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Escape Artists: Goodbye Vermont. Hello Anguilla
Island Magazine Ten years ago Melinda and Bob Blanchard pulled up stakes and left their long-time home of Vermont bound for the Caribbean. Their idea was to open a beach snack shack on the island of Anguilla. In their just-published book, A Trip to the Beach, they tell how they established a sophisticated restaurant instead, became part of a down-home community, and learned to live on island time. Q: How did you come to choose Anguilla? BB: We’d been to about 25 islands in the Caribbean but had returned again and again to Anguilla. MB: As we looked around at the other islands, there was never a question. There were a lot of other places we would like to go for a week or two, but there was not a single other island where we wanted to live. On Anguilla there was no crime, no pollution, no traffic and the people were the warmest. Q: Well, actually, in your book you do encounter some crime and an island kind of traffic, but the islanders never seem to disappoint you. MB: We’re like a big family. Of course, to fit in, which we wanted to do, took some education on our part. We had to observe and listen and watch. Q: Bob, it seems that your induction into the island community came with your neighbor’s invitation to dinner. BB: Yes, Harley’s fishhead soup. That encounter (see excerpt below) taught me a lot about the islanders’ independence. They don’t owe anybody money. They own their own house; it may be a rudimentary house, but it’s theirs. And they share what little they have even with us. Q: After Harley’s dinner your book seems to shift from a disaster–prone scenario, like that in Don’t Stop the Carnival, to an appreciative account, more like A Year in Provence or Under the Tuscan Sun. Do you think your island will be besieged by American readers? MB: Our goal was to take the readers and transfer them to a wonderful place. BB: But the thing to understand about Anguilla is that there are only 1,000 rooms and really 400 that are actively used. And 800 people can’t begin to crowd the beaches. Q: Tell us about the beaches. MB: Oh the beaches…….they are phenomenal. You will really never see beaches like Anguilla’s– and so many in one place; it’s mindboggling. BB: The island is so undeveloped. You can go to beaches where there won’t be a person, a building, or anything–just baby-powder sand and turquoise water. And you think, How can this be? Q: It’s clear in the book that even while running a high pressure business practically year round, you find the time to go to the beach. MB: I’ve had an obsession with beaches. To me, the most wonderful thing is to have a day at the beach–to just walk in the water and sit on the sand. It was like a dream honestly, to be able to live in a place I could go to the beach every day if I wanted. A Fishy Story “Local fish suup” Harley said, proudly presenting Bob with a brimming bowl of clear liquid containing a large fish head. Bob stared at the bowl and a fish eye stared back. Harley continued ladling soup into the various containers, making sure everyone got a head. Bob sat down on an overturned plastic pail, trying to avoid eye contact with his soup. The man next to Bob sat on the edge of the porch, legs dangling over the side slurping his soup from the bowl and chewing on his fish head. He intermittently threw the fish bones into Harley’s yard, where several chickens had appeared and were joining the feast. They clucked and scratched at the ground, picking up bones as they were discarded from the porch. Bob continued to stare at his soup until another of Harley guests spoke up. “Hawley, the man need a spoon.” Harley stopped drinking his soup, and with a fish head in one hand, passed Bob a large cooking spoon with the other. From A Trip to the Beach by Bob and Melinda Blanchard |
