How the Love Affair Began

My love affair with Anguilla began twelve years ago in 1994. I wanted to travel back to the Caribbean but I didn't want to return to St. John, that was Val's island. I wanted a place to call my own. I got a Fodor's Caribbean Guide out of the library and read about every single Caribbean island it listed.

On our trip to St. John we spent some time shopping on St. Thomas. Sure, some of the jewelry and perfume looked like a deal, but were they really? Shopping wasn't on my list of must-haves for a Caribbean trip. I can buy anything I want right here in my own town, so I wasn't looking to travel thousands of miles for shopping. I wasn't a big partier either, and now that I'm older I'm less of one, so active nightlife wasn't what I was looking for either. I wanted to get away from crowds. What I was looking for was a small island with beaches, beaches, beaches.

Well, after reading the Caribbean Guide from cover to cover it seemed that my choices were narrowed down to Saba, Montserrat and Anguilla. Reading about all three again I soon came to find out that Saba is a diving island, small, but no real beaches. Montserrat has beaches, but black sand beaches, not for me.

Then I re-read about Anguilla. Small, 16 x 3 miles with 33 brilliant white sand beaches. Ahhh, Anguilla looked just right.