Finding serene sleep at Anse Chastanet
By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon, CJ Travel Editor
The centerpiece of my suite at St. Lucia’s Anse Chastanet resort is a four-poster bed. Draped in diaphanous netting and dressed in linens trimmed with the colorful traditional Madras plaid, it’s the stuff of which Caribbean dreams are made.
But I didn’t sleep there last night.
Instead, I found an even better spot to rest my head. And I’m guessing you would, too, if you had this oasis of a wraparound balcony to yourself.
Reclined on one of a pair of lounge chairs in its southern corner, I watched the sun set over the calm Caribbean, clouds refracting its golden glow and reflecting it onto the water. Framed by a hillside carpeted with the greenest of trees, the scene was like something out of a vintage Caribbean postcard.
And if I looked left across even more mirror-flat water, I saw the Pitons, St. Lucia’s twin volcanic peaks. Although miles away, they appeared so close I could reach out and touch them as they stood silent and majestic vigil over this captivating corner of the island.
As the sun descended and its amber glow was replaced by the blue-black of night, as stars peeped out as if from behind an inky scrim and the chorus of whistling tree frogs began its nightly performance, I could fathom no reason to move from this luckiest of spots.
So I simply reclined the backrest of my chaise a little further, lit the votive on the side table next to me, and settled in for the night. Because when life gives you an opportunity as sweet and serendipitous as this, the only smart thing to do is to seize it.