I have a map of the Caribbean in my office, and sometimes I stare at it, count the islands, and dream of where I'd like to go next. There are tons of small islands on that map that I rarely hear of. Today, my eyes followed the Straits of Florida to Cuba, southeast to Haiti/the DR, past Puerto Rico, and farther east to Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua? Barbuda? How come we never mention them on Divester? Some searching -- or rather: hunting, because there isn't much dive information available about the small islands -- turned up some interesting things.

Antigua, a former British colony, is generally lumped together with Barbuda, another small island way out there. Together, the two islands form the center of a fringing reef circling them like the rings of Saturn. The area boasts 80-degree-on-average water temps, exceptional viz, virtually no current, many wrecks, and some drop-offs -- although none are as dramatic as, say, Cayman's walls. One of the island's wrecks is the Andes, a ship that floundered in 1905 in 30 feet of water; ironically, it's located in Deep Bay. Antigua is generally considered to offer superior diving to Barbuda, and the southern coast of the island is considered the best. There are a number of dive shops operating in the region, but Jolly Dive and Dive Antigua are among the best established. Diver Mag profiled Dive Antigua's "Big John," a Canadian ex-pat who settled in Antigua decades ago, and the read is much as you'd expect from someone named "Big John."

If you want to get a better feeling about Antigua, skip the search engines and head straight to Flickr. Featuring over 10,000 photos tagged "Antigua" there are a ton of interesting ones there. Be sure to check out the images from Antiguan, the earthling, and don't miss eylon's beach shots and Paradise Regained's sunset shots.

Finally, I expect that we'll be hearing more from little Antigua and Barbuda in the future as major US airlines add new routes to the islands and they begin to invest in online gambling infrastructure.