Anguilla

Anguilla is a 20 minute ferry ride away from St. Martin, so we decided to take a day trip to the nearby island.  We originally looked at splitting our 2 week vacation between Anguilla and St. Martin, but quickly changed our mind when we saw how expensive Anguilla cost for everything.  It's a very exclusive island, that has no flights from US.  The majority of the tourist come via private jet, yacht, or ferry.  Since it's not frequented by many tourist, a lot of celebrities and TV shows flock to the island for the unbridled island feel. 

We learned a lot about the island from our taxi driver.  Anguilla is a British island, under the queens rule.  The island is basically flat, lending to it's name translation of eel.  The sand is glaring white, which reflects the sun so strongly that you can burn your eyes after 10 minutes without sunglasses.  The most fascinating story to me was about the people of Anguilla who are looking to increase tourism in their country and would like to cater more to the middle class, but needed publicity.  The perfect opportunity arose for them when "offered" to host the Real Housewives of Atlanta.  However, Anguilla does not have tourist funding or financial wherewithal on how to bring large productions to the island.  In an eagerness to bring attention to the small island, the local business owners offered to foot the bill for the cast of Real Housewives of Atlanta, and the entire crew to film and vacation on their island.  A local hotel owner offered up 90 ocean front rooms, local beauticians performed make-up and hair services, local chefs catered the meals, and local boating operators offered their logistics and assisting in transporting the crew, goods and production equipment.  Hearing this blew my mind!  Bravo TV, nor the housewives themselves paid for this awesome trip that was showcased on TV. It says a lot about both Anguilla and The Real Housewives (a show which I love by the way).  Anguilla's eagerness to have publicity at their beautiful island caused the community to come together and offer whatever they could to assist.  They knew that their efforts would lend to the long term prosperity of their people.  I love the sociological aspect this tells of the culture.  Here is a link to a thank you letter written to the people of Anguilla by a parliament member.  Pretty amazing.  I always knew reality TV was far from reality, but I am let down!! The "Housewives" are edited to look like they live a life that affords them vacations to exclusive islands. In reality they vacation off the backs of hard working people. 

We knew we wanted to go to Shoal Bay, which is listed as one of the top 10 beaches in the world, notably for the soft, white sand.  We rented beach lounge chairs right on the water for $10 each for the day.  There were two restaurants in the sand behind us that had reasonable priced food...we felt like we scored!  We later talk with some people who rented lounge chairs at a resort for $80 per person, which they thought was a good deal.  Our budget savvy way of enjoying Anguilla was more than enjoyable.  It was great to see a different island, culture...and get a new country customs stamp in our passport. Here are some photos from our day in Anguilla:

 

On the boat ferry from St Martin to Anguilla

The smallest customs check ever!   

The harbor of Anguilla.  Goods ship mostly from Puerto Rico

Shoal Bay where we spent the day

Lounge chairs at Shoal Beach

This picture makes me smile.  We call it the stone-cold Jerry Duane pose

Understandable why this beach is voted top 10 in the world

Anguilla has an old Caribbean feel - not inundated with tourist yet!

Snorkeling was fun, but not many fish

We welcomed the intermittent cloud cover since it was so hot!

Conche pita - Jerry loved trying different preparations of conch.

Jerry enjoying fresh coconut water. So refreshing in the blazing sun!