Originally posted by "Ginger"
Tuesday we got up early and headed to Topsiders for a good breakfast, we were meeting TommyJoe's and Pryd's families on deck 1 at 8 a.m. to leave on our adventure to Anguilla. We all boarded the water taxi to go to St. Maarten, $5 per adults for unlimited rides for the day, kids are free. Once in town we negotiated the fare of a cab to take us all to Marigot, $5. per adult and $2 for each child. It was about a 20 minute ride. We had to sign up for the ferry and show photo ID and proof of citizenship, Passport or Birth Certificate also pay a $2 departure tax. While we were waiting to board the ferry we met a man named Mel who had a taxi service on Anguilla. He said he had a van large and could to take us all to Shoal Bay Beach East and gave us a good price $60. round trip for all of us. He even gave us his little tour of the island for free. Once at the beach he suggested we return to St. Martin on the 3p.m. ferry because it was an open air boat. We went over on a closed boat and a few of us felt a little sea sick. We agreed and told him to pick us up at 2:30.
Shoal Bay Beach East was breath taking, the pristine beach and clear blue water, WOW, practically deserted. This has got to be the closet place on earth there is to heaven, unbelievable and perfect in every way. Well, almost everyway, there were a couple of things there I could do without. We staked out our spot on the beach, 2 large canopy covered areas together with beach lounges. We met a really super nice guy there who owned a glass bottom boat, his name is Junior. I recognized him from his picture which I saw on Bob Green's site
www.anguillanews.com, Junior has an ad for fishing, glass bottom boat rides, snorkling excursions and much more. I started talking to him and asking him about his boat and the cost for a tour of the ocean floor. He gave me a price of $20 for adults and $10 for children I said we'd have to think about it. I thought that was a bit expensive. He offered us the use of his snorkling equipment for free and was very friendly with our children. Just an all around nice guy.
I was sitting in a lounge when DH asked me to help him put on sunscreen, while I was busy helping I felt something crawling up my leg when I looked down to see what it was I got the surprise of my life it was a
BIG HAIRY SPIDER, but hey not just any old spider it was a
TARANTULA. Yes, that was me you heard screaming while I kicked my legs in the air. I'm sure I was one funny site. When the tarantula got off my legs and I finally calmed down I started looking around to see where it went. DH found the big hairy beast and picked it up with my flip flop and started walking over to a grassy area to release it when he found himself stepping on thorns growing in the grass.
OUCH!!! Junior came over to see what had happened and to try to stop my DH from going in farther in to the thorn grass. He told me that the tarantula was harmless and he would not bite me. Yeah, right Junior. After we pulled the thorns out of DH feet everything went wonderful. We did get a ride on Juniors boat but for a much better price than he first told me. He took us out for over 30 minutes and showed us the coral reefs and beautiful fish. Our day on the beach at Anguilla was much to short and had come to an end. It was a little after 2:00 and Mel was back to take us to meet the 3 p.m. ferry to St. Martin. I forgot to tell that the food was somewhat costly, but they did offer Lobster. The beer was only $2.. What a great place and we can't wait to return and we will someday.
