Going On Island Time!

                                      


Be back in a couple weeks.....

Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best and good health for 2014, my friends!
We had a marvelous time in St. Lucia and Anse Chastanet was perfect as usual. I've blogged about it before, here and here.
But instead of a recipe to begin the year, I thought you might enjoy a short video I made of a new tradition at the hotel on New Year's Eve....kite lanterns. Perhaps you're familiar with them, but they were new to me; lo and behold, I found them at Amazon. You light a bit of cardboard beneath and the flame will inflate the paper kite to a point where it will lift right off...of course, you make a wish as you release it.
Imagine they ought to be used over water and with the wind in the right direction, but even those that blew back didn't cause a problem. Still, caution is advised, obviously.

Enjoy and I'll post a recipe in a few days.

da Conch Shack & RumBar and da Funky Giveaway

We've arrived!

Let's take a tour.

    A great way to spend an afternoon, but we came for conch!

And now to eat!

The contented diners....

The location? Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.

Website and accolades: Click HERE!
Are you up for a funky giveaway? You're in good company (Keith Richards?!!):

Three choices, the grey pirate one is ladies L (actually seems smaller), one white, ladies XL... and another ladies L, both slightly better quality than the grey. An off the wall giveaway and don't expect glamour here. They are new, but were on a shelf in da Conch Shack after all. Let me know if you want to be included in the draw. Not everyone's cup of tea, I know.  :) U.S. only.

                                                           

Going on Island Time!

Be back the end of August......

The Stairs of Anse Chastanet, St. Lucia

309. That's how many steps we counted from the beach to our room at one of our favorite resorts and where we went for Christmas. 
Several times a day too.  No need to worry about gaining weight here; buns of steel by the time we left.

Let's start down at the beach. Dip your feet in the water to wash off the sand and then here we go....

Still climbing.....

Aha! A place to rest.

Rest over already?

Looking back at the rest area....

Finally, we're half way there. This is a multi-layered area for reception, bar and two dining rooms.

And we start climbing again. This time to our room. Photo looks back down to reception area.

Hang in there!

That's my daughter...I make her haul the water (and everything else). See the tiny red arrow? That's where we turn in for our room.

Finally, the turn off on the right. Thought we were through? NOT. We have 55 more steep steps to go.

The last 16 steps, gasp... Tracy has reached our door.

Collapse in chairs on the deck and look at these two views at dusk. The Pitons in one direction and the ocean on the other. Are the steps worth it? Absolutely.



Summer Vacation: Nevis, Part Two

I'll begin Part Two with our tour of Nevis churches.  Old churches and cemeteries are always fascinating and you can learn so much about the history of an area by visiting them. I've always thought a wonderful photo-essay could be written just on tombstones and the tales they tell. We so enjoyed visiting these three churches and were fortunate to be able to go inside two that are intact and still hold services.

The first we saw was St. Thomas Anglican Church and School. It's the island's oldest church and was built in 1643. The gravestones in the old churchyard have so much information on them, are in pretty good condition and it was a learning experience wandering around. The setting of the church is high on a hill with a wonderful view. The church itself contains stone memorials (set in the floor) to Nevis's early settlers. We especially liked the stations of the cross. The artwork was wonderful and very well preserved. Don't you love the baptismal font? "Suffer Little Children" written on the base.

The second was Cottle Church, built in 1824. It states on a placard in front: "The first church in the Caribbean built for all people, regardless of colour, to worship together."

The last church we visited was St. James Anglican Church, built in 1750. A placard here states: "This is one of only three churches in the Caribbean to have a black crucifix." You can see a photo of it below. There was an exquisitely carved lectern in the shape of an eagle. I took one close up of the top and you can see it in the distance in another photo.
And that's our wonderful driver, Dale, in the last photo. He was an amazing font of knowledge about the island, its history and even its flora and fauna. We spent an entire day with him touring the island.

Now that we've toured the churches, I hope you're feeling hungry, 'cause I'm going to move on to restaurants and I'll start with the hotel,  Four Seasons. They had several restaurants. 

Coral Grill was their most elegant (and expensive) restaurant, featuring fresh seafood and exquisite cuts of meat. We had relaxing dinners there a couple times.

Mango, a less formal restaurant, sits on a jut of land that overlooks the ocean towards St. Kitts. Located right on the beach, it's a charming and rather romantic place to dine at night.

There is an Italian restaurant, Neve, also open only at night. We didn't eat there, but this is where breakfast is served in the morning (And where the sous chef gave me their recipe for coconut yogurt... I posted it a while back. Recently, they were nice enough to email me the Caribbean Muesli recipe which I will post soon.) and when there was bad weather, the beach restaurant would close and a bountiful buffet lunch was served at Neve.

 The final photo was the Cabana restaurant near the beach. Very casual. We either had lunch there or ordered lunch down on the beach under our umbrella.

We most often chose to eat away from the hotel because the island's restaurants are varied and fun to visit.
Let me start with two on Pinney's Beach, both a short walk down the beach from the hotel.....Sunshine's and Double Deuce. Both funky. We went to Sunshine's years ago when it was in a different location. It really swings at night. Great bbq!

Double Deuce is the other on the beach and has the best burgers you'll ever taste. I know, it looks pretty beat up from the beach, but the food is excellent.

And two of our dinner favorites. First, Bananas.
Bananas was lovingly built by owner Gillian Suiter-Lowe in the style of the old Caribbean Chattel houses. (She lives in the back.) Walaba shingles, wooden shutters, Island stone floors and a wrap around rustic galvanized porch, together with chandeliers and old iron day beds lend a “shabby Chic” atmosphere to the restaurant. Great fun, Gillian is a super friendly owner and the food was excellent.

The second, Gallipot. Fab seafood here!

Another wonderful restaurant, a touch more elegant, was Golden Rock Plantation Inn. We had been there years ago and we were astounded at the refit.  Pam Barry's great-great-great-grandfather built this estate in the early years of the 19th century; Pam and co-owners artist Brice Marden and his wife redid it completely. Pam is an avid environmentalist so there are nature trails throughout the mountainous 96 acre property. We wandered around and found the property splashed with reds and greens, looking quite like a contemporary art installation which played off the historic elements. A truly beautiful setting, good food and so unusual. Brice Marden happened to be there that night, Tracy knows him so they had a lovely chat. (That's me in the red dress. I match the decor!) I might mention here that most of these restaurants are also hotels or inns, so I added links if you're interested.

One night, Tracy and I went to Montpelier Plantation, set in a sixty-acre estate 750 feet up in the hills of Nevis. We we were fortunate to get reservations in the sugar mill;  I enjoyed this dinner the most, the setting was unusual and charming and the food excellent and well presented, but Tracy is not much of a meat eater and did not enjoy the main course of filet of beef. It was a set menu the evening we were there.

Another old favorite we remembered from our last trip was The Hermitage. It is one of the oldest Nevis Hotels in operation. The great house was built around 1700 from the rare Nevis hardwood Lignum Vitae. The house has always been in use, as a hotel, as an artist studio, as the head quarters for the Minister of Agriculture, as a rich planter’s home, and as a poor planter’s home. I didn't get a photo of the dining room, which was out on the screened-in patio, but you can see the period furnishings, like antique china and oriental rugs, that decorate the main house. Food was excellent here as well.

One we missed this summer was Nisbet Plantation Beach Club. It closes mid August.  A lot of restaurants and hotels in the Caribbean close down mid August and September. So I hope you won't miss it if you go as we remembered it well. It has a lovely history:
This resort is where British Navy Captain Horatio Nelson met Frances “Fanny” Nisbet, niece of the President of Nevis and widow of Dr. Nisbet, owner of Nisbet Plantation. Nelson and Fanny quickly fell in love and were married on March 11, 1787 at Fig Tree Church on Nevis. A key stone found in the ruined windmill bears the family initials and the date 1778. It was first a sugar plantation and later a coconut plantation.
In 1950 Mary Pomeroy bought the plantation and eventually made it into a resort. Nisbet Plantation and Golden Rock became the first Nevis hotels. Ownership has changed several times and it is now owned by David Dodwell. The photo below is of their dining room: The Great Room.

Last, but certainly not least is Miss June's.
Miss June is an institution on Nevis AND an experience. She has an outlandish collection of hats....all over her bedroom. And when I pulled out my fan (it was really a hot rainy night and restaurants are not air conditioned on this island), Miss June grabbed my arm and led me over to a drawer which, when she opened it, contained 50 fans at least. An amazing assortment.
Dinner at Miss June's is rather like a house party. Guests assemble around 7:30 p.m. for cocktails, and dine at 8:30 p.m. at a formal table set with crystal and fine linen.  Drinks are in the living room, appetizers served at the table (whatever it was, it was nearly inedible) and then a buffet is set up along a wall. Miss June proceeds to describe every single dish and believe me, it takes a while. You name it, it was there.  Caribbean, Asian, and European  dishes (even mac and cheese) all accompanied by wine followed by coffee, liqueurs, port and brandy and of course, a dessert...as I recall, strawberry ice cream. 
 Years ago, with our British friends, we giggled our way through the evening. The guests at Miss June's make or break the experience. This particular night, the guests were not fun nor very interesting. Unfortunately. Because if you're not laughing, you're thinking about the food, which is not fabulous. You have to go with a sense of humor, that's certain. That's Miss June in the pink and blue check dress and my daughter behind her in white. I wish my photos of the line-up of food had turned out better because it was something to behold.

Well, I hope you've enjoyed wading through this lengthy tour of Nevis. We had lots of fun. And I regret not posting photos of food we loved, but every single food photo I took was terrible.  :(
Stay tuned, because the very next post will be the Four Seasons recipe for Caribbean Muesli!

Summer Vacation: Nevis, Part One

This vacation post is a long one, so I'm going to divide it into two parts. The first part today is  about the island and our hotel. The second post will be about the churches and restaurants.

We flew from Miami to St. Kitts and then took a 45 minute ferry ride to Nevis. Let's start with the pronunciation of the island. It ought to be Nevis, the "e" sounding like the e in never. But everyone, islanders included, call it Neevis, with a long e.

Nevis is a volcanic island in the Caribbean, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago. It's seven miles long and 5 miles wide with a population of 11,000 and the capital is Charleston. 
Nevis was first sighted by Columbus in 1493; an island settled for more than two thousand years by Amerindian people. The current name Nevis was derived from a Spanish name meaning "our lady of the snows", probably referring to the white clouds that usually cover the top of Nevis Peak.

The island of Nevis is divided into five administrative subdivisions called parishes; each parish is shaped like a pie slice. The first part of the name is the name of the patron saint of the parish church, and the second part of the name is the traditional common name of the parish.The five parishes of Nevis are:

Saint George Gingerland
Saint James Windward
Saint John Figtree
Saint Paul Charlestown
Saint Thomas Lowland

Nevis retains old world charm with 18th and 19th century stone buildings and refurbished plantations and great houses scattered about the island. The island is also known by the sobriquet "Queen of the Caribees", which it earned in the 18th century, when its sugar plantations created much wealth for the British. We had dinner one night in an old sugar mill on Montpelier Plantation, which you'll read about in Part Two.

 Nevis is also of particular historical significance to Americans because it was the birthplace and early childhood home of Alexander Hamilton.

For the British, Nevis is the place where Horatio Nelson was stationed as a young sea captain, and is where he met and married a Nevisian, Frances Nisbet, the young widow of a plantation-owner.

It may be a small island, but one thing you'll never be is bored. There's so much to do: hiking (you can even climb Mt. Nevis), sailing, golf, tennis, a lovely botanical garden, scuba diving and of course, beaches. There are any number of beaches, but the longest is Pinney's Beach, where The Four Seasons is located. This resort also has three lovely pools (one for adults only), several restaurants (we'll discuss these in Part Two), a golf course, tennis courts, spa and workout room; in other words, everything anyone could possibly want. We had a room overlooking the ocean. (That's my daughter in the first photo with Mt. Nevis in the background....she had her hair braided!...and my youngest son with my daughter in the final photo.)

The island is awash with green vervet monkeys. It's said they number 4 times the population. While they didn't seem to encroach on the space around rooms, beach and hotel grounds (how that was avoided here I can't imagine as on other islands in the area they actually come down to the beach and steal food and drinks away!), there were lots of them on the golf course. One afternoon, we took a tour and look what we found (some of them had been cavorting around on the golf course greens but took to the trees when we came along).

They may seem cute, but they are pests. They eat everything so it's almost impossible for anyone on the island to keep fruit or vegetable gardens, which is a shame in a climate like this. The monkeys' preferred trees are mango and another called a genip tree. It bears an interesting fruit; I'd never heard of it before. We broke off a branch and tried the fruit. It's quite small and when you bite into it, you find a large round seed covered with a slightly furry fruit layer. There's nothing substantial about the fruit and all you can do with it is suck on the seed. It's sweet and no wonder the monkeys like it. I did too!

A little about flowers: one of the most common was Coralita, a twining vine found growing everywhere. It's really considered a weed, but the pink or white flowers are very numerous and make a conspicuous bed of color. Look how it's taken over this old house! If you look closely and you can see the pink flowers. (There's a close-up of Coralita in the slideshow on the Botanical Garden below.)

Another interesting tree is the cherry tree....and it's not what you think. This particular cherry tree yields a sticky fruit that was/can be used as a homemade glue. There's a photo of that tree in the slideshow too. 

The flamboyant is the national tree of Nevis, with long, brown seed pods  that are shaken like castanets to make music. In Florida we call it a Royal Poinciana. The red blooms are something to behold and we are fortunate to see them blooming everywhere in the summer.
 

And before I forget, let me tell you about the goats and sheep. They wander about freely in fields around the island. Lots of them. The sheep don't have the heavy wool coats we are accustomed to seeing; we were told it was because of the year-round warm weather. You can barely tell the difference between them. How? Goats: tails up. Sheep: tails down.  :)

One afternoon we visited the Botanical Garden. It was lovely, very well kept and had one of the nicest gift shops on the island.

Did I mention Tracy and I had been here before? In 1996. Oddly enough, one of the things we remembered best was a trip to the race track. Yes....they have a race track. It used to be open on holidays only, not terribly well organized and when we went years ago, one of the horses dumped his jockey, took off across the field next to the track and wasn't found until the next day.  :) We had gone with a British couple we had made friends with and spent an afternoon of fun and laughter. I'm sure we lost every cent we bet too. Not too many tourists know about the races. Anyway, things are much more organized now, a serious business....fun, but not nearly as much fun.  The track has covered bleachers now and they actually smooth the track out in between races. The same jockeys are used race after race, so there's quite a wait in between races. All the same, a trip to the race track is not to be missed if you're fortunate enough to visit Nevis when the horses are running. Food and drinks are for sale (as well as betting) and everyone brings their family and makes an afternoon of it. As you can see below, many of the local women sport Kentucky Derby-type hats!

Our driver, Dale, showed us a drag track and said drag racing was quite a popular sport here and then a cricket field, which stood practically in the center of Charleston city. Needless to say, cricket is a big sport on Nevis. Unfortunately, we didn't see a match, even if I could understand the rules, which always have left me in total confusion!


Stay tuned for Part Two......

The End of Our French Polynesian Adventure: Taha'a

No...this isn't where we've just been, but it's the last post on French P0lynesia. The Nevis post will be coming soon.

Our final island, Taha'a (pronounced Ta–ha-ah), was recommended by the travel agent. We shouldn't have listened. It was lovely and so was the resort, but definitely a mistake for a mom and daughter to have spent so much time there. I'm glad we saw it, but it was another honeymoon resort and on this island, we ran into some American-hating British. Quite overt they were about it too. We also weren't terribly happy with the service...a superior attitude, which, at these prices, was quite a mistake. 

Do I sound like I'm always finding fault? Well, here's some good news: for once, the food was wonderful.

Taha'a

There's no airport on Taha'a, so we landed on Raiatea and took a 35 minute boat transfer to our hotel, Le Taha'a Island Resort & Spa, the only Relais and Châteaux destination in French Polynesia.

Raiatea and Taha'a are two islands enclosed in a single barrier reef. Taha'a, slightly smaller and less populated than Raiatea, has a population of around 4500 people. Taha'a is the only island in the Society Islands that can be completely circled by boat inside the protected lagoon. Taha'a's nickname is the "Vanilla Island"- because of it's constant rich aroma of vanilla. In fact, the Island boasts a full 80% of all Tahiti's Vanilla production and is also inundated with pearl farms. Because we had already visited both, we didn't go on any tours here.

On the map below, notice where Le Taha'a Resort is located...on a motu, upper left

Our resort's main selling point is its location on the small, stunning islet of Motu Tautau, off the coast of Taha'a. (Taha'a itself is just 34 square miles.) The resort faces the island of Taha'a on the lagoon side and offers an unsurpassed view of Bora Bora island on the ocean side.
You can walk 100 yards into the water here and still be only knee-deep. The surrounding waters are also advertised as "calm" which, unfortunately, was not the case while we were there.

We adored our overwater suite...it was the most elegantly appointed of any resort we visited. The woodwork was beautiful. I tried to take photos of as much of the paneling as I could. Everything was very nautical, even the entrance to the lobby, which you can see in the slideshow....an outrigger canoe with sail. Another fun little aside: guests in overwater suites can request breakfast brought to the room by canoe. No, we didn't do it, but we saw it being delivered quite often to other bungalows. It was quite a lovely ceremony, actually.
And yes, that's a glass floor for viewing fish at the foot of the bed.



There are three restaurants (important, since there's nowhere else to eat), tennis courts, a lovely swimming pool which I ended up using each day because of the wind. It may seem that there's no reason to leave the resort (which we didn't), but a visit to mainland Taha'a may be your one chance to see what French Polynesia was like before it got so popular; locals say this island is what Bora Bora was 20 years ago.

The resort’s indoor-outdoor main restaurant, Vanille, is named after the fragrant brown beans that are cultivated on Taha’a island. We ate breakfast there every morning and it was a delight. For lunch, we always ate at La Plage--“the beach”-- which served light fare like sandwiches and salads. It was located near the pool area. In addition, Manuia Bar was located beside the pool and they whipped up cocktails, juices, and smoothies.

We had two choices for dinner: Vanille or Ohiri, their upscale (and shockingly expensive) restaurant. The food at Ohiri was fabulous. We had a couple festive buffets at Vanille which were lovely.

The bar had entertainment each night which was most enjoyable. One night, while enjoying a buffet at Vanille, there was a floor show. Part of the show was an extraordinary man covered with tattoos. Face included. Not a square inch of skin left unadorned. (That I could see anyway. :) ) He was quite famous in these islands. I've forgotten his name and I wish I had taken a photo, but it was dark and the tattoos would never have shown up. I remember him climbing an extremely tall  palm tree right to the top directly in front of us, using nothing but his feet and hands.

Tattooing is an important part of the culture of the Polynesian islands. South Pacific Islanders have been decorating their bodies with symbolistic art for many hundreds of years, if not thousands... In fact, it's popularly believed among historians that the first and oldest Tattoos known to man were from the South Pacific Islands, (probably the Marquesas). Originally, tattoos indicated genealogy, rank and wealth as well as strength and ability to bear pain. Twelve year old boys were tattooed to prove they were men, while girls were tattooed to indicate sexual maturity. Tattoo artists had an honored place in society. 
(No, we didn't get one!)
 

As far as the diving was concerned, Tracy said some dives focused on shipwrecks or submerged caverns, but most were coral reef dives. Most of the good snorkeling took place in a short inlet that ran between the lagoon and the ocean. Photos below; these are views from the inlet towards the ocean and Bora Bora and the other towards the lagoon.

What did we remember most about Taha'a? Sadly, the rudeness of the young British honeymooners stands out. But because I hate to end our Polynesian Adventure on a bad note....I'll remember how esthetically beautiful this particular resort was and the excellent quality of the food. If you were going on a honeymoon, this would be the perfect choice.

You've been patient with these many posts...I know how time consuming it can be to read from start to finish. But I did want to share with you. We had such a delightful time at every island, each different in its own way, but Huahine reigns supreme in both our minds!

(For all the previous adventures, check the sidebar.)