ANGUILLA!!!

O my god we had the best time ever!! Anguilla rocks, and the dolphins sealed the deal. But let me start at the beginning...

Sunday morning at 8 o'clock our win air plane actually left only 20 minutes late, we got to St Maarten relatively on time and our local statian bar owner (Cool Corner), Chucky was on the plane with us and he was so sweet as to drop us off at the french side's Marigot where the ferry to Anguilla goes. We got there right before 10 and w/i minutes a boat left. Unfortunately the ferry wasnt as romantic as we expected; it wasnt open, so instead we sat inside a cabin that smelled of petrol. Fortunately only 18 minutes later we set foot on wall of Anguilla. Now there wasnt a tourist desk as promised (and we hadnt actually booked a hotel or anything...) but the taxi drivers were very sweet and made some phonecalls and after a while they found us a very nice place to stay for only 78 dollars (which is extremely cheap for anguilla) called Sydans.
This appartment hotel is owned by An and she was very sweet and helpful. Although after New Zealand I had sworn I would never drive on the wrong side of the road before, the moment we got to Anguilla it became pretty clear that it would be a waste not to rent a car. And after I discovered that you can actually rent normal (left handed) cars and that it really isnt busy on the roads there we rented our own little blue transport from which turned out to be a Dutch person!

In order to drive on Anguilla you need to get an Anguillan drivers license, which is basically a little pink paper (much like ours) with one big message written on it: DRIVE ON THE LEFT hahaha even our keys had the same message printed on them...

It turns out driving on the left is easy --> I didnt even mess up once, just as long as the wheel stays on the left too!

However by this time we were extremely hungry and it was time for food. We got in our car and made it down to my now personal favorite Upper Shoal Bay East to Gwen's grill.
O my god that place is soo chill; it was an instant holiday feeling! A pretty much deserted beach, the bluest ocean, hammocks & seriously tasty barbeque food!

Shoal Bay East Upper Part

Now Anguilla is known for its beaches, it actually made it as the number one in the top ten beaches of the world, and there are 33 of them (see map on top) and we had only 2 days... so time to explore! Like I mentioned before Shoal Bay East Upper part became my instant favorite, but Shoal Bay West, Rendezvous Bay and Meads Bay are pretty darn nice too...

Shoal Bay East Lower Part

Shoal Bay West

Around 3 I started to get pretty nervous and desperately started looking around for a place with TV, as it turns out Anguillans arent too stressed about football, but finally we found one at the very nice resort called Cuisine Art on Rendezvous Bay; it was one of the most beautiful views that was completely ruined for me around 4:45....no more statements about football...

At the same bay is Dune Preserve, which is another ultimate chill place with hammocks, boats as private seats a seriously chill atmosphere and life music by the owner Bankie Banx & friends!

After having toured the entire island we made it home for a quick shower and then we faced with the seriously tough decission as to where to eat! The place we finally decided on turned out to be closed so after driving around for a while I pulled over the first locals I saw and they told us to go to Tasty's. Now this place was basically around the corner from where we started and not on a beach or anything but you gotta trust the locals rigth? And our trust wasnt hurt; the food was absolutely gorgeous; I had the pumpkin soup (as many know I love pumpkin soup) which had a nice added taste of cinnamon! and then I had the goat cheese salad which was made special, and different from all other goat cheese salads by its dressing...

After diner we tried 4 clubs/bars but none were booming so instead we watch a scary movie at home as to wake up early...

Which the next day we did; we put on our bathing suits and crossed the road to Sandy Ground for a morning dip; man what a hard life! :) After drying off we had breakfast right there on the beach at the no-nonsense Irie Life. After breakfast we got in the car as soon as possible in order to see as much of the island as possible, including the underwater life. So we made our way down to Shoal Bay once again to go snorkeling, which was seriously nice. We lay on the beach to dry up but by that time it was sooo hot we had to get out of there.

We decided to just go look at the dolphins at the dolphin discovery. But then we saw them and they were sooooooooo seriously cute and they tried to play with us etc. So I just asked (cant hurt right) how much it cost...waaay tooo much. So then I asked whether it was still even possible that day (why else worry about it right) which (un)fortunately it was...So then I asked about discounts...now here they had me; they were willing to take 60 dollars of the most expensive swim! So even though I am not really for institution like this, we did the Royal Swim and we got so lucky; it was just the 2 of us! We were in the water with Al & Calypso (the dolphins) for like 45 minutes. I have a video!!! We kissed them, swam with them, danced with them and did the "foot push". Now that was THE experience! You lie in the water flat on your tummy, with your arms stretched out in front of you and your feet flexed down and all of a sudden these 2 dolphins come and each one put their snout to your foot and then they push you to the other side of the pool!! I was seriously nervous and thought I wouldnt be able to do it but it was awesome; they actually raised me completely out of the water!! And because it was just the 2 of us we got to do it again; Oh you guys seriously got to watch the video (I'll try to put bits on Hyves)
Anyways one of the best experiences ever; I am still on a high!

Kissed by Calypso

After the dolphin swim we had a quick but nice bite at Roy's Grill; nice place on the beach after which we made our way back to Blowing point to catch the ferry. The way home went extremely smoothly...the moment we left the ferry, the bus came, we got off the bus and the next one came and the win air plane was on time again!!

Overall an absolutely perfect trip!

And now saturday morning I am going to St Kitts, with Warry, Fabian & Ronald, for the music festival/carnaval...:)