veg and enjoyed another fun ride back to Jolly.

 

On Wednesday we picked up the anchor and headed into the little marina and were directed into the same slot we have had each time before and spent the rest of the day cleaning the stainless steel using our newly arrived Spotless Stainless cleaning gel.  This is the most wonderful product and we cannot imagine how anyone managed before-hand. But it does need to be rinsed off with running water, hence the two nights planned here in the marina.