Visiting St. John’s, Antigua/ Carlos Pueblo

Visiting St. John’s, Antigua/ Carlos Pueblo

This old sugar cane land reminds me very much of my childhood hometown of

Puli and Huwei in Formosa. My father used to work at the sugar factories at

both places in the central and central southwest of Taiwan. He used to tell me

that the cane sugar production at that time, Taiwan was behind Cuba and Hawaii

and never mentioned the Caribbean Islands. Japanese developed the sugar

plantation after they occupied Formosa in 1895 with much advanced technology

; however, the European in the Caribbean Islands were much earlier and classical

with some European style left behind for today’s visitors to view. I walked straight

toward the cathedral on the hill through a very busy main street with  streets on

both sides. Like a Lunar New Year scenery in Taiwan, streets were full of frugal

tourists like me not taking excursion program offered by the ships and locals for

the beautiful beaches and coral reef viewing, etc. There were some uniformed

polices with whips to maintain publicity, the British system.

I did walk around some, actually only three or four side streets, to see something

before reaching to the top of the cathedral, an Anglican. It was closed under the

innovation; however, it was open for the tourists’ visit at the front and the main

hall with two nice manners members to receive us. On the church yard outside,

I could view the lovely bay with my binocular and took several pictures. Again, on

my way back to the ship, I walked around the side street again and saw some

bungalow houses similar to some in Houston Height and Montrose area with less

smaller front yard yet still unique and pretty. On the other side of the business

section, a young mother brought a young boy passing by me and the boy said

something in Mandarin to me and I was surprised and learned that he got it

from the computer games.

I missed the Nelson Dockyard, of course, it might not be at the walking distance

from St. John’s downtown. The Island honors his service to the British Empire.

He was here between 1784 and 1787 for the sanction to U.S. and one time in the

early 1800 to pursue French fleet in Caribbean without any catch. He married his

wife from a nearby Nevis Island where I reached later at St. Kitts. At the same

time, Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife Josephine was also a widow from Martinique

Island of the same Lessor Antilles of the Caribbean. I di some reading when I wrote

this journal how Nelson and his British Navy fought the Napoleon’s at that time in

Europe which helps me to have the interest to learn the modern European history

that how French, Spanish, and English fought in the sea and ocean.