Anguilla, or There And Back Again

Recently my husband and I took one of our grandchildren to Anguilla for a short, four-night trip.  We take the kids in the family on a special trip once they become teenagers.  It gives us a chance to know them outside the hustle & bustle of the larger family and share with them places that are special to us. Ava was the perfect candidate to take to Anguilla because she's a young person who can entertain herself and because, well, there's no delicate way to put this: the kid can eat.

Up at 4:00am to catch the airport shuttle, we were pretty bleary-eyed and subdued for our two flights to get to St Maarten. For the first time ever, we flew USAir via Charlotte, and because our incoming flight was delayed a bit, we really had to hustle to get to our connecting flight, which was boarding when we arrived at the gate. We had paid a bit extra to sit in the front rows of economy because we knew the connection might be tight, but unlike the commensurate seats on American, I was disappointed to note that these did not have extra legroom.

The rep from Anguilla Air Services met us before we went through immigration in St Maarten to provide us the transfer boarding passes.  NB: they do not use immigration cards any longer in St Maarten, but they do require you to show your boarding pass upon entering.  We only had one to show and we got fussed at a little.  Oops.

Ava loved the small plane

We did have the wonderful experience of landing on St Maarten, going through security, and immediately boarding our connecting flight. Pleasant change from last time, when we were delayed more than an hour while waiting for other passengers.  Before we knew it, we were up in the air and landing again at our favorite spot in the world: Anguilla.

Our plane's shadow over the beautiful water 

Anguilla in the distance

Ronnie Bryan left our rental car in the airport lot, and before long, we were zipping down the road, with Ava exclaiming at regular intervals along the way.  It was hot and we knew dinner wouldn't be for a few more hours, so we stopped to visit Pamela at Sea Spray for a quick smoothie before heading to Caribella.  Ava declared hers to be the best smoothie she'd ever had.  Promising to visit once more when we had more time to chat, we hurried off to the west end.

When we arrived at Caribella, the entire staff was hard at work trying to clean things up from the hurricane and other recent storms.  While our unit was certainly comfortable enough, it wasn't looking its best in some places, particularly out on the balcony where much of the newly-applied paint had been stripped off by an unexpectedly vigorous storm.

Ava and I immediately changed into bathing suits and walked down to our usual swimming cove at the west end of Barnes Bay, but it was a far cry from the serene spot I'd left behind in July. The entire face of that part of the beach had radically changed and now the water was churning around.  Once we were in the water, it wasn't so bad, but between the increased waves and the sand erosion, it was a little tricky entering (and exiting) among the exposed rocks!  In the meantime, DH had gone to Best Buy to pick up some essentials: water, sunscreen, bug spray, gin, and Ting.

Panoramic sunset show from our balcony

Mango's, where we usually eat on our first night, hadn't yet opened for the season, so wanting something easy, I tried to make a reservation at Picante via their website.  However, I never got a confirmation back, so we ended up at Jacala, which ended up being a perfect choice. Because we were traveling with a younger companion and because the Anguillan sunset was an hour earlier than what we're used to in June, we had dinner reservations around 6:30 each night and thus were almost always the first diners to arrive in each restaurant.

Interior of Jacala at night

Which suited us fine, thank you very much.  We had the undivided attention of gracious waitstaff and we could take all the time we wanted to consider the menu and enjoy our cocktails/mocktails. I love rum punch, but only when it's not too sweet.  The very idea of putting amaretto and/or cinnamon in a rum punch makes me want to gag, frankly. Which is why I always inquire with the staff how the rum punch is in any establishment before ordering one.  If they're coy about the contents, I flatly state that I don't like sweet rum punches that are served with cinnamon or amaretto and see where that gets me. The one at Jacala was still too sweet, but I asked for extra lime juice and that did the trick. It was very pretty, though:

My rum punch

In the meantime, our server brought over an amuse bouche of asparagus soup with a crispy wonton.  I thought it was pretty good, Ava didn't care for it much, and DH thought it was jusssssst right, so he finished hers, too.

The evening was beautiful, with just the right amount of breeze coming in to keep everything comfortable. Fighting off exhaustion, we managed to do some damage to our food nonetheless. DH opted for the cucumber soup with spicy tomato sorbet (possibly my favorite soup, anywhere in the world) and a steak (pretty uncharacteristic of him), Ava had a lobster soup and the fettucine, while I settled on the grilled crayfish, no starter.

With the exception of DH's steak, it was all wonderful.  His steak was completely pedestrian and a little overcooked, but that chilled cucumber soup makes up for a world of other ills, as far as I'm concerned.  Not to mention that we all loved the asparagus that came with the steak.  We're trying to figure out how it came out the way it did.  Parcooked then flash-fried, maybe?

Ava got off to a slow start with her lobster soup as her palate adjusted to the new flavors, but before long, every last drop was gone.  She also handily polished off the fettucine and helped me with my crayfish. Seriously, this kid could eat us right into the poor house on this island.

My crayfish were delicious, simply grilled and served with a choice of a lemon butter or a garlic butter sauce.  Not being willing to choose, I asked if I could have a bit of each sauce.  The accompanying rice was also good, which surprised me.  I can take or leave plain rice, but this was flavorful and a little nutty.

That night at Jacala it was technically my birthday, but even if it hadn't been, I would have selected the rum baba with banana sorbet anyway.  I'd been dreaming of that dessert ever since I read about it on the Savannah Gallery blog that Frank writes.  It was absolutely incredible, and that night I proved definitively that you can have your cake and drink it, too!

Yum!  Happy birthday to me!

Ava's pièce de résistance was some kind of chocolate-upon-chocolate concoction called the Jacala cake. One bite was enough for me, but she managed to polish the rest off on her own, including the yummy caramel sauce on the plate.

All in all, a wonderful start to our trip.  We were sufficiently tired from our travels that when we got back home to Caribella at 9:00, we promptly retired to bed.  It rained a bit in the night, and that, combined with the noise of the Barnes Bay waves crashing on the exposed rock, made for perfect sleeping and dreaming conditions.