Meet The Boatman
“Miguel, you’re a damn lunatic.” That’s what Miguel Tonge’s wife said when he first showed her this beach “gold mine” he’d found on untouched Prickly Pear Island, just off Antigua’s north coast. “She told me, ‘That’s a piece of rock, not gold,’” he says. But 30-plus years and thousands of guests later, Miguel is having the last laugh. Antiguan hoteliers will attest that guests often ask about Miguel’s Holiday Adventure before they even get their room keys. Once you’ve taken his five-minute boat trip out to tiny Prickly Pear and spent a day on the perfect white-sand beach where the rum flows freely, the food is home-cooked and the snorkeling is divine, you’re hooked. “Many of my regulars have been coming for 20 years,” he tells me. “My beach, it goes and comes; sometimes it’s a big half-moon, and two days later it’s on the other side. But I always got a nice little sandy beach with beach chairs and umbrellas for you.” He swigs his Carib beer, looks out at the gold mine and smiles. “I think they forget to count my beach. This one is 366.”
His Favorite Antigua Beach-Prickly Pear Island (see next slide)
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