Belmond Cap Juluca’s outgoing General Manager, Mr. Tiago Moraes Sarmento, will be 10,652 kilometres (6,621 miles) away – a straight-line distance – from Anguilla to South Africa. But his heart, and the hearts of his family, will be in Anguilla which they called home for over four enjoyable years.
Mr. Sarmento and his family left Anguilla on Thursday, November 4.
Born in Portugal, he departed there some 20 years ago, for job postings in various parts of the world. The most recent of those places was Anguilla. He arrived here shortly after the Belmond chain of luxury hotels, had purchased Cap Juluca, Anguilla’s iconic resort at Maunday’s Bay. On his arrival, the hotel was in a very deplorable condition having just passed through Hurricane Irma in September 2017, although it was closed at the time of the category 5 storm.
Working on behalf of Belmond, he oversaw the extensive and costly renovation and expansion of Cap Juluca – ensuring its reopening in November, the following after. Apart from the many improvements to the property, he set about developing its varied accommodation services, and re-established Cap Juluca as the flagship of tourism in Anguilla.
A farewell ceremony, attended by present and former Government officials, executive committee members at the resort, and a number of friends, was held on Tuesday evening, November 2. The day before, Monday, the employees at the resort held a surprise party for Mr. Sarmento and his family.
During Tuesday’s event, he spoke to The Anguillian newspaper about his forthcoming work in South Africa.
“Belmond has asked me to run a major project in South Africa where we have a city resort that is now over 120 years old,” he disclosed. “I will be doing a similar project to what we did here in Anguilla. It will be a place with its own soul. It is called Mount Nelson and has a special place in South Africa.”
Mr. Sarmento’s close Anguillian colleague, Mr. Kevin Carty, the resort’s Resident Manager, initially spoke about the hurricane devastation he had seen at Cap Juluca when Mr. Sarmento arrived in Anguilla. One of the first things he said the new General Manager did was to set up a Go-fund-Me programme called Juluca Cares which still exists today. He reported that through the money received from guests, and other donors, Cap Juluca was able to support many of its employees. He also referred to another arrangement whereby a company agreed to fund 380 employees providing 100 US dollars a week for them which, though small, was more than what they had at the time of disaster. He thought that this assistance had amounted to over one million dollars.
Mr. Carty went on: “Our focus was to look after our people. That, to me, is what stood out – more than all of the accolades we had. That is what I think I will remember Tiago for – his very humane, caring ethics and principles. These are things that matter greatly to me.” Mr. Carty also spoke about the success that Mr. Sarmento brought to Cap Juluca during his tenure as General Manager.
Addressing the gathering on behalf of himself and family, Mr. Sarmento, visibly moved by the occasion, said in part: “In all the countries where we lived, in the past 20 years, home was where we were… and Anguilla is home, and I know that it will be for many years…I feel that a small part of my heart is breaking, so I am trying to remind myself that life continues; that change is good and that it can help us grow. We always knew that this was temporary, but we did not know how much of a home Anguilla would be for us. I wish that someone would have given us a notification – a warning about how deeply connected we would feel to everyone we met here. Nobody ever told us you would take over such a big piece of our hearts. We want to say thank you – but somehow those words do not seem enough. There is no way to possibly express the love and the gratitude that we have to God, and to life, for giving us the opportunity to experience Anguilla.”
Mr. Sarmento took the opportunity to introduce his successor, for the time being – Mr. Pedro Dias, also a national of Portugal. “Pedro will be the Manager of Cap Juluca to help Kevin in the next few months,” Mr. Sarmento said. He will be here for three to six months until Belmond actually defines a new manager. It has been a process for a few months already, and I think over 250 candidates have been interviewed. They are really careful about the search. So Pedro has taken on the challenge. I have known him for many years, and I know that he has the right human skills to support Kevin, and the team, throughout this coming season.”
Replying, Mr. Dias said it was a pleasure for him to try to continue Mr. Sarmento’s work and that, apart from what people might say, he had big shoes to fill. He was of the view that he also had “a big soul to fill.” He added: “I feel that you are handing to me the keys of your home, and that’s how I will treat it.”
