Sunday, March 12 – transit from Dominica to Antigua

I spent the morning working on a journal entry. I was supposed to depart this afternoon at around 5pm on a direct flight to Antigua, arriving about 40 minutes later. However, I received an email on Friday night from the airline with a schedule change. I’m now departing at around 8pm, with a stop in St. Kitts, arriving in Antigua around 9:45pm. Oh well…

I had already arranged for the late checkout and airport taxi ride based on the 5pm departure. I probably could have changed both to the later time, but for reasons I’ll get into, I decided to just go early and chill out at the airport.

I have mixed felling about this Airbnb in Dominica. I like the host, Corinne. She’s very nice and has been very helpful. (She moved to Dominica 20 years ago from France) I also like the location up in the hills, and the bar a few steps away! However, the apartment doesn’t have air conditioning. I’m not even sure why I booked it, because usually for this trip I’ve been filtering the Airbnb search to include only those places that have A/C. I was probably just rushing through to get the reservation. The issue isn’t the temperature though; there’s a nice breeze up in the hills and it cools off at night. The problem is the lack of screens on the windows. I’ve been getting eaten up by mosquitos – I think mainly while I’m sleeping. There was a mosquito net provided to go around the bed, but obviously it didn’t work very well. On the other hand, maybe I wasn’t using it correctly – it’s been well established that I’m basically an idiot!

Another thing that kind of annoyed me was the constant noise in the area. Dogs barking, roosters cock-a-doodle-doing, and music playing (not from the bar). Fortunately, I slept fine, because I have earplugs (Travel Tip!). And it’s weird because just up the road at the Morne Bruce lookout there’s none of that noise. Very peaceful. That’s why I hung out there so long yesterday while eating my (late) lunch. Anyway, it was only 3 nights, so that’s good. But for these reasons, I decided to just go to the airport early.

And did I mention that the airport is located in the north of the island, where I stayed during my previous Dominica visit? So, you got it; I now have another 80 USD taxi ride to the north! And to make it even worse, I possibly could have taken a minibus to the airport from Roseau at a significantly lower cost. However, the buses don’t operate on Sundays! (If I had simply switched my locations during the Dominica stays – Roseau first, Marigot second – I would have saved at least 100 USD in taxi fares. Ugh!). Okay, I think I’ve beaten this subject to death. Time to move on.

I booked the driver (Ramirez) who picked me up on Thursday at the ferry terminal to take me to the airport. Since we had some time, he ended up taking me on a scenic, non-direct route to the airport, which was nice of him. So I ended up getting to the airport about 4 1/2 hours before my flight, but that was fine.

Side Note: The Airbnb host (Phillip) from my last stay here on Dominica works at the airport as an air traffic controller. I happened to see him while I was waiting at the airport. Funny! He was surprised to see me (I hadn’t told him I was coming back, not sure why).

After a while, a man and his young son joined me in the departure area. The little boy (probably 3 years old) was a wild child, running around and yelling. I thought it was pretty funny. His dad was kind of busy on his phone, so eventually the boy (Deshaun) came over to where I was sitting and we ended up playing together. That was fun, and a nice diversion as we waited to depart.

The LIAT Airlines flight (189 USD) ended up departing on time. It’s interesting that the flight originated in Barbados, stopped in Dominica, stopped in St. Kitts, and then finished its route in Antigua. While in route, the passengers who were continuing on to a later destination just stayed on the plane. The type of plane used was the same as my other Caribbean flights – board from the rear, 2×2 seating in about 20 rows. The flight departing Dominica to St. Kitts was completely full.

The women sitting next to me from Dominica deplaned in St. Kitts, so that seat was empty while we refueled and waited for the St. Kitts passengers to board. During that time Deshaun was running up and down the aisle (more hilarity) and eventually found his way to me and planted himself in the empty seat. Pretty funny! (His dad thought so too!). Eventually the flight attendant made him return to the seat next to his dad.

The flight to St. Kitts took about 50 minutes and the flight to Antigua 20 minutes, with an on-time arrival there.

Another Side Note: Talking to some of the passengers on the two flights, it sounds like LIAT Airlines is kind of a horror story. Cancelled flights are not uncommon. One person told me they recently had a 6am flight on the airline; they arrived at the airport at 4:30am only to be told the flight was cancelled. With no rescheduling information. Ouch! I guess I was lucky having to deal with just a reschedule. (Although, I did wonder, if this airline is so terrible, why do these passengers with the bad experiences keep flying with them? Must be the only option…)

My Airbnb is in St. John’s, about a 20 minute drive from the airport. Fortunately, my Airbnb host arranged for a driver to pick me up, which was appreciated with the late arrival. The ride cost 25 USD.

Travel Note: I’ve found that one of the tricky aspects of staying at an Airbnb is actually being able to find the place where you’re staying, especially on these small(ish) Caribbean islands where addresses can be rather informal. It’s not like a hotel or resort, which is well know to the taxi drivers; it’s basically just a house or apartment. So, it’s important to get good directions to the accommodation. Or better yet, have the host arrange for a driver who already knows how to find the place (like what happened tonight).

Another Travel Note: I was NOT asked by the ticket agent about any onward or return reservations from Antigua. That’s the first time an airline hasn’t checked on that.

Monday, March 13 – Antigua

I slept in a little this morning after my late arrival last night. I eventually got motivated though to make a grocery run. There is a Epicurean Fine Foods market very close to my apartment, about a 10 minute walk. This is definitely the nicest grocery store I’ve been to so far on this trip. By far. But still a notch below the typical U.S. grocery store.

By afternoon I was ready to scope out the area. The St. John’s waterfront is about a 25 minute walk from the apartment.