An Unconventional Sunday on Anguilla

View from the upper level of Villa Ella

Sunday turned out to be a lazy day all around for us.  We slept a little later than usual, and after a morning stroll on the beach, we decided to have wine & cheese for breakfast.  We’d bought quite a bit of snacks at Best Buy a few days ago, including two bottles of wine, and were a little afraid that, given our roster of dinner reservations, some might otherwise be wasted.  So, taking one for the team, we had a boozy breakfast. Really, since we added a splash of passionfruit juice to the sauvignon blanc, it was really more like sangria, or better yet, a tropical and non-fizzy mimosa, which is a totally reasonable breakfast beverage.

Same view as above, but zoomed in

The day before I requested, and had been granted, permission to have our morning coffee and evening cocktails upstairs on the upper level of Villa Ella. The mosquitos were just so terrible that it was impossible for us to enjoy sitting outside on the lower level, which is the level we were renting, and since the owner was away, she graciously agreed that we could carry our beverages upstairs and bookend our days that way.

Michael had gotten a bit sunburned the day before -- seeing the sun for the first time and being on Shoal Bay East made us a tad careless -- so we decided to be shade seekers for the rest of the morning. After breakfast we read under our umbrella on our beach until the sun crept over the sea grapes, then moved indoors to pack a bag for the afternoon.

We had decided upon Jacala for our lunch that day. I love this place, but I tend to prefer it for lunch over dinner. The location is so pretty right there on Meads Bay that it’s a shame to not see it in full sunlight. We found out after the fact that we were lucky to walk in without a reservation, since it was his first Sunday that Jacala was open for lunch for the season. But we got one of the last two tables available and counted ourselves fortunate. Jacques came over to welcome Michael, and welcome me back, to the restaurant.  I tried gamely to respond in French but I didn’t get very far.

I knew from the start that I wanted crayfish, and while Michael had technically tasted crayfish as a component in other dishes on the island, I wanted him to see it as the star of its own dish. We split a crayfish platter, which was the perfect amount of food when combined with the cucumber soup and the conch ceviche. That soup is one of my favorite soups on the planet -- so simple, but the spicy tomato sorbet elevates the cucumber in a sublime way.

The conch ceviche was beautiful and delicious. We shared both appetizers as equally as possible before delving into the grilled crayfish, which I forgot entirely to photograph. Between the beautiful setting and the incredible food, we were enjoying ourselves immensely. Because they forgot to bring me my glass of rosé until the crayfish had been almost entirely devoured, they comped me a second glass, so we lingered a bit longer than we otherwise would have. But that simply gave us enough time to know that we wanted to dessert, so it was a win-win.

I had had the rum baba once before, after seeing Frank from Savannah Gallery write about it on his blog. With this dessert, you can have your cake and drink it, too.  It was just as delicious as I remembered, with a delicate cake surrounding a scoop of banana sorbet, sitting in a sweet rum sauce.

Ocean Echo’s Rumzie

After lunch, we had planned to stop in at Ocean Echo so that we could see Andrea once again and to hear Omalie 360 play in the afternoon.  We got there close to 3:00 and stayed for about an hour, sipping our rum punches and enjoying the music.  It was too loud to chat, so we didn’t get to talk with Andrea as much as we usually do, but it was a very pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Ocean Echo’s famous drink is called the Rumzie, which was too sweet for me on its own, but I asked Andrea for more lime juice and it made it delicious. Michael liked it jussssst fine as ordered.

We left there to head home to Barnes Bay. There wasn’t much of a sunset that day, but we enjoyed our sundowners anyway. Around 7:00 we drove back down to Sandy Ground to give Criss Conch Shack another try, but nobody was around.  You can’t say we didn’t give them a fair shake, but we were both disappointed not to be able to try a new local place.

We contemplated going back to Elvis’s again, but Michael was torn between that and trying someplace new. Since we had had a very high end lunch, we wanted something more on the casual side, so we drove back to the west end to Picante to eat dinner without breaking the bank. We had a couple of passionfruit margaritas at the bar while waiting for a table to become available, which gave us time to deliberate over the menu.  Michael settled on the chili-crusted spicy tuna tacos while I went with the Picante tacos, and we were both extremely pleased with our selections.  The lighting wasn’t very good, but here’s the only photo that turned out clearly enough:

We were both pretty full by the time we finished our meals, but I have a terrible sweet tooth and Michael was hankering for something sweet, too, so we ordered a frozen lemon-lime pudding to share, accompanied by a lime-chili salt.  Well, it was delicious.  The salt absolutely made it a cut above, and we were both glad we’d ordered it.  With heavy bellies we drove back home where we were wowed by the clarity of the night sky.  Stars were everywhere and with the lack of light pollution we saw so much more than we ever get to see at home. Just gorgeous.

Anguilla: Off to a Decidedly Lazy Start

  Barnes Bay in the morning

Our first day waking up on Anguilla was one of pure, lazy indulgence.  Having gone to bed early and having slept well thanks to the modern marvels of air conditioning, we woke up with the sun.  Interestingly, we wake up much earlier on vacation than we do at home; I reckon it's partly because we're well-rested and partly because we go to bed a bit earlier.

We drank some coffee out on the balcony at Caribella and enjoyed the quiet while waiting for the time when Straw Hat might be open for breakfast.  Though in truth I prefer the selection of pastries and breakfast sandwiches at Geraud's, it has now become tradition for us to break our first fast at Straw Hat.  It's where we ate our first breakfast, ever, on Anguilla, and we love that place so much.

It was around that time that I was frantically searching You Tube for possible solutions for fixing my computer.  Thank goodness Caribella has wi-fi and I could use my smart phone for posting questions.  Worrying about this darn laptop took far more energy than it was worth!

Straw Hat patio

Around 8:00 we headed for Meads Bay, which is about a five minute drive from Caribella.  There had been a storm in the night and there were still puddles everywhere. Straw Hat had a few additions to their menu since our last breakfast visit, including a list of smoothies.  I settled for the continental breakfast, plus a banana and oatmeal smoothie while DH eagerly ordered the pancakes.  Or pannacakes, as the children in our family used to call them. The pastries were fine, but the smoothie was really quite excellent and the pancakes remind me very much of my grandmother's. One thing that Straw Hat does that very few other places do (Bonjour Cafe being one of them) is serve the milk/cream warm so that one's coffee stays hotter, longer.  It's such a simple touch that makes the coffee so much better.  I don't understand why more places don't do this. So yeah, breakfast was a big win.

After lingering over breakfast with our books and enjoying the last drops of coffee in the carafes, we finally got up to leave.  Incidentally, the service charge is clearly marked on both the menu and the bill when it's brought--perhaps the most clearly marked of any restaurant we visited on this trip, FYI.

We stopped at Best Buy for a few more provisions.  We were pretty amazed at both the breadth and the depth of their selection and felt spoiled for choice for some of the items we wanted to pick up.  It had better brands of rum and tequila, more varieties of ice cream and cheese, than any place else we've seen on the island.

Once we were back at Caribella, we settled into an arduous day of reading.  The toughest choice? Whether to read on the balcony or down on the beach.  Caribella provides both chairs and umbrellas, and beyond that, Dave from Mango's very graciously told us that we should feel free to use the blue adirondack chairs at their restaurant, any time, any day. We compromised by reading on the balcony to make the most of the breeze but walking down to our private swimming cove a couple of times to take a dip.

We stayed "home" for lunch, sharing a grilled cheese sandwich and some iced coffee, as we didn't want to interrupt our busy reading and gazing-out-to-sea schedule.

NB: the mosquitos were worse on Barnes Bay than they've been on any other trip.  As you can see in the photo above, we kept three kinds of insect repellent on the table, as news of both dengue and chikungunya had us a little spooked.  We sprayed down assiduously, multiple times a day.

Our beautiful and private swimming cove on Barnes Bay

We usually eat our anniversary dinner at Veya, but they're closed on Saturdays, so instead we opted to stay casual all day long and have our evening meal at Picante, just up the road.  Truly, it's within walking distance of Caribella, but we don't like walking at night on the island for a few reasons: (1) The road up from Caribella to the main road is rough and uneven, with deep ruts, in conjunction with (2) The utter darkness on the island, no street lamps to speak of, means possibly tripping and falling, (3) We cannot outrun mosquitos if we're picking our way slowly in the dark, and (4) we are inherently lazy.

We were only the second table to be seated when we arrived at Picante, but it filled up quickly, including a large table comprising the families from Carrie & Jerry from Veya and from Trip Advisor forum member, iluvdanny.  Wanting to repay a bit of hospitality that they've shown us through the years, we sent a round of drinks to their table.

We always start off with an order of guacamole and a pitcher of margaritas, which are so smooth & easy going down, that's it's no wonder I have no photographic evidence of what came after.  I barely recall what I ate, much less what DH ate, but I think I had the Picante tacos with ground beef, which are hard-shelled tacos encased in soft-shelled tacos, with insulating layer of refried beans, guacamole, and sour cream in between.  I order those on a semi-regular basis.  We also shared the bananas foster chimichanga.  My DH and I are constitutionally incapable of NOT ordering a warm banana dessert.

Jovaughn, who always seems to be our server when we're at Picante, chatted with us some more.  I had a photo of him, but it was too blurry, but you can see him here, chilling out with some of the other folks at Picante. We ran into him later on the island, but that is a story for a different day...

And so before long, we were headed back home to Caribella, soon to be in the land of nod.

Up next: Sunday on Anguilla means Geraud's and THE PLACE.

Anguilla, Anguilla, Anguilla: part the ninth

 SATURDAY

Saturday brings us a little change to our repertoire.  We breakfast at home that morning on some excellent toast made from the last of our loaf of Geraud's bread, and at midmorning we head for Trattoria Tramonto.  We hadn't been there since our first visit to the island in 2009, where we experienced shellshock over our most expensive lunch ever.  Guess that's what happens when you  order the specials without inquiring to the price…This year we wanted to give it another try, though we had a little bit of shellshock all over again.  They provide complimentary chairs & umbrellas to everybody who dines there for lunch, but their sign declares  (rather optimistically, in my opinion) that they charge US $40 for the privilege of using chairs & umbrellas for non-diners.  It's hard for me to imagine anybody who is willing to pay that much money for uncomfortable chairs and a tiny umbrella, but maybe that's just me. 

Blue Waters, an all-beachfront condo property

Romilda, our companion for the day

It was our first visit to Shoal Bay West in a couple of years, and while my husband was not an immediate fan, I certainly was.  I like the character of the beach, especially the windswept end near Covecastles, and the fact that not many people were using it.  We settled in to read for the rest of the morning (lunch doesn't start until noon), and we were tickled to note that a very sweet dog adopted us for a while and sat with us underneath my chaise longue for quite a while.  My husband dubbed her Romilda, and I split my time between my book and giving Romilda some woogies.  Right before lunch, two young women came upon us and walked the beach.  At one point one of them squealed "shark!" and grabbed her camera, but by the time hied myself out of my chair to see what was happening, it had swum away.  I asked her about it and she said it was a small shark and she indicated its length with her arms--about 18" long.   A baby shark, then. 

Romilda is ready for her close up!

Covecastles: bizarrely compelling architecture.  And green, to boot.

I'm getting a little weary of all of the crowds on Anguilla.  Here we have deserted Shoal Bay West

For once, both my husband and I are hungry at the same time, so shortly after noon we mosey up to the restaurant to claim our seats and order lunch.  We down one bottle of fizzy water before we order our lunch (have I mentioned that it seemed unusually hot and still this summer?), ordering a second round to accompany our grilled chicken salad (me) and the plate of melon & prosciutto (DH).  With the focaccia that came for the table, this turned out to be the perfect amount of food.  I even would have gone for a spot of dessert, but everything on the menu, including the daily dessert special, was chocolatey, so I passed and ordered for myself a Michelangelo, which is a yummy Prosecco beverage with mango nectar.  Our bill came to about US $70, but our beverage tab was about equal to our food tab.  Trattoria Tramonto is definitely an expensive place to have lunch, and that's with ordering basically two appetizers.  Still, it's pleasant and I love the cooling effect of the blue & white building there, and Shoal Bay West is nice & quiet.  One of these days when our fortune improves we might even stay at Blue Waters, a place that has long intrigued me. 

 Anyway, I guess it's a good thing that I didn't want dessert at TT, because before long, we pack up and head out for Cuisinart Resort, in pursuit of the elusive frozen mojito, of which I have read much.  Now, my husband and I are not really resort people.  We'd rather pay less money for more space in a villa when we're on vacation.  But there's much to be said about Cuisinart, which is very, very lovely.  If you think of the Viceroy as being very manicured and luxurious and precise, Cuisinart is very luxurious and lush and natural looking.  The grounds are exceptional and they clearly employ a lot of Anguillians to keep it looking that way.  Everyone we encountered was very friendly, even when we said we weren't guests and were on the property just for a cocktail, albeit a famous one.  They escorted us to an outdoor lounge area just past reception but before the pool area, where we kicked back with two frozen mojitos.  These drinks are justifiably famous and they are, bar none, the most refreshing adult beverage I've ever had, including the Sea Cooler with cucumber juice at the SandBar and the Infusion with strawberry, mango, and banana at Smokey's.  In fact, it was so good that one wasn't enough, so my husband and I shared a third one, and by sharing, I mean that I let him have a little bit of mine.  The lime and the mint were so perfectly balanced, and it's impossible to believe that a beverage with that much shredded herb could be anything but healthy.  At US $11 apiece, they pack more than one kind of wallop, but it was so worth it.  We chatted with the lady bartender there and enjoyed our books for upwards of an hour, during which we saw them offer afternoon snacks to the children at the pool--they were even kind enough to offer the leftover sorbet & biscotti to us, but we were thoroughly stuffed. 

Could an adult beverage possibly look more healthful?

Besides, we had places to go.  And by that, I mean Cap Juluca.  Now that I had the insider scoop for getting to Maundays Bay, we headed there as soon as I slurped up the last dregs of mint from my drink.  I wanted to have Cuisinart & Cap Juluca fresh in my mind in order to make a comparison.  Sadly, I'm not sure that I could choose between the two.  I think they're both beautiful resorts with lush grounds that are luxurious without ever feeling fussy.  I personally prefer the calmness of Maundays Bay over the more windswept Rendezvous Bay, but it's pretty much splitting hairs either way.  Both beaches are gorgeous and in an ideal world I wouldn't have to choose between the two. 

Walkway to Maundays Bay

Double self-portrait at Maundays Bay

Cap Juluca

 Maybe it was the sun, maybe it was the late afternoon rum drinks, but I was completely pooped when we made it back to Caribella.  After showering the beach off, I flopped onto the bed and napped until dinner--we opted to return to Picante for our second dinner of the trip and were well rewarded.  We shared the same taco plate but ordered the plain lime margaritas and a full serving of guacamole this time around.  Jovaughn and Kayshe both remembered us from our previous visit and made our night by sitting down to chat with us.  What wonderful waitstaff--I would be so proud to count them among my own staff members at work--they're both so genuine and friendly.  Our food was once again fast & fresh and we loved it.  Picante may very well now be my favorite casual eatery on the island--hard to believe after my own reluctance to try it a couple of years ago.  Their chips & salsa are great, their guacamole rivals my husband's (this is very high praise, as my husband is an excellent cook), and we left stuffed to the gills with their fresh and fun tacos. 

One last shot of Shoal Bay West

St. Martin seen from Shoal Bay West

Anguilla, Anguilla, Anguilla: part the sixth

Barnes Bay: Home Sweet Home

 Wednesday

Gosh, another beautiful morning in Anguilla.  We spent the first part of the morning on Barnes Bay.  Interestingly enough (at least to me) we have never spent this much time at "home" before, but we enjoy it quite a bit.  Unlike last year, when more Viceroy guests would walk down to our end of the beach, Barnes Bay has felt very much like our own private beach.  Every evening around sunset a woman walks her dog the length of the entire beach, and a handful of times over the course of our stay so far we have seen other people walking along.  One morning a family of three even put their umbrella up not far from our villa.  But for the most part it has felt utterly and blissfully quiet.  I never would have believed it would be this serene, even with at least one of the large beachfront Viceroy villas being occupied.  In short, we love it.  Spending a couple of hours each morning out on our balcony, watching the sunlight play on the water and enjoying our coffee and books is about as perfect a way to start our day as I can think of.  Add in a breakfast of fresh mangoes and some thick slices of buttered toast made from a loaf of Geraud's peasant bread creates an entirely new level of superlative.

Around 11:00 we packed up another beach bag and hit the road, our first stop being Sea Spray to see if the smoothies were just as good as we remembered them.  I am pleased to inform you that they were.  However, we were greedy and couldn't agree on a flavor to share, so we each got our own--not the best decision, as it turned out later.  But at the moment we were happy with our brain freeze-inducing beverages: DH with the Very Berry again, and me with the mango/guava/passionfruit one.  It took us a long time to finish them, and then we were off & rolling again, this time toward the east end with the idea of eating lunch at Cote Mer.  Of course when we pulled up to the restaurant, neither one of us could bear the thought of food after polishing off our large smoothies, so we decided to backtrack to the Anguilla Heritage Collection and see what we could see.  Admission is US $5 for each adult and the quietly intense and handsome Colville Petty, OBE, came out to give us a brief summary of the collection, where no photographs are allowed inside.  We learned a lot about Anguilla history that day, beginning with the Arawaks and ending with the bloodless revolution, commemorated with a hilarious article by journalist Art Buchwald.  The collection is small and somewhat amateurish, but it is very thoughtfully put together and we spent about 90 minutes wandering through and reading the informative placards and signs.  What's more, very little is behind glass, so you can reach out and run your finger along, say, the enormous mortar and three foot long pestle on display or feel the ridges on the makeshift sandals that Anguilla men wore up until fairly recently in the last century, fashioned from sections of car tire and strapped to the foot with leather or rope straps.  There are photograph albums tucked into many parts of the museum, which we also thumbed through--some depicting hurricane damage during the 20th century, others with more lighthearted subjects such as royal visits or the brightly painted buildings around the island.  If anything, I'd say that the history of slavery was a little glossed over, and the museum certainly gives the impression that slavery on Anguilla was not as bad as slavery on other West Indian islands.  But I wonder how true that is?  Slavery is still slavery, and to gloss over it in any way (and I really don't want to know if it's just to ease potential discomfort of white tourists to the island) feels like we're not acknowledging properly a very dark period of human history.  At any rate, there didn't seem to be much glossing when it came to describing the harsh conditions of salt harvesting, which was also a primary means of living well into the second half of the 20th century, and frankly, it's hard to imagine a more brutal way to spend one's life.

Outside the museum it's okay to take photos.  Here is a traditional Anguillian wooden racing boat.

Sweet pothound napping in the shade

With those sobering images, we bid good day to Mr. Petty, OBE, and made our way back to Island Harbour to Cote Mer, where we immediately became smitten with the breeze and the beautiful view of the beach & water.  

Walkway to Cote Mer from the parking lot

DH ordered a Ting while I opted for a glass of sauvignon blanc and we decided to share the conch tempura.  The chef sent out an amuse-bouche of thinly shaved smoked mahi-mahi over a thinly shaved slice of lemon, served on a flatbread.  I am decidedly not a fan of smoked fish of any kind, but even I enjoyed the way the lemon played off the smoked flavor.  You know that your conch is fresh when you can hear the chef hammering away at it in the kitchen, and before long we were digging in.  There were three pieces of conch tempura, each one about the size of your average chicken finger, but less thick, accompanied by a wonderful salad made of cucumber, red pepper, celery and fresh mint, drizzled with olive oil & lemon.  Everything was delicious and we were thrilled with the sense of discover that comes when you try out a new-to-you restaurant.  The breeze off the water was always ample, with Scilly Cay in the background and waving palm trees in the foreground.  Despite not finishing the last few bites of salad and conch we decided to throw caution to the wind and order a dessert after lunch, and even less out of character, we ordered the Cuban chocolate biscuit.  Neither DH nor I am a big fan of chocolate (yes, I know--the horror), but the proprietor suggested it and we were feeling agreeable.  Even we thought it was very well done, so I imagine that a chocolate lover would be in heaven.  We never did figure out the "biscuit" part of the description, as it seemed to be two layers of mousse of varying chocolate intensity and denseness, all on top of a heavenly piquant raspberry reduction.  Alas, we could only finish about 2/3 of it, and it wasn't especially large to begin with, but it was all we could manage.  One small bottle of water brought our tab to US $45, plus additional tip.  We definitely intend to go back, either for dinner or lunch. 

Lovely Cote Mer with gorgeous view

Caught reading.  Again!

We originally thought we might stop off at Gwen's after lunch, but the thought of more food or beverage was a little too much, so we left Cote Mer around 3:00 and headed back in a westerly direction.  Long drawn to the architecture and mystique of Cap Juluca, and having read many wonderful things about that august property and its beach,  we turned off the main road and headed there across the salt pond.  We stopped at the little gate and asked for directions to the public access to the beach, which they gave to us with a smile, so we found the car park and walked through the shrubbery to find ourselves stepping onto the sands of…Cove Bay.  The windy end, opposite from Smokey's.  It was lovely and windblown and wild, and we were glad to see it, but it wasn't the quiet calm of Maundays Bay that we were looking for.  Not wanting to poke around on private property to get to Maundays, we made a few photos and left.  (NB: I have since learned from TA's Anguilla forum how to get to Maundays Bay, so we will give it another try before we leave.)

Picante Restaurant

After that we headed home for a quick swim at Barnes before cleaning up for dinner at Picante.  It's hard to imagine now, in retrospect, exactly what our hesitation about trying Picante was two years ago during our first visit to Anguilla.  People whose advice I had come to trust certainly raved about it.  But now we're dedicated Picante fans--we love the vibe, the casual picnic table atmosphere, the bright paint, the low light, the prompt service, the tasty food & drinks, and especially the outstanding value it provides for a night out in Anguilla. 

That night we ordered guacamole to go with the complimentary chips & salsa, and then settled into our passionfruit (me) and serrano pepper (DH) margaritas.  Mine was frozen and could have easily passed for dessert while his was a spicy little on the rocks number that was perfect as an appetizer. We shared the platter of Picante special tacos with ground beef, which is a traditional hard shell taco, with a soft shell taco wrapped around it, with a buffering layer of beans and guacamole in between the two shells.  Even though the platter was just two tacos and some cole slaw, we couldn't quite eat everything on top of the chips & salsa we'd been hoovering into our mouths.  Still, it seemed like a good idea to order one more round of drinks and the frozen lemon-lime pudding.  We left the table literally groaning and clutching our bellies.  It was a stupid, fool thing to do.  And we can't wait to go back!

Scilly Cay in lovely Island Harbour

The windblown end of Cove Bay

This wasn't even one of the larger splashes by the point.