A slice of paradise! The island of Antigua. With its clear blue seas and white stretches of sand. When I mean white sand, I mean white. I thought the adverts would lie about the sea and sand, but i was wrong, it was a picture perfect postcard from paradise.
It's the best place I've been for a long time. It was somewhere I could think; a space to breath; a place where you could escape to and forget about the worries of everyday life. The silence was somehow calming and relaxing. You could just sit there without being pestered. It was perfect. It was tranquil.
I stayed at a hotel called Hawksbill Bay. One of the 365 beaches on this small, exotic island. One for every day of the year. Hawksbill Bay is located in the Five Island Peninsula, five minutes from the capital, St John. A large rock, about half a mile offshore from Hawksbill Bay, is shaped like the head of a hawksbill turtle which gives the place its name. Another place I went to, which is said to be the best place to watch the sunset was Shirley Heights, English Harbour. This was on the south coast of the island. Shirley Heights looked over the boats and yachts. I don't know why it's called English Harbour beacuse the atmosphere was so bright and lively, with traditional Caribbean steel drums playing , the sound of laughter and the orange sun sinking behind the sea to end another day. It was nothing like England.
It wasn't just the beauty of the landscape which made Antigua so special for me but the wildlife was out of this world. They were all stunning in their own unique way. The mixture of colours and personalities were amazing. The birds especially were the ones which stood out. They skimmed the water so elegantly, without touching the still water, however watching them was like nothing like a piegon flying over your garden wall.
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The sea, the sand, the people, the food and the atmosphere were captivating. I've got to say a thanks to Virgin Atlantic, who gave us six free travel-anywhere-you-want tickets with Virgin Atlantic, switched us to a British Airways flight and gave us $65 each for food and drink at some fancy cricket hotel. It was great. We used the tickets to go Barbados, it's still very beautiful too because everyehere in the caribbean is, but it wasn't a patch on Antigua. It made me think that maybe it was meant to be, to show me that such a small island can stick out from the crowd. And it did. It was certainly a slice of paradise!
