I am an Islomaniac. Luckily our world offers many options to run free: beachcomber islands, garden islands, wildlife islands, pleasure and leisure islands and treasure islands, islands of history and islands of mystery, island cities and city islands. I love them all, but to really qualify for my champions league of islands, there should at least be small ferries hopping from one island to another, coconut sellers on the beach by day and yummy street food (e.g. roast pork, goat stew and Callaloo) by night, cooks looking like pirates and tiny bars looking like cosy living rooms – of course full with local drinkers and great music. In 2012 I marooned for a few days on Antigua. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon I first walked from my white wooden shack of a hotel to Nelson’s Dockyard. Where Lord Nelson, the later hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, once had begun his career I climbed up to Shirley Heights. A local steel band was playing, several grills were blowing their delicious wooden smoke into the Caribbean air, hundreds of locals and some yachting tourists were drinking and dancing. The sun set and below me was English Harbor, naming not only the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean but also one of the best brands of my beloved Caribbean rum.

The next day, on the outskirts of the island’s tiny capital St. John, my curiosity took me to a ramshackle bar, Within minutes I was part of the local drinking frenzy. Albeit the rum was not of English Harbor quality, it was great fun. At around noon, I stumbled out of the bar, a bit drunken and a bit clueless what to do with the rest of the beautiful day. I decided to head north, walked for almost two hours, first through tropical farmland and then through Antigua’s last patches of rainforest. Finally I stepped on the whitest powder I ever set foot on. I had reached a long crescent—shaped beach, backed by beautiful palm trees. The name of the beach, Rendezvous Bay, was kind of misleading as there was, except me, not a single soul in sight. In the heat of the midday sun I rinsed myself from drunkenness and sweat and took a cooling swim…