Antigua, West Indies, A Worldly Locals Perspective

The Invasion of the Butterflies Why chose a small local Resort, Inn Or Hotel

Christian Lafaurie — 2007-11-19T00:15:00Z

Today it's a slow day at Long Bay In Antigua, it's Sunday so one would expect this but it's also a particularly beautiful day with the sun shining, as it tends to do, puffy soft cottony clouds and the usual quiet breeze, which traveled across the Atlantic and is now puffing down our bay to cool us. There are, at present, a multitude of soft yellow butterflies, flitting about all over the area, which give the whole day a Never Never Land quality that is so special when experienced first hand. Honestly I have traveled far, to many different countries and places but never in all my travels, have I experienced days like the special days that are natural here in the Caribbean and especially here at Long Bay.

The main reason for my extra appreciation of today is that while I was relaxing in an easy chair in my living room, admiring the the wonderful view of the bay, a single butterfly choose to enter the room through the open french doors and it spent 90 seconds with me, imagine 90 seconds, time it with a second hand it is quit a long time. This butterfly was just floating around in front of me, at eye level, about three feet away, magic actually. While I was watching this butterfly I actually spoke to it, assigning it human like awareness, and yes it seemed to react to my speech for as I told it, "it should continue on its mindless way", it suddenly but slowly made it way out the open french doors off to do what butterflies do.

After it left I was just contemplating the experience when upon me came a wave of calm. My thoughts were serine and I suddenly felt as though, in spite of my insignificance, I was a part of the world. Obviously I wanted to share the experience so I am posting my words to the net. For those of you who have never been to a small hotel in the Caribbean but have mostly chosen the safe all-inclusive route, I wanted to offer you my thoughts on what you might expect to experience if you decided to venture outside your normal comfort zone. Choosing a small local vacation Hotel, Inn or Resort rather then the traditional manufactured Caribbean resort can result in a far better experience for you the traveler. Not only will you have an opportunity to see what our Caribbean is like but you can also get away from what you know and then, truly have some special stories to remember and share with friends once you return to the "REAL WORLD"!

If you do decide my words have inspired you to seek and patronize one of the Caribbean's small properties for your next getaway I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised. Most of the small intimate Resorts, Inns and Hotels in the islands are run by owners who are there on site, to ensure your vacation is a success. These small places may not have the infrastructure that the All-inclusive's have but what they lack in fixtures and fittings they make up for, 10 time over, in style a local character.

I strongly suggest if you would like to experience a similar feeling to the one I had, this day, on your next Caribbean holiday or vacation choose a small locally owned Inn, Resort or Hotel.

a' Bientot.
Chris, Host/owner Long Bay, Antigua.

For more info on Antigua's small locally owed properties visit www.antigua-vip.com.

It's All about Nature.

Christian Lafaurie — 2006-05-18T10:43:00Z

This morning while I was enjoying the arrival of a new day here in paradise I was reminded by a small lizard why I enjoy living here.

As many loyal friends know, those early risers anyway, I greet each new day by enjoying a cup of coffee on my back porch which overlooks the gardens here at Long Bay. Over the last few mornings I have noticed a new baby lizard weighing perhaps an ounce who seemed to be totally absorbed by my big toe. The reason I noticed the lizard was that on the first morning I felt a tiny weight on my foot, when I looked down I saw the tiny lizard running away. Upon reflection I thought the lizard was interested in my big toe, I tend to tap it on the floor, while I am sitting. Anyway I wasn't too bothered as he didn't hurt me and I thought he would tire of the toe chasing game eventually.

Well this morning I have figured out why this tiny new lizard is so interested in my feet. You see it wasn't my big toe he was interested in but the whole area around my toes in general. Why is this? well it seems that small gnats, we do have a few, like to buzz around the end of my toes. Mr lizard had seen this on previous days and figured he could get breakfast every day if he watched the end of my toes. Well I tell you it was amazing to watch this guy feed, he would sit there patiently looking at the end of my feet and then BAM! as quick as an eye blink, he would catch a gnat. I must admit it was a wonder to watch and it didn't hurt, that he was culling the gnat population, we all can use less gnats.

These small constant interactions with nature are a joy to behold and rarely enjoyed in the first world. I don't know but in the real world with our schedules, TV news, rush hour traffic and the rest we seem not to notice the world around us. Here however by design we constantly are presented with the nature around us and almost forced to realize that we humans are just one small part of the overall puzzle.

Thank you Mr. Lizard.

Arrogant Antiguan's

Christian Lafaurie — 2006-05-15T23:38:00Z

A few days ago I was at the sign makers store and had a disquieting conversation with a local Taxi Driver who plies his trade at V.C. Bird International Airport. My conversation with this taxi driver highlights the lack of tourism support and general apathy towards tourism in general in Antigua, by our general public.

To understand my conversation fully I need to fill the non-local in on some facts. At our airport every Saturday there is a mass shortage of Taxis to take our valued tourists to their respective Hotels & Resorts. This situation occurs as many of the Taxi drivers who are granted sole access to arriving passengers in Antigua are Seventh Day Adventists, there is of course, nothing wrong with practicing ones religion. Seventh Day adventists do not work for religious reasons, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, this creates a shortage of taxis at the airport from Friday evening until Saturday evening. Because the privileged Airport Taxi association does not want to dilute the total number of taxis at the airport it refuses to add more Taxis for the flight arrivals for Friday night and all Saturday. What the Taxi association prefers, is to require our arriving tourists to jam into taxis three or four couples together, charging I might add, a full taxi fare, for each couple.

My discussion with the local airport taxi person revolved around the fact that I thought it unprofessional for our taxi drivers to expect our arriving tourists, to share a taxi ride, while still paying the fare for a private taxi. My argument was and is, our arriving guests expect a taxi at their service, not a bus ride. To add insult to injury we then ask our arriving guests to pay, full fare, as if they enjoyed a comfortable private taxi ride. I was adamantly trying to explain to him the thoughts, that must go through our arriving passengers minds, as they are shuffled into a bus, after requesting a taxi. I tried to explain this was not customary behavior, throughout the world, his retort was that we were not the rest of the world we were Antigua, where things are done our way not the worlds way. I pointed out that this may be; but if our arriving tourists expect a certain level of service and then they receive another experience altogether, they are then understandably disappointed. Finally to ask the tourist to pay full fare, a rip off in the minds off the traveler, which adds insult, disbelief and anger to the whole situation, is "JUST WRONG"

The more I argued the case about acceptable standards and the expectations of the traveler, even going so far to suggest we call the service a bus service rather then Taxi service, to avoid the misconception, the more he argued that tourists have been coming to our shores for years and no matter what we do they will continue to come. He even mentioned that he had never heard of any complaints. I said that tourists on holiday, are not here to argue with a taxi driver, they are here to enjoy a relaxing trouble experience, they way they complain is by choosing to visit a different island on their next trip to the Caribbean. It is this kind of attitude, which is somewhat pervasive throughout our Island, that has the potential to kill our main source of income, not only for the taxi driver but for all of us.

Just to be fare to ourselves, I think our problem is not malice but ignorance. To give you an example several years ago I was fortunate enough to hear a Mr. Vanderpool from the Bahamas speak in Antigua about the Bahama's tourism experience. During his speech he mentioned that one thing their islands did to improve the overall tourist product was to educate the population, to the importance of Tourism, on their nations economy. One of the stories he tells to highlight, the education problem and process, was that their Island's advertising slogan was sending the wrong message to the general population. You may remember the slogan from years ago "It's Better In the Bahama's" well when the local population was surveyed they found that the locals thought, because they were told to think, if " It's Better In the Bahama's" why should I, a local, make an effort ? it is already "Better In the Bahamas" . One of the first things the Bahama Tourist authority did was change their line to "The Bahamas it just Keeps Getting better" to signify that constant work is needed to provide a superior vacation experience. After the new ad campaign was implemented, along with other efforts of course, the Bahamas saw a marked change in the attitudes of the local population and of course an increase in tourist satisfaction with the holiday experience.

It is this kind of education that we here in Antigua need to implement. No matter what one feels, think or believes, Tourism is Antigua's only engine of growth, without the engine, the car don't run. Wake Up Antigua!

The Start.

Christian Lafaurie — 2006-05-15T00:04:00Z

Hello,
Let me introduce myself, I'm Chris, I've lived in Antigua since 1963, when my parents me tagging along, first moved here. Lately I've been seeing a lot of blogs and I thought it might be interesting to share my personal thoughts on the life we all live here in Antigua.

I must write as of today, I feel this blog will be mostly about the changes that need to be made on Antigua, by the people of Antigua, if they want to join the rest of the world in 21st century. Please don't misunderstand me I like the fact that, as a place to live, Antigua is about 20 years behind the rest of the world, that fact alone is most certainly a good thing. However there are times when I think we as a nation should start to embrace those attitudes and manners that make life, and human interaction, in general easier. There are of course specific examples but I will highlight those in a later entry.

Let me assure you that the comments you will read in future, are my thoughts alone, which may or may not be shared by others. My motives are for information purposes only and for me to have a medium to express my personal feelings which oft times come about due to frustrating situations encountered here on Antigua. Often after these situations occur one thinks WHY still, after 40 years, do we still do, such and such, the sane way WHY??? If you agree or disagree with any of my comments please let me know, my blog email address is cjlanu55@yhoo.com.

I will of course attempt to share the good as well as the frustrating, we all know though that the frustrating is what motivates us to take action, if life is great "Leave it Alone"