The Prickly Pear Cays, sometimes spelled Prickley Pear Cays, are a small pair of uninhabited islands about six miles from Road Bay, Anguilla, in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. They are divided by a narrow channel into Prickly Pear east and Prickly Pear west.
The islands are popular with tourists, due to their abundant marine and bird life. There are two restaurants and a bar ([1]) which are serviced by staff who come in each day from the mainland of Anguilla.
The cays are also very accessible from Saint Martin.
English Leeward Islands – the
island on the Caribbean Sea. It consists of lying in the middle of the archipelago of mountainous islands of volcanic and the lowland surrounding chain of islands reefs. The volcanic islands are:
* Department of Guadeloupe – French property Offshore (1779 km ²)
* Virgin Islands – 46 of them belong to the United Kingdom (353 km ²), and 53 to the U.S. (347 km ²)
* Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis (261 km ²)
* British colony of Montserrat (98 km ²)
Islands reefs are dependent territory of Anguilla (91 km ²) and autonomous country Antigua and Barbuda – (440 km ²)
Anguilla is made of limestone reefs. The relief is devoid of vertical diversity. The commonest flat plains. Supreme wzniesieniem is Crocus Hill (65 m).
On the island of humid equatorial climate modeled by the wind north-east.
The land is flat, a few hills, hardly any trees, the highest point just 230 feet (= 70 m) high. The residents are British citizens but not citizens of the European Union. About 90% of the population is Afro-Caribbean origin, so descendants schwarzafrikanischer former slaves.
The Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC $) is not only used to Anguilla, but in all former British colonies and current overseas territories, except Barbados. The EC $ is also tender on St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. He is a USD coupled to the unchanging fixed rate: 1 USD = 2.70 EC $
The visitors Anguilla distributed as follows:
* 70% USA
* 14% French Antilles and the Netherlands Antilles
* 5% United Kingdom
* 2% Canada
* Germany 0.7%
In April 2002, 13,140 visitors and 4,494 by ferry by plane, so everything manageable and no mass tourism.
Anguilla was first settled by Amerindian tribes who migrated from South America. The earliest Amerindian artefacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, and remains of settlements date from 600 AD.[1] The date of European discovery is uncertain: some sources claim that Columbus sighted the island in 1493, while others state that the island was first discovered by the French in 1564 or 1565.[2] The name Anguilla derives from the word for “eel” in any of various Romance languages (modern Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla), probably chosen because of the island’s eel-like shape.
Anguilla was first colonised by English settlers from Saint Kitts, beginning in 1650. Other early arrivals included Europeans from Antigua and Barbados. It is likely that some of these early Europeans brought enslaved Africans with them. Historians confirm that African slaves lived in the region in the early seventeenth century. For example, Africans from Senegal lived in St. Christopher (today St. Kitts) in 1626. By 1672 a slave depot existed on the island of Nevis, serving the Leeward Islands. While the time of African arrival in Anguilla is difficult to place precisely, archive evidence indicates a substantial African presence (at least 100) on the island by 1683.
The island was administered by England, and later the United Kingdom, until the early nineteenth century when – against the wishes of the inhabitants – it was incorporated into a single British dependency along with Saint Kitts and Nevis. After two rebellions in 1967 and 1969 and brief period as a self-declared independent republic headed by Ronald Webster, British rule was fully restored in 1969. Anguilla became a separate British dependency (now termed a British overseas territory) in 1980.
High season runs from mid-December to mid-April. Ulra-high season runs the week or two around Christmas and New Year, when prices can more than double. The average annual temperature is 80°F (27°C), but the hottest weather occurs during the hurricane season between June and November. Rain is heaviest between August and November, so those wanting to avoid both bad weather and high prices might want to schedule their holidays for mid-November to mid-December or in late April or May. Some places shut entirely in September.
