November 26, 2024

BARBUDA - Paradise Found!!!

So I had never heard of this island, but Cousin Cathy had done her research and was on it! The adventure starts with a 90 minute ferry ride at 9 am, from Antigua, which we just got into and cleared customs at 8 am. The ferry is $100 / round trip - so I was expecting something nice. The Express Ferry was filling up quickly when we climbed on board. There was upper deck seating, but was toasty in the sun, so we quickly found open seats, inside in the air conditioning of the front cabin. The seats were comfy, while not luxurious. The ride over was very rocky at times, some passengers got pretty green, but we felt ok. Time went by pretty quickly in anticipation.  

We arrived at a parking lot that had lots of trucks & vans in to pick up passengers and cargo, but nowhere was a taxi to be found. It's Sunday morning, 10:30 am, they are all in Church! It rained heavily, the night before, and the compacted sand roads don't drain - the island is level. Roads seem impassible for regular cars. We spot a big guy, in a Nobu shirt, picking up supplies from Ferry and we ask him to take us with him to restaurant, since we have a reservation at 12. He calls restaurant and they say they will send a free shuttle to get the 5 of us, in 15 minutes. Needless to say, our surroundings are giving us pause. Then our Shuttle pulls up!

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You can't judge Paradise by the pathway there!!

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WOW !!!! The food was spectacular and the beach a slice of Heaven! At least how I picture Heaven.

Turns out Robert DeNiro owns part of this Paradise, and he has a home right inside the NOBU property, and he just happened to fly in yesterday to greet us! While we may have only seen the red roof of his house and a picture of his private plane from our shuttle driver, we did see the 2 helicopters, that flew into his property, as we were dining and promptly decided when we come back again, that is how we will arrive!

Footnote - Barbuda is home to a Frigate Bird Colony that my fellow resident and friend, Basia went to and took these pictures, while we dined. Barbuda is also known for its pink sand beach, which you can faintly see on this shoreline photo. The ferry ride back was severely rocking and rolling, people were getting sick to the left and right of us and running for the outside to vomit overboard. Thankfully, we were chill, loving life and holding onto our yummy lunches!

THE ART OF COCONUT CREAM - AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 18, 2025
Making coconut cream is such a big part of the Samoan culture I feel compelled to share the 4 step process we were so nicely shown. Every Samoan young and old takes part in this tradition, it is an intrigue part of their everyday lives.

PAGO PAGO, TUTUILA ISLAND, AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
The tour today was focused on the National Park but we also got a lot of insight into American Samoa's history and current day life. Our guide was Nini and she is a college student studying accounting and finance and works as a part-time guide.

NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICA SAMOA, TUTUILA ISLAND

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
Today we took the National Park of American Samoa Tour. It's a unique park - the only one south of the equator and where the U.S. Government doesn't own the land. Efforts to establish the Park go back to mid 1980 over concern about the decline of fruit bats and wanting to protect the tropical rainforests. On October 31, 1988 Congress established the NP of American Samoa. In 1993, a complex arrangement for a 50 year land lease years with seven villages and the Samoa government was signed. We got lucky with our tour - we were expecting an open air bus, but because we were a small group, we got a plush air conditioned van!