^{Wednesday April 16} 

We arrived in the late afternoon after some very nice flights from Dallas and Miami.  I had previous communications with the staff at the Allamanda stating we would be there around 5PM.  Our cab pulled up to the Allamanda at believe it or not 4:58 PM.  Checked in very smoothly and got a second floor room, nice view of the pool and could see a bit of the ocean. 

We put down our bags and headed for Gwen’s Reggae Beach Bar to hopefully catch dinner but most certainly one of her famous rum punches. 

The first smiling face we saw was that of Gwen herself welcoming us back to the island.  They had already closed out the kitchen but were more than happy to provide us with the  rum punches we requested.  Feeling quite content and a bit at home we chatted for a few minutes about the damage from the big waves a few weeks past.  We could see that the old wooden fence in front of Gwen’s was for the most part gone and that the dunes had taken quite a punch but otherwise it looked so much like we remembered. 

Now off to put the tootsies into the water. We walked to the point of Shoal Bay and Upper Shoal Bay, letting the surf lap at our feet, you could plainly see the smiles painted on our faces…..ahhhhh, feel the tension of the previous few days escape and there was a lot of tension, from some minor surgery on my foot to my lovely wife getting laid off from her contract job with “Conglomo” corp the night before we left.  We were determined to enjoy ourselves and this was a fine start.

Once the sun set we headed back to the room.  We were a bit hungry and had not stopped at a store on our way in nor was there anything open in this isolated corner of paradise.  We had packed some snacks and decided that dinner the first night and breakfast the next morning could be eaten in the room.  We then found a small welcome pack with juice and a few other supplies in the fridge….bingo, we are good till lunch at Gwen’s the next day.

^{Thursday April 17} 

I must have been pretty tired from the travel as I missed sunrise today.  I still strolled down to the beach to see what the day was going to be like and to enjoy the view.  Today was to be pretty quiet.  Laid around all morning and then enjoyed ribs and snapper and then decided to do a bit of snorkeling.  

We  brought some of our dive equipment for a dive on Saturday so took advantage of it to poke around on the reef.  We swam around the rocky area just in front of us and then Rob decided that it was time to swim out a bit further to the big coral head maybe a hundred yards out in the bay.  Things were going well when I noticed my bride getting frustrated and not able to keep up.  We got to the coral head and I then saw the issue, my wife had in process of her swim to the reef, lost one of her dive fins.  CRAP!  Those are brand new and were not inexpensive.  Oh well, we decided to head back so we swam along together and I got her back to the shallows.  I told her I was going to look around for the fin and took off to search around the coral head we had just visited.  Nothing found of course.  I was sitting in the shallows and took off one of my fins….it popped right to the surface…..duh!!  I immediately knew where her fin had gone.  I took off the rest of my equipment and tossed it in my chair and told my wife, in my best Arnold voice……”I’ll be back”.  I went about 20 yards up the beach and sure enough lying in the sand was her dive fin. It looked as if it had come unlatched.  No wonder she was working so hard to keep up with me.  All was better and we got back on the proverbial horse and swam back out to snorkel some more.  No more issues with the fins and Mary had a much better experience.

While hanging out at Gwen’s we got to meet both her husband who is now doing the cooking on the grill and one of Gwen’s brothers was on island.  He is an over the road trucker from Houston TX.  I found out later that day that their mom had recently passed.

We also met a couple of ladies from the east coast that were a lot of fun.  One was a photography buff like me and the other just wanted to relax and snorkel.  The two photo buffs decided that we should meet in the morning just before sunrise to shoot some pix and then she said she would take me to Junk’s hole and Scilly Bay for some different photos.

Tonight’s dinner was at Zara’s.  In a word…WOW!   We both had fish of course along with conch fritters, drinks and dessert.  Our entire bill was less than $120 and we even got to hear Shamash sing for us.  Great closure on the public part of our evening.

^{Friday April 18}

Woke early and snuck out of the room camera in hand for sunrise.  We were not disappointed what a beautiful beginning to the day.  Then we were off to first Scilly Kay and next to Junk’s Hole.  I shot close to 500 pix this morning.  We then stopped at Bon Pain for pastries…..yum!  We got back to the Allamanda just before 10AM.  At 10 the gentleman from a rental car company knocked on our door.  He dropped off a car for us and our round the island travel adventure began.  We got a right hand drive car and it was pretty small, that math makes it tuff on Rob.  The obvious part is we in the US drive on the other side of the road and small car + big Rob = very tight squeeze.  I felt likea character in an old 1970’s cartoon just call me the Grape Ape.  I would have been more comfortable sitting on top of the car and propelling it down the road with my knuckles.

We made a few stops today. 

1. Went into town and stopped at the post office for some awesome and unique stamps.  For those that don’t know, Anguilla has some of the most beautiful and most collected stamps in the world.  

2. Next stop the town drug store, no not for drugs.  The drugstore has a great selection of t-shirts and other Anguilla paraphernalia.  I was in the market for a small flag and found it there.

3. The place I go every time we are on island. Anguilla Rums LTD, producers of Pyrat rums.  My anniversary gift was a bottle of Cask 23.  This is a blend of several rums, many as old as 40 years that have been aged together for at least a year in Oak barrels.  There is a hint of orange and lots of oak flavors.  My favorite of all rums.  It is a bit expensive but worth every dollar spent to me.  Mary even picked up a bottle of savage…it is pyrat’s version of Grand Marnier..mmmmmmmm.  After plunking down a couple of C notes and a Grant it was time to head to lunch.  

We chose to head into Road Bay and go to Johnno’s.  Rum punch was good and fish sandwiches delicious. 

We then drove all over the island and even took some streets that led us into housing areas.  One was a group of villas that sat above Road bay.  What an incredible sight line they had.  

We did make it to the west end of the island but were not impressed with all the new building going on there.  We were on island 2 years ago and it was still a sleepy little island.  The West end reminds me of Dutch ST Maarten with way too much development but the East end is still simply incredible.

Dinner was once again at Gwen’s as in my mind it should have been.Lots of other places to go and try but I am all about Gwen’s place.

^{Saturday April 19}

Today was check out day.We once again woke early and headed to the beach to shoot sunrise pix.It had rained overnight and some of the tables had water on them.If you have been to Gwen’s (I know most are sick of hearing about this place but we are crazy about it) you will know that it is in a palm grove.Dark tables with pools of water in a palm grove and a bright sunrise….are you following me?Great picture opportunities with the reflections of the trees on the tables.Mary joined me and we then went back to Scilly Key to take more pix of the boats and stopped at Bon Pain for breakfast and coffee.

We met up with some close friends that had been staying at our timeshare in ST Maarten.They came over to dive with us.We contracted for one “Club” diver and three divers with C-cards thru Shoal Bay Scuba.What a great crew.We dove the reef just off of Upper Shoal Bay.Our club dive friend took his lessons and it was time to go.The dive master gave the briefing and said it was an easy dive….so when he turned around to go back if we had plenty of air we could go on till one of us got to half a tank and then follow the reef back to the boat.No problem.He turned around and the three certified divers still had 2K lbs of air left so I led the two ladies with me along the wall in about 40’ of water for about another 8-10 minutes then we turned around to head back to the boat.All went well, our club diver had a blast as did the rest of us.

Next up, you guessed it late lunch at Gwen’s and we then said our good byes and headedto the portto make our way back to Marigot and on to the Flamingo Beach resort to check in for the next 7 days.

Thoughts on the trip;

I loved driving on the other side of the road…..turn left stay left was our chant for 24 hours.

Again  I hate the over development of the West end

The Allamanda was perfect for us…not at all fancy but very clean and neat.

The people of this island are fantastic, so friendly, take the time to strike up conversations, you may make a new friend for life.

I would rather spend a week here and three days on ST Maarten and one day that will happen.

See my ST Maarten travel report for the rest of our trip.