Ahhhh, Anguilla: October 2013, Part Three

Beautiful Meads Bay

We awaken to wet pavement and wet cushions 'round the pool.  There's been a storm in the night but we both slept so well that neither of us heard it. We settled into our routine of early morning coffee outside, followed by breakfast around 9:00 inside.  There are about two hours mid-morning when the pool and deck area are completely in the sun with no shade at all, so we always ate breakfast inside.  I picked out the veggies from my pasta the night before to make a cheese & veggie omelet while DH opted for scrambled eggs.  We both had bacon, toast, coffee, and juice.  After breakfast my sweet'art wasn't feeling so hot, so he reclined for a while and I busied myself with my book and checking in on the Anguilla travel forums using the villa's wifi.

Breakfast at home

Fetch me my fainting couch!

Around 1:00 pm, DH starts to feel better, so we decide to pack up beach bags and a couple of chairs & umbrellas and head for a west end beach.  We really wanted to go to Maundays Bay, but with Cap Juluca still closed, we weren't sure what the beach access would be.  Remembering how much we loved that little cove on the Malliouhana end of Meads Bay, we headed there.  Surprised that nobody was under the tree, since it was a Sunday afternoon--we'd expected more locals kicking back down there--we ducked over the small headland and started to set up shop in the "private" cove on the other side.  I say "private" because by law,  all beaches on Anguilla are public up to the high water line, but we were the only two on it. We lasted only about 5 minutes, I'm afraid.  It was so frickin' hot in that cove, with not a lick of shade other than what we brought, and not even a hint of breeze. And it was hot. And one of our umbrellas didn't work. And I stepped on a thorn, lost my balance standing on one foot trying to get it out, and served only to jam it further into my instep.  And did I mention it was hot?

The public access road to Meads Bay 

Our one working umbrella

You can see Malli's dismantled restaurant here

Steps leading down to the private cove

We just looked at each other after I stopped swearing at the thorn, and it was a good thing, too, because we started laughing.  If I hadn't started laughing, my mood would have become very foul, very quickly. We it took us more time to pack & unpack everything than we spent actually on the beach. We headed back to Sweet Return to enjoy the comforts of the copious breezes and the nice swimming pool.  Note to self: In the future, only visit Meads Bay in the morning.

DH, right before we started laughing at ourselves for poor judgment

At least we got to see some nice animules on our way back to the villa:

I've never seen such a big hermit crab in such a small shell.
DH tried to help it across the road so it wouldn't get run over,
but he couldn't get a grip on it that was safe from pincers.

Neither one of us could get into the pool fast enough.  We floated there for longer than we should have, considering the sun was still pretty high in the sky, but eventually common sense kicked in and we retreated to the shade once more to read and doze. I was really peckish by that time, having skipped lunch, so we snacked on the remainder of our cheese plate that the villa provided us, and we nature provided us with a show in the form of a storm approaching from the east. We looked up and all of a sudden St. Martin wasn't there any more.

Normal, hazy view with St. Martin in distance

Stormy view, all but obliterating St. Martin

We debated whether to go out for dinner or just order a pizza to go from the Corner Bar and Tasty's won. We called ahead to see if they could accommodate us and arrived around 7:00.  We'd only been there for breakfast on a previous vacation, and it had been disappointing, so I doubt we would have returned to Tasty's if other options had been available.  As it turned out, it would have been completely our loss had we skipped it, because we both enjoyed dinner quite a bit.

There were a few tables already seated when we arrived, and several more would fill up before we left, so it was also the busiest restaurant we visited on this trip. Despite the fact that the restaurant is on the main road and not on the water, the dining room was comfortable, with breezes darting in through the windows. Chef Dale Carty sent out an amuse bouche of  tuna in a sweet but spicy sauce--I liked it, though I'm not a big fan of thoroughly cooked tuna.

The amuse bouche

We shared the conch fritters as a starter course, which came with a spicy banana sauce and a small seaweed salad accompaniment. DH selected the goat stew, which proved to be the best goat he's eaten anywhere, and in a break from my usual island protocol, I ordered the coconut curry chicken, which had a sauce that was hot and sweet in equal measure.

Conch fritters to share 

Goat stew, with provision

Coconut curried chicken

The food was good, and we were happy to tell the chef so when he came to the front of the house and did a walk through the dining room to greet each table. We felt that Tasty's provided a good value for dinner on Anguilla, all with the charm of feeling like we were eating hearty, home-style food with a touch of flair.  One appetizer, two entrees, two cocktails, one glass of wine and a clearly marked service charge came to only $5 more than our barefoot beach lunch the day before, which led to an interesting conversation about expectation vs value. The dessert menu didn't interest us, so we drove back to Sweet Return to have a bowl of ice cream and a night cap. It was another mighty fine day on Anguilla, but our trip is already halfway over.

Tune in next time for two ingeniously identical days: Tropical Sunset for lunch, hours on Shoal Bay East, and dinner at Dolce Vita.