Thursday we went to Playa Porto Mari. This is a beach Pam and I have been to a couple of times in previous vacations, and it’s one of Pam’s favorites. It’s a very nice beach. As Mike said, it’s what he thinks of when he thinks of the Caribbean – a long white sandy beach with lots of girls in bikinis! It is definitely the busiest beach, by far, that we’ve seen. Lots of people, but not so many you feel crowded.

There is a large parking lot, and you walk down a road into the beach, past the restaurant and dive shop. There is a board walk running the length of the beach, so you don’t burn you toes on the hot sand. There are lots of lounge chairs and umbrellas on either side of the boardwalk. Just drop your stuff on the chair you want and hop in the water. A lady walks up and down the beach, and eventually she finds you and charges you 2.50 for the car park, and 4.50 for the chair and umbrella.

Snorkeling was interesting. There were lots of places to snorkel, and lots of fish to see.Whether you go to the right, or the left, you’ll see some fun stuff. The coral is not as good as it has been, apparently because, according to our hotel concierge, there was a “localized storm” that really battered Porto Mari. You can see the damage, but there is still some coral hanging on, and they’ve put in a number of reef balls in an attempt to encourage regrowth.

We stayed in the water a long time, sliding from one side of the bay to the other and back again! We had lunch in the restaurant, and it was, well, it was lunch! Just what you needed after a long swim. Service is fine, but it’s tough to get them to bring you the bill. They are very attentive taking your order, bringing the food, refreshing your drinks, but as soon as you ask for the bill, you wonder what happened! Overall, it was a nice day. Not the best snorkeling on the island, but certainly fun. You can’t go wrong checking out Porto Mari.
We had dinner at the Rose Garden Chinese Restaurant. Very expensive. VERY expensive. Service was good, but we were the only people in the restaurant  so that’s understandable. The reason there were so few people, I’m sure, is because of the prices!  Some dishes were over 30 US dollars! For Chinese food! The food was ok, nothing special, but not offensive. The portions were not large, and certainly not worth the type of money they charged. Don’t get me wrong, the food was fine, just that 20 US dollars for a garlic chicken dish, with a few vegetables (a few slices of pepper, a few slices of onion) was a bit much. The dish was not big enough for four people, and barely enough for two servings. The restaurant had some fine green jade carvings that were really lovely.

Here is a brief movie, taken by Mike. It’s of a parrotfish, crunching away on some coral. They are a fairly large fish, but they are quite skittish, and take off very easily. If you have your sound turned up, you can hear the crunch as his teeth hit the coral.