The last couple of miles to Porto Mari followed a narrow winding road with many small hills and unexpected dips in the road. It was kind of like sitting in the back seat of a roller coaster, with all of us saying “Aaiiieeee!!” as we flew over the hills and down into the little valleys. And a few “oh my g** we’re all going to die” when we crested a hill to meet an oncoming car that wasn’t bothering to stay within its lane markers.
And at last we found the beach. What a beautiful spot! There was a charge of about $8 to use the beach (probably to keep the riff-raff out) but it was worth it. The sand was stark white, and if you looked closer, you could see teensy bits of shell and coral skeleton. Interestingly, even though the air was Very Hot, the sand stayed quite cool.
I promptly put the defogging goo into my mask, pulled my water shoes on, grabbed the dive fins and underwater camera, and headed out. No waiting for anybody else, no sirree!! As soon as I was in about 3 feet of water, I put my mask and fins on and stuck my face into the salty blue ocean. Bingo! Pretty little fish, right there, with incredible visibility. Since I was still surrounded by swimmers and the water was shallow, I was surprised to see fish already.
This beach had a very gradual drop to the bottom, so I swam for quite a while before I reached water that was 4 feet deep. But again, fish all over the place!! Soon I reached the first of the hundreds of “reef balls” that had been placed in the bay after Hurricane Lenny decimated the coral reefs about 10 years ago. They looked like wiffle balls, varying in size from a 1-2 feet, to 5 feet in diameter, full of holes from 6 inches to 2 feet across. The reef balls are doing their job, and quite a few undersea critters have begun attaching themselves. Sharon joined me about the time that I found the first ball. (Mark was having mask leakage problems, and he went back to shore. Although he only got to see the fish for a few minutes, he said there was an attractive topless German woman who made up for his not being able to snorkel.) The balls were placed along a “snorkeling route” that ranged from 4 feet deep to 20 feet deep, following a parallel line to the shore in this little bay. We saw anemones, a spikey-looking pincushion critter, fish in every color of the rainbow, a brain coral that was at least 6 feet across, lots of other coral stuff that I don’t know the names of, several scuba divers coming out of the deep, and a neck-down view of the afore-mentioned topless German woman. The visibility was probably 35 feet of absolutely crystal clear water, and you could make out shapes and divers at about 60 feet. I used up another 27-picture underwater camera during the one hour that we were there, and could have easily taken more pictures. Once again, any potential increase in the sunburn was worth it for the sights (happily, however, I didn’t get any new sunburn in Curacao).
All too soon, it was time to go. Because this beach was more upscale, it had a foot rinse place next to the bathrooms and changing rooms. I was very happy to rinse the sand (which is very sticky) from my feet, take off my water shoes, and put my sandals back on. We piled back into the Toyota and started the 40-minute trek back to town.
