Friday 24th January 2025
At last we woke to a blue sky and sunshine, hopefully all this bad weather is behind us now and Martin can get in some more “tanning”, he has been unlucky with his week.
We had a delay in getting out after breakfast today as Martin had an important business conference call but as it was his last day, he had elected to return to Half Moon Beach and the “Shack”, he likes this beach,
By late morning we hit the road, 47-minutes to cover the 13-miles, what a joke, mind you if you see these roads you will understand why!!!!!
We arrived a little after 12-noon an as it was approaching lunchtime, headed straight into the Shack; history tells us service is rather slow!!! Today the usual “lady” who seemed to run the place, takes the orders, delivers the food and finally took the money wasn’t around; perhaps her day off!!! Today we were honoured, her job was being carried out by the owner so we thought he would speed things up, on the contrary things were much worse. Yes we got our first round of beers in and ordered our food, then our second round of beers and around 1300-hrs, the owner came over to check our order; we think he gave our order to someone else!!! One would think our second attempt to order would be given priority, no it was at the back of the queue; 1330hrs when our food eventually came. Though we were somewhat “hissed off” one couldn’t fault our food, an excellent fish wrap and very nice spicy fries. We couldn’t indulge in too much to eat as we are booked to go out tonight.
Today, with the winds being south westerly’s and where there is a lot of Atlantic turbulence, swimming off the beach was going to be “interesting”, and Christine and I tried, but failed to get through the waves where we were, so had to move to a more sheltered spot along the beach. There were more folk on the beach than usual but no-one in the sea!!!
We found a nice spot under a couple of mangrove type trees and here we went straight in, no problem, in fact our presence encouraged a few more to venture in. As usual the sea was refreshing under the hot, but windy sky. After a walk along the beach to dry off we headed back to base.
We explained to Martin one doesn’t go to Papa Zouk for the elegance and ambiance of a fine restaurant, however on the other hand, the food and atmosphere is, “top draw”. We were just trying to manage his expectations as we had “banged” on about this place.
After the usual showers and pre-dinner drinks we headed off, I think Martin was a little sceptical as we drove down this unlit narrow street and turned up into a back ally where the road was blocked by too many taxis dropping and collecting people; “good sign” says Martin. After a few minutes and a taxi trying to do a 3-point turn with hardly enough space, why he didn’t just drive to the end of the road and stop all this confusion I don’t know!!! We found an “unsuitable” space with two wheels in the deep drain; not to sure Martin was happy with this, but hey, drive like the locals BB&G (big balls and go) and park like the locals!!!
Upon entry this young waitress came up to us and asked “Geoff?” How did she know, did I disgrace my self last time we were here, I think not. Anyway after a few minutes she asked this table of four if we could join them, it was a long table with a long bench each side and a chair on the end, perfect, and perfect it was. The four we joined were very friendly and we all had a laugh as we joined them. I then recommended to Martin we each have one of the house special “Rum Punches”, Christine went straight into the wine!! At this point Martin said this place was fabulous and his kind of place, good news!! The four we were sitting with were very interesting, the lady next to me with an “outrageous” red hat, was a well known designer in the Caribbean and USA and was really outgoing, we had a laugh, and opposite her was her brother, a retired publisher who spent 3-months in Antigua, Rome, US and somewhere else I’ve forgotten. They had their respective partners with them, a jolly party that included us and it helped they were regulars at Papa Zouk’s. Whilst chatting they recommended a couple of other similar, local places to eat, that’s good.
At the end of another superb meal of various dishes two that included half a lobster, it was time to go, but first we had to book a table for our last night!!! I wonder if by then they will have forgotten my name!!!
As we were leaving Martin informed us that this was one of the best restaurants he had ever been to, he even went on to say “the best”, alternatively it may have been the rum punch and wine, not to forget the G&T earlier.
The car got us home nicely!!!! And then the accusations came from Martin; he had the audacity to suggest I stitched him up by getting the barman to add additional rum; I didn’t, probably because I didn’t think of it😂😂, suffice to say no nightcaps tonight!!!! We soon headed off to bed after a really nice day, again.