On the Road to Maundays Bay, Where the Flying-Fishes Play...

Long Bay, facing west(ish)

This year was our seventh trip to Anguilla since 2009--we had to add it up on our fingers a couple of times to arrive at the correct number--but we had never really spent any time to speak of on Long Bay. I knew after seeing fellow Anguillaphile Lee's photos that I'd want to see its beauty for myself. To get there, we followed the signs to Oliver's restaurant, then parked in the lot there and walked down the restaurant's stairs.  It made me sad that Oliver's is closed because it's got such gorgeous views and I imagine it would be a lovely setting for lunch or dinner.

Oliver's, seen from the beach

Oliver's interior

I planned for us to get an early start and spend a full morning there, but I made one grave calculation: there is no shade to be found on Long Bay beach for love or money. We realized that right away, so rather than walk the beach laden with our beach chairs, we left the chairs next to Oliver's restaurant and simply walked along the water's edge towards the western end.

Sandy Island, seen (with major zoom) from Long Bay

All of the photographs here were made within the span of about an hour or so, with three different cameras (a Leica digital SLR, my camera phone, and an old point & shoot digital), facing into and out of the sun.  Only a couple of them have been touched up at all, and that was using the "enhance" button in iPhoto. Long Bay is gorgeous, but beyond that, it was both full of character and completely empty.

Looking right (east) from Oliver's

Looking left (west) from Oliver's

We were the only folks actually on the beach and the only other people we saw at all were some gardeners trimming the foliage on one of the mammoth luxury estates.

I'd swear that it doesn't look like the same beach from one photo to another in most of these pictures.  On our walk back to Oliver's from the far western point, a storm came up and we made it back to the car just in the nick of time before the bottom fell out of the sky.

DH, with Viceroy way in the background

Dark clouds rolling in

More dark clouds

And yet more

We decided that we totally deserved breakfast at Geraud's for our efforts.  Actually, it didn't take much justification to stop at Geraud's for any meal.  I think we went there about ten times over the course of our two-week trip.  On the drive there, we took the scenic tsunami evacuation route and passed by my favorite little church on the island. Can anybody tell me whether it's still used as a place of worship?

And by happy accident, I discovered my true, absolute, most favorite pastry.  We got there a little late, so all of my usuals were sold out: no almond or chocolate almond croissants, no coconut, pineapple, or cheese Danishes.  All they had were a couple of cinnamon rolls and some lemon Danishes. Bummed,  I chose the lemon but as soon as I bit into it I was in heaven.  Perfectly piquant, rich lemon curd surrounded by flaky pastry.

On the Road to Maundays Bay, with salt pond in foreground and St. Martin in background

Over breakfast, I convinced my husband that we should spend the day at Maundays Bay and thus cross a second Anguilla beach off of our bucket list.  Like with Long Bay, we had stepped foot on Maundays, but only just.  We'd never become really acquainted with it, if you will.

Cap Juluca, the only resort that sits on Maundays, is really gorgeous and a place that has long captured my imagination, architecturally speaking.  If DH and I were resort people at all, and if we lived in, ahem, a higher tax bracket, I would totally want to stay here. As it was, it can feel a little intimidating driving up to the resort, what with their beautifully manicured grounds, their custom-made speed limit signs, and their guard shack whose express purpose looks like it is for keeping out the riffraff like us.

Not 15 mph. Not 20 mph. But 17. I appreciate your precision, Cap Juluca!

They couldn't be friendlier, I'm happy to say. We drove up, explained that we wanted to use their beach for the day and possibly stay to have a late lunch, and they provided us with a guest pass to put on our dashboard. We drove to the guest car park and walked towards the sea grapes on Maundays Bay.  Cap Juluca provides public access to two beaches, Cove and Maundays, but that end of Cove Bay is pretty wild and offers no shade. I commend Cap Juluca for making it so easy and well-marked for non-guests to access both beaches. Anguilla law says that all beaches are public up to the high water line, but I don't think the law says that resorts have to make it easy for the riffraff public to get there.

Beautiful, calm Maundays Bay 

CJ resort--villa on the far end of the beach from where we were sitting

More of the villas at CJ

Thus, we settled our beach chairs under the sea grapes, surprised by how comfortably breezy it was, and enjoyed our books for a couple of hours. We were the only ones on that part of the beach, but staff members would occasionally walk by on the paths behind us and greet us.

Wide view of most of the beach from our chairs

Around 1:45 I looked up and saw a dark cloud rolling in, so we packed up our bags and rushed to the car.  For the second time that day, we beat the heavy rain with mere seconds to spare.  We drove from the car park to Blue, the beach restaurant, which we were told by the guard was the only restaurant open for lunch, but I'm fairly sure I saw people eating at Spice, too.

View from our table at Blue

Anyway, the service was very friendly, and one of the ladies remembered us from our visits to The Place, where she works on occasional days. It was raining hard as we first sat down but it cleared up within 20 minutes.  We enjoyed the setting at Blue, but it was extremely expensive--our lunch came to $85, and that was a sans-alcohol meal.  The same items (fish sandwich, hamburgers) were 1.5 to 2 times the cost of other places, like Ocean Echo. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure I'd rush back there to dine when there are so many other options on the island.

Interior of Blue

Another interior shot

I ordered the fish sandwich, which had homemade tartar sauce and a mango/papapa concoction, which I really enjoyed. DH opted for the steak sandwich. One bottled water to share, plus an iced tea and a Diet Coke, and one serving of ice cream (three scoops per serving) -- not what I'd call an extravagant meal.  The steak sandwich was fine but nothing special, and they got our ice cream order wrong.  I'd asked for vanilla, coffee, and pistachio but we received chocolate instead of coffee. The ice cream was a little bland, even the chocolate flavored scoop.

Steak sandwich with side salad

Fish sandwich with fries

Unfortunately mediocre ice cream

By that time, it was time for us to head back home to shower off and change clothes, then drive back to AARF for a second visit to play with pups and kitties.  This time I planned ahead by taking a couple of antihistamines and borrowing DH's long sleeved shirt to button up to my chin when playing with the kitties in particular so that I wouldn't get hives again.

Both of us were pleased to hear that some of the dogs from our visit the week before had already been adopted to homes in the States, but my heart broke to learn that Perry, that super-sweet, affectionate little kitty, had not. She was just as sweet as before, tucking her head under my chin and nuzzling, with her loud and contented motor going the whole time. Definitely the most cuddly kitty I've encountered in any animal shelter. If anybody is reading this who would be willing to adopt her, please let me know.  AARF can make arrangements for dog and cat transportation off-island to the US and Canada very easily!!!

Sweet, affectionate Perry 

Tintin helps give the kittens some exercise by playing with the feather stick. They LOVE climbing up the  mesh!

Two kitties here climbing up the mesh

We were pretty tired from our day-long adventures, so when we left AARF, we decided to just pick up some takeout food from Blanchards Beach Shack again and eat it on our balcony at Caribella. We decided on the nachos with two sauces to supplement with salad fixings already at home, and we sipped margaritas while waiting for them to get ready. It's a lovely setting, but I think that must be the hottest section of Meads Bay--less breezy than either end of the beach.

DH at Blanchards Beach Shack

Note my AARF tee underneath my borrowed linen shirt

Around sunset, Viceroy provided us with a couple of spectacles.  They actually have a flat screen TV that is big enough for us to see from our unit at Caribella. Some kind of car race was on.  In a spectacle of greater ramification was the barge at Viceroy that foundered (is that the right word?) offshore and had to be tugged in with greater effort than usual.

Check out the flatscreen tv there.  Have you ever seen a bigger one?

Self-explantory