It's a small, small world!

Photo credit: B. Moser

Sunday, 10/10/10

Our second, yet last, full day in Anguilla.  How is that possible?  At the same time that my blood slows down to beat time with the island’s pulse, Time itself seems to speed up, mocking us all. 

In keeping with tradition at home, my husband whips up a big Sunday morning breakfast that is intended to carry us through the day until dinner-we’ve got eggs, bacon, fruit, toast, and kielbasa.  Our energy that carried us through two long, stressful days of travel and that kept us going once we hit Anguilla, is finally lagging, so we give in to it.  We declare Sunday a stay-at-home day, so instead of packing a beach bag, we simply roll out the door with towels in hand to lay claim to some prime beachfront real estate.

This was shot on a crowded Sunday.  Believe me, there
are hordes of people just out of view.

Santa Claus on vacation

My new best friend

 Waves, sand, surf, bird cries, and…kitty cats?  There’s a black and white tomcat who lives at SBE who decided I was his new best friend.  How did he know I was such a soft touch and would soon amble back to the room to fetch the leftover bacon for him?  I admit it—I’m a total sucker for cats.  I’m an animal lover in general and dogs (including my own big, sweet lug of a girl, Roxie) make my heart melt, but cats are the creatures who have bewitched my soul.  Perhaps I was a Bast-worshipping Egyptian in a former life. 

DH and me, after our cutthroat Bananagrams game

Our lovely DG at Madeariman's

Around 1:00, though still full from breakfast, we start craving some frozen refreshment so we amble over to Madeariman once more.  Lucy (short for Luciana) greets us with a friendly hug since we were just there two days ago for lunch.  Two rounds of Ting take us through one game of Bananagrams, but then it’s time to roll out the big guns: Pina colada (DG), passion fruit colada (moi) and banana colada (DH).  It’s about that time that I hear DG’s stomach from across the table.  Despite her protests that she wasn’t that hungry, she managed to put away a large fish burger, a mound of cole slaw, and French fries (okay, she had some help with the fries).  And a Diet Coke to wash it all down, of course!  But she wasn’t hungry.   Not at all. 

You're lookin' at the world record shortest cherry stem
tied into a knot, courtesy of DH's mouth.

We decide to walk off some of our indulgences at Madeariman, so we nab some more sunscreen and cover-ups to walk up the beach to Gwen’s to check out the state of the erosion.  We also bring along a small kite, hoping we can launch it into the air for some photo-ops.  Unfortunately, we didn’t realize when we grabbed the kite that the kite string had detached, so we didn’t have anything to fly it with.  Undeterred, DG tried to improvise.  We paused in the shade by Serenity to sit for a spell, where the rhythm of the waves mesmerized us.  Then headed back to Ku to catch the last rays of sun for the afternoon. 

Triple self-portrait at Upper Shoal Bay

Palm grove in front of Gwen's.  Another one bites the dust, sadly.

Just tryin' to get our freak flag flyin'

Jacala interior. 

For once, a decent photo of me.  Jacala.

Dinner that night was at Jacala.  DH and I had eaten there for lunch in June and were so impressed that we wanted to return for dinner.  Unfortunately for me, the grilled watermelon & goat cheese salad wasn’t available, and I have to say, the owner/host was a little off-putting and more than a little condescending when taking our order.  When the food arrived, it mostly made up for it though: Cucumber soup with a tomato sorbet – excellent. Grilled veggie & feta terrine with greens – excellent.  Fettuccine with basil & tomatoes – excellent. Ceviche of conch – very good.  Conch chowder – very good.  Mint panna cotta with papaya marmalade – excellent.  And last, but not least, mango sorbet – very good. 

After we were seated, I jokingly turned to my husband and said, “What do you want to bet that we’ll see somebody here tonight whom we know well enough to speak to?”  After defining the terms as “someone whom we know by name and who in turn recognizes us at least by sight”, he was eager to bet against me.  Silly man.  Doesn’t he know better by now?  It wasn’t Junior or his wife, neither Carrie nor her husband, but halfway through our meal, young Alexis (the young woman in the San Juan airport who fought to get us all to St. Maarten) walked in with her beau.  We stopped to chat with them after our meal, but before their food arrived (did I mention that service was VERY slow?), where they told us that they finally arrived in Anguilla the night before.  Having overslept and missed the American Eagle flight to St Maarten, they caught a LIAT flight to Anguilla via Antigua.  They loved what little they had seen of the island and were raving about Viceroy in particular (you didn’t really think they were staying anywhere else, did you?). 

DH still owes me $10.  Guess that's appropriate for 10/10/10.

Escaping the heat on our porch with my new best friend

Sunset at Ku