Other Beaches

I have enjoyed a life of beach vacations. We started visiting the Caribbean in the 1960's and found pristine places. We visited the island of Bequia and walked daily to the Princess Margaret beach where we had the sands to ourselves. We went to Virgin Gorda and walked down the dirt road to the Baths; a return visit several years ago with our extended family found the rock formations overrun. German tourists lined up in front of us as if we were all watching a movie. We took our first baby to Grenada; people watched with appalled looks as we threw him in the sea. He had survived YWCA swimming lessons, and we were showing him off. He was the last child we subjected to underage underwater; nevertheless they all learned to swim by the time they turned five. We took the next two to St. John's and camped. One has to be young to endure cold showers and two cribs in a tent, but we were adventurous. We sampled a few other east coast beaches with our children; Hilton Head provided a lovely spring break, and Jekyl Island, Georgia, left memories of murky water, toilets backing up, sore throats, and doctor visits. We escaped from parenting responsiblities when we walked the coast of Italy on the Lido; April was too cool for a dip. Once our lives passed from the parent mode, we indulged again. We found the hot Pacific in Mexico; Hualtuco offset our tour of the inland ruins, but the weather effects that year raised the water temperature making the Pacific less attractive. We found the same experience in Costa Rica. There we had a marvelous beach adventure. In our quest we followed the map to a large crescent bay with deep waters. We had to drive over the sand to get there - although crowds of people were enjoying the sunshine. Once we settled in, we delayed our departure as we watched the parasail company extract a paying customer from a nearby tree. When the poor woman had finally found solid earth, we discovered the tide had covered our road in and eliminated ours. We exited the other way and wedged our four-wheel drive vehicle in the sand; fortunately a few English-speaking Costa Ricans ambled by, adjusted our four-wheel mechanism, and helped push us out - international cooperation at its best. We tested the sea in Belize and were turned off by eel grass. In Panama we spent a few days as guests on a small sailboat in the San Blas islands where few other tourists ventured. In Ecuador we spent several days in the Galapagos islands where tour guides march with every step. We spent one day there snorkeling with the sea lions by ourselves, the type of exploration we prefer. In Greece we scouted the island of Paros and settled into a small cove with some chairs and a picnic lunch. We were visiting off-season and discovered a few other bathers in the November waters. We chose to follow the local culture and spent the day skinny dipping in the "wine dark" sea. We look forward to the Red Sea this spring. We always pack our bathing suits.