Paradise

It's been a week since I came home from my spring break trip with my brother to St. Martin, Anguilla, and St. Barths. I had the most wonderful and relaxing time on the islands and we had such fortuitous timing, it was amazing.

First, we visited St. Maarten/Martin. This island is governed by the French and the Dutch. The beaches here were fantastic and the cuisine was pretty great too. The highlight in St. Martin was visiting the Butterfly Farm, which houses tens of types of butterflies. We saw the entire life cycle from eggs to caterpillars to pupae to butterflies and I find the process very fascinating.

Next, we went to Anguilla, which is a British island. The beaches in Anguilla were MAGNIFICENT. They had blue blue water that reminded me of Kool-Aid or Jell-O with sand that was reminiscent of flour. I could lay on those beaches endlessly and remain content. We even saw baby sea turtles making their way to the ocean, which was magical. The food on Anguilla was also gastronomically succulent, expensive because of high import taxes, but so good.

St. Barths was our last stop and probably my favorite island. Everything about this island is lush. We did our open water dives here and became scuba certified! During the dives, we encountered myriad tropical fish, sea turtles, sting rays, lobster, a shipwreck, and everything was gorgeous and colorful. We even got to whalewatch, which is a RARE occurence on the island. I am in love with St. Barths, from the people to the sights, it is a dream.

On the plane ride home, we were lucky enough to be taking a flight path through which we could see the take-off of the Discovery space shuttle. That was an unexpected surprise, but definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

My spring break trip was definitely a great time to spend with my brother, who I don't get to see often enough and relax. I just wish it was longer...