The week­end past was pure heav­en, as I spent it at the new­ly opened Playa del Este Sanc­tu­ary Pri­vate Re­sort in Saly­bia. Owned by for­mer Poi­son band­leader Michael Headley, the ex­pan­sive venue has pre­vi­ous­ly been home to the very pop­u­lar Car­ni­val Thurs­day all-in­clu­sive fetes on the north-east coast. The re­sort is ba­si­cal­ly sub­di­vid­ed in­to four themed vil­las–We Beat, through which lo­cal in­dige­nous mu­sic, in­clud­ing so­ca, parang and chut­ney, is piped; La Trop­i­cana, cater­ing to the riv­et­ing vi­bra­tions of Latin mu­sic; Mo­town, which caters to gold­en hits, rock and soul; and, Caribbean Rhythms, its sea­side deck, served with the sounds of reg­gae, zouk, bacha­ta and merengue.

Headley has hand-picked a well ex­pe­ri­enced man­age­ment team that is head­ed by for­mer Mi­a­mi res­i­dent Pat Dil­lon; Venezue­lan ex­ec­u­tive chef Vic­tor T Padron; and Jen­nifer Singh. Dil­lon holds a de­gree in trav­el and hos­pi­tal­i­ty man­age­ment and has worked at a se­nior man­age­ment lev­el at both South African Air­ways and Amer­i­can Ex­press Cen­tu­ri­on Trav­el. Hav­ing at­tend­ed al­most every fete held at Playa del Este for more than ten years, I got my mind blown by spend­ing time on the prop­er­ty. I rel­ished the de­li­cious fare served each day so much that I was forced to en­quire af­ter the hands that pre­pared the meals. Dil­lon re­vealed that be­side Padron, the de­lec­table Caribbean dish­es served were pre­pared by Chan­dra Boodoos­ingh, Avi­nesh Ja­groop, Michelle Dy­er, MUST stu­dent Martha Patrick, and Dil­lon her­self, who pre­pared a mean king fish on Sat­ur­day, the cre­ole sea­son­ing ev­i­dent to the bone.

Stom­ach room had to ac­tu­al­ly be made on Sat­ur­day for din­ner, which com­prised dhalpuri roti and buss-up-shut, com­plete with cur­ried chick­en, chan­na, man­go, pump­kin, bo­di and pota­to. By the time the wait­ress an­nounced dessert–cheese cake, Black For­est cake, home­made ice cream and fresh fruit sal­ad–nary a soul could in­dulge. Oh, on Sat­ur­day night, guests were en­ter­tained with a spe­cial per­for­mance by vet­er­an Chut­ney Monarch Rik­ki Jai. Sun­day's break­fast was to­tal lo­cal, in­clu­sive of co­conut roast bake, fry bake, ac­cra, smoke her­ring, bhuljol, sar­dines, fried gar­lic yuc­ca (cas­sa­va), toma­to cho­ka, fresh fruit, yo­gurt and ce­re­al.

Porter­house steak, spinach rice, mac­a­roni and pota­to pie, callaloo, and an as­sort­ment of pro­vi­sion con­sti­tut­ed Sun­day lunch, al­so served with am­ple desserts. As the vis­it wound down, it was most chal­leng­ing to de­cide be­tween hav­ing sies­ta, wad­ing in the jacuzzi or swim­ming pool, or ven­tur­ing down to Saly­bia Beach for a dip in the salt. The week­end–specif­i­cal­ly cater­ing to the me­dia–al­so in­clud­ed mas­sages, the choice of two jacuzzis, two swim­ming pools, and use of the gym and spa. It was just what the doc­tor or­dered. With the sound of waves ca­ress­ing the shore­line, for­got­ten were the stress­ful is­sues of the week, like the cost of flags and per­form­ing arts