“So, Trish, what are the non-touristy beaches?”, I asked Trisha (who goes by Trish) who was serving us breakfast.
“What are you looking for?”
“When you, your husband and your seventeen month old baby go – which beach do you go to?”
“We go to Cocodimama beach”
“Why?”
“It is quiet, not many people at all and you have sand bars going way into the water”.
“Okay. Which side road do I need to take?”

Following Trish’s instructions we reached Cocodimama beach. It was as beautiful as you can imagine. Pristine clear water and the sandbars ran hundreds of yards in. Even when the water was barely six inches deep, you could see the slight bluish color. Lots of fishes and lot of conch shells on the beach!

One the advice we got from the locals was to explore the island by taking all the small roads branching off from the main and only arterial road. This being a very long and thin island, all the small roads invariably ended in a beach or water.

While checking out some of those small roads, landed up at a place that looked like a dock from the yesteryears. Either a storm or the effect of water over many years has completely blown it apart.

The water was blue as blue it could be!

To bring a break to an otherwise riot of blue color everywhere!

It not only let me come pretty close to it (I did not get too close – if you remember, I was still wearing flip flops – and one of them chasing me with a heavy DSLR hanging around my neck would not make for a picturesque scene), it even seemed to do a local dance for me!!

First, I saw one of them crossing the road. Then there were a few more. And then there were a lot more! Had to pull the car over to get close to one or two of them to take a few shots.

Very beautiful looking crabs. Found out later from the locals that these crabs are fairly common in the Antilles islands. They are unique in the sense they are born in the water (all crabs have gills) but then they migrate to land. The females, after mating, go back to the water to lay their eggs.

In the peak of the season, they take over the roads. And yet, not one of them was smashed by any of the cars going by. They can dart real, real fast when scared.

The sand looked and felt good. The water was warm.

Also, my flip flops had snapped 🙂 I guess I had not planned to climb up a rock in my flip flops. A local guy gave us a ride to a flip flop shop for me to get a new pair.

Sharmila did not like my theory that I should carry my old pair too – that way, even if one of the new one snaps – I still will have a pair. I recognize that depending on which one snaps, there is a case where it would distinctly look unfashionable – but who looks at what flip flops one is wearing when you have so many beautiful sights to see? Plus whoever accused me of having any fashion sense, ever?

Unlike the island we are in, this one has a lot of people and tourists. It was only a 4 minute boat ride but a complete change in scenery – in terms of human activities. Interesting divide of American tourists who were all on the beach (some throwing a coconut looking thing – called “football”) and British tourists who were all glued to the England-Ukraine football (soccer – the ball is decidedly more “ball”y in shape) game in the bar!

Everybody seemingly moves in golf carts in this island. I had not reserved any and all the cart rental places were booked up due to the July 4th weekend. So Sharmila and I walked up most of the island. (It is a very small one).

You can see the Atlantic waters in the corner. I was facing the bridge and the Caribbean Sea.

Took Ted’s advice and we are off to the Harbor Island. (a nearby island). With masks on in the speedboat, we looked like a bunch of small time, ill-organized pirates. With stylish sunglasses, though 🙂