Friday 1 March, Anguilla day 4: Beach day in Rendezvous Bay and night out in the Four Seasons, feels like we are on vacation.
We are very taken with Anguilla and its magnificent beaches. So decided to extend the hire car one day and have a leisure time, basking in the sun and relaxing on the beach. Which we haven’t done in a very long time. Actually, the last time we actually purposefully sat on a beach was in Martinique, nearly a year ago, when my brother and family visited us.
So we pack all the beach and kitesurfing gear (a dinghy full!) and head to Rendezvous Bay on the south side of West End. Not the best beach of Anguilla, but the one with the right wind for kiting. And with few beach bars where we can rent sun beds and umbrella. Fussy, I know, but I don’t want to get sandblasted sitting on a towel.
On the way there we stop at the French bakery to top up on their amazing quiches. It’s busy as usual. Good to see a business doing so well.
Our objective was to get sun beds at CuisineArt Hotel, which is the fanciest venue in Randezvous Bay. But chairs are for hotel guests only and no day passes are available in high season. So we settle for the next venue along, Sunshine Shack. A colorful beach bar with Caribbean music and offering sun beds if we have lunch at their bar. Which we agree to.
So as soon as we settle in, Glen gears up and heads for the first round of kitesurfing. The wind is quite strong for the size of kite we brought along (12m) so he goes fully de-powered. He says he is out of practice but he does really well and I enjoy watching him doing his tricks. As in trying 360 jumps and landing with a big splash. In this wind his jumps are rather high and I hold my breath each time he “lands”, one time flat on his back from about 5m up. Ouch! With this jump he loses his sunglasses, but finds them again a few minutes later. Luckily they have a bright red float attached to them.
I’m happy under the umbrella, watching the world go by and recording Glen. Not so happy about fending off the bar staff who are pestering me every 5 minutes if I am ok and if I need anything, despite me telling them we will have lunch at 4pm and we’ll get yet more drinks once Glen comes out of the water.
Glen spends several hours kitesurfing, and he returns with a big grin on his face. Understandable, considering he hasn’t had much chances kiting the last year. For lunch we feast on bbq ribs which are delicious. And decide on the spot that we should return tomorrow for another beach and kitesurfing day.
Late afternoon we are ready to head back to Cloudy Bay for desanding and desalting.
We clean up nicely and we dress up to go out for upmarket cocktails at the Four Seasons. The Sunset Lounge is pretty packed with people having dinner, and it’s nice to see a place so busy for once. We happily join in at the bar and splash out on Caipirinia, my favorite cocktail at the moment. As the evening progresses, a live band performs by the pool and we observe the crowds come and go to the sound of yet more Caribbean music.
We are clearly the only clients not living in this residence. Everybody seem to be knowing each other. It is an amazing residence, and I keep wondering why this sort of developments don’t seem to take off in Europe too. Or at least, not from what we have seen.
Close to midnight we are adequately “hydrated” and head back towards our more down to earth residence. And probably I will be dreaming of sparkling white sand and the Four Seasons…