Cap Juluca

“Linda is hosting cocktails up at the Main House around six,” Luscious told me. “And then dinner at Pimms.”

She didn’t say Don’t Be Late, but I knew it was implied. Linda is Linda Hickox. She and her husband Charles own Cap Juluca, where we are staying, or most of it. The story Luscious told me is that they were staying on Anguilla back in the early 80s and happened upon the white sands of Maunday Bay (where there was nothing but a fisherman’s hut or two) and decided to build a luxury resort. In 1988, the first of 18 villas was opened for business.

After that the story gets a little cloudy. The Hickoxs took on some business partners, who basically took over the resort, in 1997. Then there were some bad loans, a default of payments, and in July of 2011, the group that had taken over Cap Juluca failed to make final payments to Charles and Linda and so defaulted on the loan. Or something like that.

In any case, Charles and Linda are basically back in charge and have spent a small fortune to upgrade the resort and bring it back to its former glory. And I have to say, she does look marvelous.

Anyway, I arrived early for cocktails and when the owner arrived, stood and shook her hand and said, “You must be Leslie…I’ve heard so much about you!

“My name is Linda,” she said, shaking my hand.

Of course. Linda. Only an idiot like me could make that mistake. “My apologies,” I said. “I think I called you Leslie because when you walked in, I thought to myself how much you look like Leslie Caron.”

“You’re full of crap…but that’s not bad,” she said, smiling.

After that, Linda and I got on famously. And you know, she really does look remarkably like Leslie Caron.