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

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Into Movies

It's been a good long time since I've participated in the TTT meme, but this week's happens to be a repeat of one I participated in a couple of years ago, so I'm reposting.  ;-)

Sponsored by The Broke & the Bookish, this week's topic is top ten book-to-movie adaptations. I suspect that this list will be more controversial than most. It's no secret that books have certain advantages over their film versions: namely, the luxury of time to tell the tale properly and the unlimited imagination of the reader. I used to be one of those folks who condemned books-into-movies, ipso facto.  Now I don't care as much if the director & screenplay writer aren't true to the letter of the book as long as they are true to the spirit of the book.  It's a tremendous bonus if the movies actually give me a new insight into the books.   Also, I'm only including books which I've read on this list. So here's my list of books-into-movies where I read the book and LOVED the movie. In no particular order:

I am not left handed!

1) The Princess Bride by William Goldman.  One of the most eminently quotable movies EVER. Anybody want a peanut?

2) Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison.  Best. Novella. Ever. As far as I'm concerned, anyway.  Didn't like the film until after I had read the book.  Then, boy howdy, I loved it! And no, that love is not actually related to Brad Pitt, though I admit I think it's his best role.

3) The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien.  Yes, I do distinguish the first part of the film trilogy as being significantly better than the subsequent two.  I emphatically did not like the pointless addition of a battle scene and the mucking around with essence of Faramir's and Boromir's characters from the other two movies.

Yeah, I'm a Snape fan.

4) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling.  In my opinion, the pinnacle of Rowling's plotting and writing--and Cuaron was the only director who brought something more (read "better") to the film version.  Back when we thought Jo would allow for some Slytherin redemption by the end of the series.  But don't get me started down that road...

5) The Godfather by Mario Puzo.  Because it's an expected answer. I didn't actually make it all the way through the book, but I read enough for it to qualify in this part of the list instead of in the Honorable Mentions below.

6) The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.  If there's a more chillingly charismatic on-screen villain than Sir Anthony Hopkins's Hannibal Lector, I've not seen the likes of it.  Talk about a great cast, raising a book from pulp fiction to something memorable.

7) The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.  God bless him for his sense of romance and his ability to publish a book every year while reading 5-6 books per week (yes, I interviewed him once and this is what he said), but a great stylist he ain't.  I think this book makes a pretty fine romantic drama, however.  This is one of the truly rare cases where the movie is better than the book.

8) Q & A by Vikras Swarup (known to the English speaking world as the film Slumdog Millionaire).  One of those cases where the plot points didn't overlap all that much, but where the spirit of the book was translated well into film.

9) The Last of the Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper.  Yes, they're almost unrecognizable as springing from the same source.  But it's a fine, fine movie with an excellent soundtrack.

10) The Black Stallion by Walter Farley.  I wanted to work another children's or YA book onto the list, but the movie really does stand on its own merits.  Beautifully filmed!

Ooh, but that leaves out Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, which was wonderful!  I had to eliminate all Jane Austen adaptations or else there'd be very little room for other movies.  Or the Twilight franchise. (Just kidding--wanted to see if you were paying attention!) I thought this would be a difficult list to compile, but there are actually far more good film versions of books than I can name here.

Honorable mentions for movies I've seen and thought were excellent, but whose antecedents I have not read: The Reader, Casino Royale, The Shawshank Redemption, The Children of Men, Chocolat, Forrest Gump, and The Name of the Rose.  There are lots of others, but I think I'll leave it there for now.  

What did I leave out?  What would you have on your list?  

Meads for Two and Two for Meads

During the time that Malliouhana has been closed, DH and I have enjoyed spending time on Meads Bay underneath the big tree at the east end of the beach.  Our first trip to Anguilla we stayed on Meads (at Carimar) and there is much to admire about that long stretch of sand.  The day we visited, the water was calm and absolutely, pristinely clear.

Erosion on far eastern end of Meads

Caribella provides beach chairs (and umbrellas, but we rarely travel with those) so we set up one fine morning at Meads Bay very close to the public beach access.  Though it saddens me to see the empty resort on the hill, I admit I was glad to have that particular stretch to ourselves. This year through the redistribution of sand, we could easily clamber down the concrete steps to the private cove to have a true getaway experience. (Last year, the bottom step was about 3 feet above the sand level, with rebar sticking out of it.)

Our "private" Meads for Two

DH, walking from the cove back to the main portion of Meads

DH did a good bit of reading, but the water was so gorgeous that I couldn't stay out of it for long.  Also, the book I was reading was fairly disappointing. But can you blame me? 

Around 1:00 we packed up our chairs.  The shade was scarce by that time, and also our cove was invaded--some fellow with a camera and a tripod set up shop there and kept making photos of himself launching into the water with his snorkel gear on. Also we were feeling peckish, so we loaded up the car and drove to Ocean Echo to see Andrea for lunch.

Since this was our second visit, we ordered those menu items we'd been debating about getting on our first visit.  DH ordered the beef hotdog while I opted for the salad with mozzarella and local tomatoes. We shared the gazpacho, which I was a little wary of since Andrea told us that it couldn't be made without cilantro, but I was able to enjoy it.  It's a little different from the usual gazpacho offering--it's not creamy per se, but it's a little foamy from its preparation which lends it a creamy texture. It also incorporates mango into it, so it's a little bit sweet, a little bit spicy, and quite refreshing. A garnish of crayfish tail is the final touch.

DH's hotdog

My salad

The gazpacho

While were debating whether to get dessert, another couple was seated next to us, and the lady promptly introduced herself and her husband as readers of my blog.  Fran and Stan have been coming to Anguilla for many, many years, so we chatted about the island and the various changes they've seen in the ensuing years.

View from our table at Ocean Echo

We weren't especially hungry for dessert, but we wanted something cool after being on the beach all morning, so we ordered the sorbet to share.  It was beautiful and it was, indeed, cool, but it wasn't particularly flavorful.

Lime & raspberry sorbet

After chatting with Andrea and with Stan & Fran a bit longer, we left Ocean Echo and left for Rendezvous Bay.  Our new favorite place, The Place, was closed, so we set up under the palm trees by Anguilla Great House instead.  DH promptly fell asleep in his chair, and while he napped, I made photos of a sweet but very shy dog on the beach.  I think she belonged to the gentleman who was kitesurfing, because she paced the beach and kept looking out to the water. I knelt in the sand and tried coaxing her to come to me, but she would approach me to just beyond my reach.

DH, zonked out

self-portrait

After DH roused himself from his siesta, we walked the beach up towards Cuisinart, making photos along the way.  The beach is pretty flat in front of Cuisinart at the moment, but there's some pretty serious erosion between there and the Sunshine Shack:

Cuisinart

Anybody lose a Santa Hat?

Feeling a little beached out at the end of the afternoon, we decided to stop by Blanchards Beach Shack to pick up some food for takeaway to eat back on our balcony while watching the sunset.  We are not big fans of Blanchards, the fine dining restaurant, but we really do admire what they've done with their Beach Shack.  The vibrant colors and casual atmosphere, combined with moderate prices, all make for a good experience.

We opted for two orders of the peel & eat shrimp plus one order of chocolate chip cookies to go, and we sat there with our frozen beverages while waiting for the food to be prepared.

My compelling Passionfruit Daiquiri and less-than-compelling book

It's possible that the shrimp would have been better if we'd eaten them right away, but we got home and put them in the fridge for an hour before eating them.  They're supposed to be served chilled, I thought, as most peel & eat shrimp dishes I know are. But they were very disappointing and rubbery.  The flavor was good, but we ended up throwing half of them away.  The sauces, however, were excellent.  The Blanchards make all of their own sauces, and the traditional cocktail sauce with horseradish and the (gasp!) cilantro sauce were both great. I loathe cilantro but even I liked this sauce. We also supplemented the meal with some fresh local tomatoes, and the cilantro sauce made an excellent salad dressing.

Fortunately, the chocolate chip cookies made up for the shrimp, and they went just splendidly with the bourbon we had on hand in the room. We ended the night turning out the television and watching Chopped. I don't watch much TV, and I don't cook at all, but for some reason, I just love that show. All in all, it was another great day!