Wednesday, March 30: St. John's, Antigua
Bob: In the end, being rested for the Canopy Zip Line Tour in the Antigua Rain forest turned out to be a jolly good idea. That morning the Costa Atlantica steamed slowly into the harbor at St. John as we were eating breakfast. On days where we know that we will be physically active, we typically have an omelet and some variety of meat with it as that seems to give energy for the long haul. I was surprised to see shipwrecks on the outer edges of the harbor as we nosed our way into it--I suppose the salvage value of the metal just did not justify the labor in removing the wrecks. We were even more surprised to see a couple of dolphins swimming at the side of the ship, but I took it as a good omen. As the Atlantica was berthed directly at a wharf, disembarkation was easy and quick, and we arrived at the meeting point on the dock at 8:15 as our tour was supposed to leave at 8:30. The Germans were, of course, there ahead of us, but they turned out to be a very adventurous, convivial, and fun-loving group to go on a tour with. The only other American was Chris, and we stuck together as we all spoke English and the nine Germans spoke mainly German. But why was this shore excursion limited to just 12 people?? That seems to be a remarkably small number given a cruise ship with a 2600-passenger capacity. |
Monika: Today was zip-line day in Antigua. We watched our ship approaching St. Johns from the Botticelli deck enjoying the view during breakfast and then up on ship. We were surrounded by frigate birds and Bob tried his photographic skills rather successfully. But after docking we had to hurry down to the dock for our tour. We were squeezed into a rather small bus and driven into the National Park for the start of our adventure. |
Bob: Be that as it may, we collected all our tour members and set off on a small jitney bus that seated 13 people absolute maximum. I had no leg room and so rode with my legs folded into the space at the side of my seat, but fortunately the ride was not long. We worked our way out of St. Johns and generally South into the Shekerley Mountains, which turned out to be rounded, lushly forested hills maybe 1,000 feet high. But in the middle of those mountains was a gorge that was criss-crossed with 9, count 'em 9, zip lines and 8 or 9 extra "elements" consisting of various rickety suspension bridges, some no more than a single cable stretched across the top of the jungle. But we didn't find out that we also had those extra elements to do until we had zip-lined our way across the gorge in a zig-zag fashion. First we all suited up in our climbing harnesses, complete with carabiners, snap shackles, and the all-important little wheels on a small metal trolley that let you roll effortlessly (and quickly!) downhill. If you can imagine screaming across the jungle covering the middle of the gorge at about 30-50 feet above the tree tops with nothing at all below you and just a hope-to-God-it-holds cable above you, you can get a feel for what we experienced, which was the next best thing to flying through the air. Exhilarating! For each zip line you were forced to make a choice of when and how much you were going to apply the "brakes" by pulling down on the line with your gloved hand. You were supposed to pull down on the line BEHIND the trolley, of course, because if you pull down on the line AHEAD of the trolley the wheels could run right over your fingers and cut the tips off. Braking behind the trolley also helped keep you pointed roughly with your feet ahead of you in the direction of the landing platform, and that was a jolly good thing for seeing what you were zinging towards! The choice of exactly WHEN to brake was, however, left up to you and it turned out to be a tricky balancing act. On the on hand, if you apply the brakes too soon you ended up losing your momentum and dangling helplessly below the platform at the end of the line because all the zip lines had a little slope upwards right at the end. I did that once, of course, as I seem to be fated to make every mistake known to man when we do these kinds of things, and had to pull myself hand-over-hand up the last distance to the finish platform. Embarrassing! On the other hand, if you apply the brakes too late you go crashing into the tree to which the zip line is fastened at the end of the run. Having experienced the shame and embarrassment of stopping too early, I of course over-compensated on the next couple of zip lines and left my braking until way too late. Very fortunately for me, the zip lines had been designed with crash landings in mind and I was slowed at the very last couple of feet by a kind of wooden block attached to the line that would move when my support trolley hit it, but with a lot of resistance so it slowed me down quickly. The final line of defense were bed mattresses wrapped around the tree trunks on the finish platforms, but I was never quite so out of control that I had to hit them to stop. The tree trunks are another good reason for trying to come in feet-first rather than head-first! (Did I mention all those landing platforms were 30-50 feet in the air?) I was finally getting the hang of it, so to speak, (that's a joke!) by the last couple of zip lines and was a bit tired but exhilarated. Little did I know that we now had to negotiate the 8 or 9 extra "elements", and that turned out to be a whole lot more work than the zip lines had been because, after all, gravity was doing the work on the zip lines! We first had a vertical drop of about 60-70 feet, which doesn't sound like much but trust me, when you're on this itty-bitty platform bolted to a treetop and looking straight over the side into NOTHING, it is daunting to have to trust to the gear and your belayer and just jump out into space. But fortunately they did belay me before I went splat on the ground, and I didn't even swing back and hit the tree trunk or knock over the support person at the bottom the way some other members of our party did. I do hope they gave that guide stationed at the bottom an extra "hazardous duty" pay! |
Monika: Our van carried 12 of us (9 Germans and 3 Americans) into the jungle and up the mountain to the start of the zip-line. We signed a waver and deposited our camera and our stuff in a box and were fitted with the safety harness and a helmet. The Atlantica crowd had a green circle affixed to the helmet and went first. The first zip-line was relatively short so that we could get used to the fun. As in Belize our harness was hooked to two lines so that I really felt quite safe. There were altogether 9 ziplines criss-crossing a canyon and we kept zipping above the canopy if the jungle. It was exhilarating although I kept being turned around, which was fun too. At the end of each line a "ranger" helped us come to a stop and unhook our harness and then hook us up to the next one. At some of the stops, the trees were wrapped in mattresses in case you came into the stop a little fast. But I think that was really a last ditch since I never did have a problem. (Note to Gentle Reader: Monika is small and doesn't have the body mass to go dangerously fast on something like those zip lines!) There also was one vertical drop of about 30-40 feet, where you just had to trust that the person belaying you did not let you drop. The last zip-line was over 300 feet and called "the screamer". By this time we all were thoroughly enjoying ourselves and let out a rebel yell when we started. (Note: Rebel yell with a German accent!) |
Bob: Then began our traverses on the "elements" almost all of which were some version of a very, very basic suspension bridge. We're not talking the Golden Gate Bridge here, folks; we're talking more an "Indiana Jones" flimsy-rope-strung-across-the-gorge type of footbridge with maybe another rope to hold onto for stabilization. That may sound easy to you, but I thought that the knife-edge balancing and careful and judicious use of the support rope was actually a LOT more tricky that just careening down a zip line like a sack of potatoes. It also required some upper body strength, which is definitely not my forte. Curiously enough, after getting started on the first two bridges, we were left totally on our own to negotiate the remaining ones. Consider that there we were, unshackling and re-shackling ourselves to safety lines about 50 feet up from the floor of the jungle on a very narrow treetop platform without any assistance. What could go wrong? Plenty! I ended up helping Monika and some other shorter women shackle themselves to the safety lines because they simply couldn't reach them. Some women also lacked the simple grip strength to repeatedly open the heavy snap shackles and keep them open long enough to mover them around the tree trunk and snap onto the next safety line. I was fortunate in that my orangutan physique let me easily reach the safety lines and my misspent youth as a motorcyclist has left me with quite decent grip strength. But all the extra work helping the others plus the heat, humidity, and plain old difficulty of standing on a bare wire for minutes on end while waiting for the ladies ahead of me to clear the bridges, did take its toll and my muscles were just starting to shake by the end of the course. In fact, I was trying to help Monika up the final incline on one of the last bridges and instead of belaying her correctly I attempted to help her by pulling her up with the belaying line, with the net result that I pulled her right off the bridge! Fortunately, we were near the edge of the gorge and she only fell down about a foot and a half, so nothing was broken and I could help haul her up onto the final platform. (Note to the Gentle Reader if he or she ever ends up with me on one of these adventures: don't count on Bob for belaying!) Exhausted but exhilarated, we met our driver Charley back at the jitney bus for the drive back to town. Charley took a different, more scenic, route back into town and pointed out different kinds of trees as we drove along including a mango tree, banana plants, a small version of a pineapple, and so forth. I was favorably impressed by the solid and well-maintained homes we saw in the rural areas of Antigua--I had been rather afraid that the people would be desperately poor and we would be seeing wretched hovels and shantytowns. It was a relief to see that in that section of Antigua, at least, the residents seem to have what I would call a solid, middle class life style. |
Monika: I thought we were done, however, it seems we had also signed up for a 9 element challenge course (the green dot on our helmet), and challenging it was! The course started with a walk on a steel tight-rope, then there were several rope bridges, some with planks to step on, some with only a rope. For handholds, some had a vertical rope, where you could creep along, while others had ropes swinging from branches and you had to let go of one before catching the next one, then take a step or two, stop, let go of the rope, catch the next one, while the whole bridge was of course gently swaying since there were other people on it. Scary, to say the least! Your harness was always hooked up to a safety cable, but you had to do the unhooking and rehooking at each station yourself. Luckily, I had big, strong, and tall husband in front of me, who did the unhooking and rehooking for me. He also helped the ladies in front of him and that was really necessary since the platforms between elements usually was just big enough for two or three people. So if those three people just stayed on the platform having problems unhooking and rehooking, the rest of us had to wait on the swaying bridge we were trying to traverse. Bob's help really speeded up the people in front of us and so made it easier for the rest of us. I thought I had gotten the hang of it all until we came to the last element. It was a bridge with planks, but the planks were attached overhead by two ropes, like the seats of a swing. So you had to bring you leg around one of the ropes place your foot in the middle and then follow with the other leg, then grab the next rope with your right hand and repeat the process. Meanwhile you also had to bring along your harness and safety chain that were hooked to the safety cable with your left hand. When at the end it also sloped up a little, Bob helped with pulling on my harness and safety chain, unfortunately a little too enthusiastically so that I slid off the plank. However, it was only a few feet to the ground and I did not hurt myself. However, getting up to the platform was difficult since I was truly exhausted, but happy that I had made it all the way On our way back, our driver took us through some of the neighborhoods of St. John, which is the capital of Antigua. Although there were some very small houses, a lot of them looked quite prosperous and were well kept. |
Bob: By the time we returned to town it was around 12:30 p.m., and since the all-aboard deadline for the sailing of the Atlantica was already at 1:30, that gave us only about an hour to explore the town of St. John, which was not nearly enough. Despite being hot and tired, we started wandering through the town and checking out some of the shops. We met our driver Charley carrying his lunch back to the jitney bus, and he recommended we walk over to the historic cathedral, which had been built in the 1830s as I recall. We had seen the intriguing twin towers of the cathedral from our ship that morning, so we walked up the low hill to the cathedral, only to find that it was undergoing restoration. It was 1:00 p.m. by that time anyway, so we really didn't have a enough spare time to go inside. Instead, we turned around and walked downhill toward the harbor, turning left to wander the waterfront shopping area before ultimately returning to the Atlantica, boarding with just three minutes to spare! |
Monika: We were let off back at the pier at 12:30. Our all aboard time was 1:30, with sailing at 2 p.m.., although there did not seem to be a good reason for this early departure time, since the next 5 days would be at sea. So we hustled to see at least a little of the town. Of course, my first stop was at Diamond International, to get another of the free charms I have been collecting. After that we started to criss-cross the city. We met our driver who pointed out the way to the cathedral. So up we went. Since they were restoring it, we could not go in, but did get some nice pictures of the outside. Back down to the quay area and its tourist shops. We stopped at a liquor store, so that I could have a quick local beer and Bob could transfer another liter of rum to two water bottles for afternoon coke or tea with a little rum. By now we had run out of time and hustled back on board where again no one questioned two water bottles, although I did see some other liquor bottles being confiscated. |
Bob: That was enough excitement for the day! After watching the Atlantica back out of her berth, spin around 180 degrees in the middle of the harbor, and steam slowly out to sea, we were ready to while away the afternoon just reading and working on the computer out on our balcony. We found that as long as our balcony is in the shade, and it has an overhang from the deck above such that it is in shade a great deal of the day, the balmy trade winds make it perfectly comfortable to sit outside and watch the ocean slide by for hours on end. And that's how we spent the rest of the day. |
Monika: We watched the ship take off and then decided to have some lunch, but after that we just wanted to rest our weary bones. We did manage to get up for another companionable dinner. To all of our surprise, a sixth couple joined us and we tried to include them in the general chatter. |
| Index |
| Prolog | Map of Transatlantic Cruise | Map of Drive in Ireland | Epilog |
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