In a more recent winter season the same untouched beaches, with pink-tinged sand, lured Princess Diana, who spent four vacations at Barbuda's K Club. Another much-photographed beauty, supermodel Claudia Schiffer, enjoyed the luxurious simplicity of the Club along with her agent and crew doing a shoot for a Claudia calendar. For those who want more activity than just sunning by the sea, the nearly 90 sunken shipwrecks in the crystal-clear waters offer an opportunity for exploration either by snorkeling or scuba diving. Or mount up and ride horseback along the splendid shoreline. A visit to Caves at Two Foot Bay will afford a look at faded Arawak drawings on the cave walls.
Visitors climb down into a circular chamber through a hole in the cave roof.
Back at the beachside, the Martello Tower, symbolic of the history of the entire region, is one of the last fortresses of its kind in the Caribbean. An ecological adventure takes the visitor to Barbuda's Frigate Bird Sanctuary, one of the world's largest. Accessible only by small boat, the sanctuary is on the north end of Codrington Lagoon, where the frigate birds brood their eggs in mangrove bushes, which stretch for miles. Other species, attracted by Barbuda's dry climate, include pelicans, warblers, snipes, ibis, herons, kingfishers, tropical mockingbirds, oyster catchers and cormorants. With no paved roads, guests may roam as freely as the animals.