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For
the dedicated into-the-heart-of-nature diehard, Barbuda is
heaven on earth. It is a low island whose highest point is
only 125 feet above the sea. It is large, over half the size
of Antigua with a mere 1600 inhabitants, who live around the
village of Codrington. Barbuda has so many miles of brilliant
turquoise shoal water that as you sail toward it, you can
sometimes see a blue-green reflection in the clouds long
before you see the land itself.
The
area is dotted with coral, teeming with every kind of fish,
and is excellent for snorkeling. You have a good chance of
spotting decorative eagle rays, often swimming in pairs, or
gently moving sting rays. There are endless pale pink beaches
with nary a soul on them. The largest is unbroken for over 11
miles. Ashore wild donkeys, horses and deer roam wild and
there is an unusually large frigatebird rookery (as large as
those in the Galapagos). Frigatebirds are masters of the air.
At two to three pounds, they have the greatest wing area in
proportion to their weight of any bird. This comes at the cost
of being ungainly on their legs and they are unable to take
off should they land on water. They have to scoop their food
from the surface of the sea, and have become past masters at
letting other birds do the fishing, then harassing them till
they drop their catch. Thus their name "frigate" or
"man o’ war" bird. During the mating season the
males display by blowing up huge bright red pouches under
their throats. They start mating during the late summer, lay
one egg per couple, and most of the chicks have taken off by
about the end of May. George Jeffrey, our guide, told us he
once saw a frigatebird fall in the sea and then watched two
others come immediately, one on either side, to lift it back
into the air. Frigatebirds return to their nesting sites and
Polynesians used them as homing pigeons.
The
Barbudan people were originally imported as slaves by the
Codrington family who leased the island from England beginning
in 1685 for one fat sheep. However, unlike most Caribbean
islands, Barbuda was never a sugar plantation. It was used for
growing livestock and root crops for the Codrington estates in
Antigua, and as a hunting ground by the Codrington family.
Consequently, the Barbudans were not closely supervised and
retained a tough independent spirit. They came to terms with
the island environment, existing through cooperative efforts
in fishing, subsistence farming and hunting. When emancipation
came they stayed on the island, living as they had been for
the last century and a half. Land is held communally and there
is so much that no one fights over it. England railroaded a
reluctant Barbuda into independence with Antigua. Since then
there have been several ambitious projects to develop the
island and "bring it into the 20th century," an idea
strongly resisted by many Barbudans who see no benefit to
changing their traditional life-style for one of being dressed
up and employed to wait on tourists, in exchange for the
dubious benefits of roads, cars and TVs. It is difficult to
know how long they can resist outside pressure.
click chart to enlarge
since July 05
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Barbuda