They’re everywhere in the Caribbean, these free ranging fowl and livestock. Ramble down any road and you’re sure to see some cocky roosters, rounded hens, peeping chicks and an assortment of goats big and small. They roam without permission from neighbor to neighbor, always on the hunt for food.



The chickens are messy but harmless, eating bugs and scraps from the ground and garbage. The goats, though, can do some serious damage, consuming anything green that’s not penned up.

In St. John I watched a gathering of goats clean a ball field of grass before moving on to a flower clad house for dessert. “Who do they belong to?” I asked a friend.

“Well,” she replied, “If you hit one with a car, the owner will step forward and collect the animal’s value. But if one eats your precious tree or wipes out your garden, that goat is a free agent.”

Our seventy-some year old friend in Anguilla, Ralph Carty, reminisces about the old days when people ate island grown food. These days it arrives half ripe by boat or plane. I thought the change came because people gave up gardening. “No," he said. “De goats. It wuz de goats. De people duz let dem loose and dey eat it all. Dey wreck up de place. But back den, we have so much. Dem wuz happy times.”

One quiet Sunday we were chatting to a local fellow and commented, “There aren’t many cars today, are there?”

He jokingly answered, “No. On Sunday we duz lock up de cars and we lets de goats free.”



These pesky goats can be a curse yet somehow they’re revered. Anguilla’s Philatelic Bureau features the four-legged creatures on a beautiful set of stamps with t-shirts and postcards to match. The island of Antigua was recently represented at the world’s largest sculpture garden in Changchun, China by a two-meter high goat named Calypso.

And of course, they’re featured on every menu…curry goat, goat water, goat roti, and stew goat. The chickens are just as popular: baked, fried, curried, barbequed, stewed, roasted, jerked and in roti.


Now if goat or chicken doesn’t entice your taste buds, there’s always bull foot or oxtail. Thankfully, they don’t roam free.

Our big boat takes us island to island, two small ones ferry us to shore. But the moment our feet touch land getting from A to B and Y to Z becomes a Chutes and Ladders game with rules but no reason.

Mostly, for a variety of reasons, we walk. It's often faster, simpler, offers exercise, the most scenic opportunities and sometimes, it's the only option.

Each island has a system, if they have one. Antigua, St. Marten, Nevis, Grenada and a handful of other islands offer the best transportation with plentiful vehicles that cover the entire island for a small fee. If you miss a bus, another is right behind it. These buses are short vans with rows of seats along the sides and fold up ones in the middle. It can be a tight fit when they fill up with four or five people across carrying boxes, bags and the occasional livestock. Chickens certainly make for an interesting ride.


These buses have names like Miss Cherry Bomb, Daddy's Girl, Island Spice or Mr. Lover Man. Paint jobs are often spectacular and can include flames, iridescence and detailed airbrushed art.

Anguilla has a $5 bus for a five mile ride but I've yet to find it. St. John's system is US Government run and therefore, rarely operating. On the rare days it is, one can tour the entire island in air conditioned comfort on a full sized bus for $1. The same is true in St. Thomas but there, locals use the open air surreys or Gypsy's that for $1 stop and start to your needs.


In the Virgin Islands, ferry boats transport people, cars, or both inter-island. They can carry quite a load but rarely do while racing highspeed, using more fuel than sense. My favorite is a roll on/roll off car carrier that runs between St. John and Red Hook in St. Thomas. It operates on an island-regular schedule and actually has amenities.


There's a drink/snack bar, a couple of Mr. Roberts-style potted palms on deck and the vessel is nicely painted in red, white and blue. Best of all is their crew that claims "We is de bes lookin crew in de islands!" I don't know about that but they certainly are the friendliest.

And what other public transportation offers shots of rum?