Flow Like Water — Floating By Anguilla

One of our favorite water experiences.

Of course, when one thinks of the Caribbean, one usually thinks of water. The small islands may offer hiking, but the rest of the time is usually spent at the beach and in the water.

This is a prompt response to Globetrotters June prompt Flow Like Water:

In 2019 we were working at a botanical garden for 6 months, on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. The owner of the garden also owned a house on another Caribbean island called Anguilla.

We had never heard of Anguilla, but when she offered us a stay there for a couple of weeks, including our flight in one direction, we couldn’t say no. It was her way of thanking us for our volunteer time that we had done at her garden, but there was a small catch.

While there, she also wanted us to work a few hours per day on her property. Which was fine. She had a bunch of landscaping work that needed doing, and we love gardening and landscaping, so we didn’t mind.

We flew there on an island-hopping excursion in a super small plane. First, we hopped over to St. Kitts to pick up a couple of passengers, then we were off to Anguilla!

I must say, flying over the Caribbean offers some pretty spectacular views! You can see the turquoise waters that flank each island as you fly by. These small planes don’t get very high, either, so you really can get a good look at the coral reefs as you pass over.

We arrived to the property and immediately fell in love with the Thai-style construction of the house, and the garden. Plus it didn’t hurt that the beach was just a 100m walk down the hill from us.

The owner and her late husband had actually ordered the main house from Thailand and had it shipped to Anguilla and assembled. Unfortunately, some recent hurricanes had damaged much of the main house, and it was in progress of getting repaired and rebuilt. But we had our own bungalow to stay in on the property.

We made good friends with her property manager, BJ, and even went out with him on a couple of excursions to see more of the island.

Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of this natural arch, but it was very cool to see and stand on!

But the ultimate joy of our entire stay on Anguilla, was the beach by our house. We were right on Shoal Bay, which is one of the more popular beaches, however, it was the middle of summer, so the place was very quiet.

Most days we would hardly see another soul on the beach.

We went snorkeling our second day there and learned that a slow current ran along the length of the beach. We vowed the next day that we would walk the kilometer out to the farthest point from the house, then would get in and float our way back down.

Well, that is exactly what we did.

We walked out to the point, simply got in the water, assumed snorkel position, then bobbed our way down the shoreline, taking in an absolutely fantastic array of sea life below us.

We saw turtles, rays, a sea snake, barracudas, sergeant majors, pufferfish, parrot fish and many other fish, plus some really beautiful corals that were growing back from hurricane damage. The colors were so vibrant!

This became our daily routine for the rest of our stay on Anguilla.

We would eat breakfast, work from about 9–12, have lunch, then would don our snorkel gear and hit the current.

The total float lasted about an hour, but then we would fool around by the shore and swim around for another hour at least. Of course, sitting out on the sand afterwards for an hour or so more was a must.

The corals were incredible! The fan coral waved peacefully back and forth, as if waving us on, as we lazily floated by. After a while, we started to learn which corals were where, and we would make a point of swimming to them to look again.

The width of the snorkel range where we would could see coral and fish, ran from very close to shore in knee deep water, to water that must have been 20m (approx. 60 feet) deep and about 30m (approx 90 ft.) from shore. At the maximum depth, the water was so clear that we could still see the bottom, and it was at these slightly deeper depths that we would see rays and barracudas.

We also spent one day with BJ snorkeling around a ship that had wrecked on the beach. There certainly wasn’t the diverse marine life in this area, but the boat was pretty neat.

Our two weeks on Anguilla came and went much too fast! We vowed that if we are ever in the area again, we will certainly see if we can stay at her property.

It is a real dream location.

This is just one of MANY water experiences that we have had in our travels, but it is certainly one of the most memorable.

Thanks for joining us in Anguilla!

Happy Travels!

xo Jill

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We have now been on the African continent for over 2 years!

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