Day Trip to Anguilla

We made our annual day-trip to Anguilla.   The ferry from Marigot was uneventful as always and after a quick trip thru customs at Blowing Point we were off to meet our cabby.


First stop......Rum Time

We usually make a stop at the Pyrat rum facility and visit the sampling room but this time we were offered a tour after our sampling, I made yet another significant contribution to the Anguilla economy with a large rum purchase then off to the tour.

Folks, Rob has found nirvana….

Paradise in 750ml glass bottles, filled with a caramel brown abrosia!

They blend and distribute several products but only two of those now make it to the US, the first being Pyrat XO reserve. This is a group of rums from all over the Caribbean, some as old as 15 years. They blend them and age them in oak casks. The XO is a fine sipping liquor! If you must mix it you will have a very pleasant cocktail. This product has a strong but not over powering oak flavor. I drink it in a glass on the rocks. It mellows well over the ice. Very good rum and until I tasted the next product this was the best rum I had ever sampled…and I have had a few.

The top shelf product (Pyrat Cask 23) is absolutely the best liquor of any kind I have ever had. I would match it with any fine cognac, vodka, or scotch on the market. Bring on the Louis XIII! Put this nectar of the gods in a glass and let it breathe this is truly a treat beyond description for your taste buds. This fine liquor has very little to no alcohol vapor. It is a blend of rums that are ages as many as 40 years and then left in oak casks for yet another year to blend the product to perfection. The flavoring I would describe as luxuriously smooth with a hint of butter and oak.

But I digress….. If you get the chance it is worth the 30 minutes or so to walk thru and then taste test the product.

All of their products are blended on site and bottled almost totally by hand. They have 3 production machines in the entire line. A bottle washer, the filler...it fills 6 bottles at a time and the heat gun that seals the plastic wrap around the mouth of the bottle.

All other jobs are done by hand to include cleaning the outsides of the bottles before stickers are placed on the bottles, cutting the ribbons and placing and sealing the corks.

They were bottling their XO Reserve product during our tour. I was standing close to the filling machine (This is an old machine and is not precise in its volume of distribution) when one of the bottles overflowed and started spraying…I looked like a 4 year old chasing a run away garden hose with my little tasting cup. Got a chuckle from the tour group and staff but alas no extra rum for Rob….

They jokingly offered me a job and were impressed with my knowledge of their products but I had to sadly tell them "no thanks” as I would just drink up my salary while working there (not too big of an issue) besides their health care bennies didn’t include coverage for a liver transplant every 3-5 years (this is where the show stopper was for me).

We left the distributorship all to soon for me but it was time to get back in the sun as I could feel the tan fading while we were indoors or maybe it was just the bilirubin kicking up from the liver damage.

We spent the rest of this glorious day on upper Shoal Bay hanging out at Gwen’s Reggae Beach Bar.

If you have never met Gwen you are in for a treat.

Gwen is a tall woman, well over 6 feet tall and has a booming voice. Don't let her voice and stature shake you as she is truly one of the nicest people that I have ever met. She used to work for Uncle Ernie’s but ventured out on her own to a great location and with her skills has become quite successful! Her place seems to be mentioned in Caribbean Travel & Life Magazine every time they write an article on Anguilla.

The food at Gwen's is wonderful and runs about $10-$15 per person.

There is great snorkeling in the area around Gwen’s and a masseuse on the beach right next door.

This is the most relaxing place we have ever been and in many ways the highlight of our vacation. We are planning to in the future spend a couple of extra days on Anguilla.

All good things must come to an end so it was time to say goodbye to our friends new and familiar.

We truly love St Maarten but Upper Shoal Bay is the most beautiful beach we have ever seen. We have started to develop friendships on this island with a couple of the cabbies and the lady that owns one of the restaurants.

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