ANSE CHASTANET:

Romance in the Caribbean

ANSE CHASTANET ON THE ISLAND OF ST. LUCIA surely must be the world's most romantic resort.

Picture yourself and a companion having dinner in the resort's terrace restaurant attached to a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. A half-crescent moon hovers overhead in a cloudless sky. The sound of surf rises from the beach below. A guitar player sings, "The Girl >From Ipanema." Almost all the tables are set for two, that being the common denominator among Anse Chastanet visitors. You tilt the bottle of fine Voignier wine over your companion's half-empty glass, planning to preserve enough in the bottle so you can carry it up to your suite for a final sip before bed.

Anse Chastanet does not have rooms; it has movie sets. No glass in the windows, just wooden louvers that allow tropical breezes to circulate. One entire wall is no wall at all: just an open-air balcony. Sleeping at Anse Chastanet is like sleeping outdoors. In the morning, you open your eyes and see the occasional bird flying through the room above your four-poster bed. You awaken like the Princess in Snow White.

If you miss the birds on arising, they'll be there to greet you when you have breakfast down in the terrace restaurant below. Far below! Your suite is 195 steps above the restaurant and reception area where you arrived. It's another 175 steps down to the beach. Thirty-six of Anse Chastanet's 49 suites are attached to the side of a cliff to maximize view. The remaining dozen are at beach level for those who don't want to waste any suntanning time.

Birds for Breakfast

The birds who appear for breakfast are mostly finches of various colors. They perch on the rail beside your elbow ready to pounce on any crumbs left from your breakfast croissants. Birds are the closest thing to being an annoyance at Anse Chastanet. If you don't like birds, you probably should choose some air-conditioned resort elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Anse Chastanet has no air conditioning--other than the tropic breezes. There are also no TV sets or phones in the rooms. If someone tries to reach you by phone or fax, the resort management will chalk your room number on a blackboard by the reception center, indicating you have a message. You can ignore that if you want. Eventually, someone will slip an envelope containing the message under the door of your suite; you can ignore that too.

To summarize Anse Chastanet: It's the ideal getaway resort for honeymooning ornithologists who love scuba-diving and fine wines. We weren't on our honeymoon--not even the second honeymoon--and we didn't scuba-dive on the coral reefs beside the beach, arguably the best on the island. It was the getaway that appealed to me, particularly after a period of pressure deadlines. I wanted to go someplace where I didn't have to walk into my office each morning and deal with two dozen emails.

Fortunately, I had accumulated enough Frequent Flyer miles on American Airlines, so I could escape anywhere. I have been to Europe too often and didn't want to travel as far as the Orient or South America for the week available for a vacation. The Caribbean sounded about right, particularly with winter winds threatening. Isabelle Willis of Lakeshore Travel suggested St. Lucia, an island in the West Indies. I surfed my way into the Internet and identified Anse Chastanet as the most promising resort.

What hooked me was the disclaimer about no telephones and no TV. I would read a novel. I would soak in the sea water and snooze in the sun. I would remember each evening to save at least two sips of wine for a balcony nightcap.

Harrison Ford Slept Here

St. Lucia had been first spotted either by Christopher Columbus, or one of his navigators (depending on which history you want to believe). The island appears on one surviving map in the Vatican Library from 1502. Only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide, St. Lucia lies fourteen degrees north of the Equator between Martinique and St. Vincent, 110 miles northwest of Barbados. It is part of a chain of volcanic islands comprising the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies. The most photographed volcanic spikes on the island are Gros Piton (2,461 feet) and Petit Piton (2,619), viewable from several of the topmost suites at Anse Chastanet. One circular suite (where Harrison Ford stayed during a visit) offers a view so stunning, you'll think you found Shangra La. All of the suites have furniture built from island woods, including teak, mahogany and wild breadfruit.

The French settled St. Lucia in 1650, planting sugar cane. The British came next and battled the French for possession. In mini-wars, the island changed hands on 14 occasions, the British finally acquiring control in 1814. Nevertheless, the islanders (mostly descendants of slaves brought to work the plantations) continue to speak a form of French known as patois. St. Lucia obtained its independence in 1979, but remains part of the British Commonwealth. There are 160,000 inhabitants, a quarter of them living in the main city: Castries, near the center of the island. Two Nobel Prize winners have resided in St. Lucia: Sir Allen Lewis (economics) and Derek Wolcott (literature).

Although you can fly from London to St. Lucia non-stop, our mid-afternoon flight from Chicago required a plane change in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived at the inter-island airport in Castries just after midnight. No problem, I figured, considering the island's size. I was surprised to learn from our taxicab driver that the ride to Anse Chastanet would require 75 minutes, "and the road the last 15 minutes is verry bodd."

Our cab ride was up one side of a volcanic peak and down the other, back and forth on a series of switchbacks, across a valley with a small village and a river, then up another volcanic peak. That repeated several times. It was not the kind of ride during which you might nap easily--then we came to the "verry bodd" part of the ride: two miles of road rockier than any Harrison Ford had encountered in his three Indiana Jones movies. After a delay waking the manager, who had expected us a day later, we finally reached our suite around 3:00 AM.

Nobody Could Easily Reach Us

Once settled into that suite, however, that "verry bodd" road became our barrier against the outside world. Nobody could easily reach us. I averted my gaze passing the message board, heading down to the beach. We saw others staying at the resort leaving on standard tours by four-wheel vehicle to the volcano, or the rain forest. "You really should go," insisted our host, Karolin Troubetzkoy, whose Canadian-born husband, an architect, was the genius behind the design of our suites. We smiled pleasantly at Karolin, but passed.

We avoided also the temptation to scuba dive on the reef, or tour the island by water taxi, an option I might have embraced on most occasions. We did sign up for massages at the resort's mini-spa. Otherwise, you could find us mostly comatose on the beach beneath one of the thatched shelters. We learned quickly that if you didn't want to take time to eat lunch in the oceanside cafe, you could order a beer or a burger and have it brought to where you were sunning or snoozing. Typical to the tropics, the waiters didn't move fast. It might take a half hour to return with your beer. That was okay by me. We got our exercise by climbing steps to and from our suite. Anse Chastanet is not a resort for those aerobically challenged, although stopping frequently to gaze at the bay makes upward movement pleasant.

Anse is a French word meaning "bay." Chastanet was the name of an early French planter for whom the bay was named. Planters could not grow sugar cane at Anse Chastanet because the cliffs above the bay are so steep, but around an outcrop of rock was another bay: Anse Mamin, the site of a sugar cane plantation that remained active until the early part of this century.

On our final day at the resort, we did revert to normal tourist habits. I did some snorkeling. We accepted a water taxi ride to Anse Mamin, spending several hours wandering the site of the old plantation. With the plantation abandoned, the jungle has reclaimed the land. Several stone structures remain, including an old aqueduct and mill used to convert sugar into molasses. Our guide Murray, an expert on natural medicine, pointed out herbs and plants and their uses in curing various illnesses.

However, any illnesses we might have brought with us had been cured by nearly a week of doing nothing. It's not easy to climb 195 steps, particularly when clinging to a near-empty bottle of wine. But at the end of a night of romance, it's worth it.

Travel Tips:

Flights: American Airlines offers the most flights to the Caribbean, connecting to St. Lucia through San Juan, Puerto Rico. Travelers departing mid-afternoon from Chicago, unfortunately land at Vigie Airport in Castries after midnight, not much fun. Consider an overnight stay in Miami, Orlando or even New York City to avoid that late connection. Air Jamaica flies through Montego Bay, landing at the Hewanorra airport in Vieux Fort, closer to Anse Chastanet, and has early-morning flights out of Chicago four days a week. You'll land at 6:00 PM, but you're still giving away part of your day's lodging--and rooms at Anse Chastanet are not cheap. BWIA (a Caribbean carrier) offers flights out of New York; Air Canada flies to St. Lucia from Toronto.

Lodging: A couple that travels off-season (June-October) can stay at Anse Chastanet for only $166 a night without meals and other package activities. If your budget allows, and you want that premium room with its view of the twin peaks where Harrison Ford stayed, you'll pay up to $630 in-season (December-April) and may need to stay a full week. Full packages include: meals, transfers, sightseeing, service, even a beginner's course in scuba diving. The island currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar, but I never pulled my wallet out of my pocket during our stay, because so much was included in the package price.

Contact:

Anse Chastanet c/o: P.O. Box 7000 Soufriere, St. Lucia, W.I. Tel: 758/459-7000 Fax: 758/459-7700 Toll-free USA: 800/223-1108

By e-mail, you can reach Anse Chastanet at ansechastanet@candw.lc, although because of quirks in the island server, your messages sometimes bounce back.

Check also the resort's web site: www.ansechastanet.com. Make your reservations early. During our visit in November, Anse Chastanet was fully booked.

Other Resorts: We stayed briefly at a second resort before departing St. Lucia: Le Sport at the northern end of the island. The atmosphere is totally different with air conditioned rooms and many more of them. The clientele is largely European. Le Sport features a spa and fitness center, offering classes in everything from archery to golf and fencing, along with treatments for your skin and body.

Contact:

Le Sport c/o Cariblue Beach P.O. Box 437 St. Lucia, W.I. Telephone: 758/450-8551 Fax: 758/450-0368 Email: lesport@candw.lc Web site: http://www.lesport.com.lc.

Le Sport has a sister resort on Grenada called LaSource: lasource@caribsurf.com. For more information, call (888) 4-STLUCIA.

Copyright © 1997 by Hal Higdon.