I woke up early to get picture of the sunrise and it was the first completely rainy day that we have had since we arrived.
We walked down to Pelican Reef to eat banana pancakes for the last time on this trip. Since it was raining we ate under the edge of the “cave” bar near the pool.
After breakfast we put on our rain gear and headed up to the Ocean Day Spa. Tip: Bring lightweight rain gear. You never know when rain showers will pop up and it is nice to be able to walk on the beach or ride on the golf cart without worrying about it.
The Ocean Day Spa is the only spa located on a pier over the water. There first location was in front of the Xanadu resort but the last hurricane to hit the island destroyed most of the piers on the island. They have moved down the beach to the pier in front of the Caribbean Villas Resort near Amber’s beach Bar and Grill (which also has a water slide.)
Most of the places you stay on the island can get someone to come to you and give you a massage at your resort. We have done that before but it is really nice to go to a place with music and candles and fragrances and the breeze over the water and the sound of the water. The therapists are certified and very good and the spa offers a variety of massages.
After that we ate lunch at Pineapple’s which is the restaurant at Ramon’s Village Resort. We have stayed at Ramon’s before and they have several types of rooms including beachfront tiki huts. This is a wonderful place to stay and they have the restaurant on premises plus a full dock with everything you need for fishing and snorkeling adventures. Pineapple’s is a fun place to eat on the beach. We had tortillas and dip for an appetizer and then fish tacos and fish and chips. It was very good.
My favorite dish here is called the Pineapple boat and is a pineapple filled with fried rice and shrimp. It is delicious. And then for dessert the grilled pineapples with ice cream is absolutely amazing!
After lunch we picked up some friends on the gold cart and toured the island again. We headed north back over the bridge and this time went as far north as we could on the paved road. There are some lovely resorts on this end of the island and some new ones under construction. We stopped at Coco Beach resort and walked around. We have actually stayed here before and it is beautiful. They have several pools including a swim up bar and very nice outdoors eating areas and a really nice restaurant called Cocoblanca. they also have their own pier and can arrange excursions from here, as well as travel to other restaurants for dinner or back to town for exploring.
There are restaurants and resorts even farther north off of the paved road and onto a dirt one. We decided to go back and try the restaurant in the Phoenix resort called Red Ginger. It is back in town in the Phoenix resort. The restaurant itself is not on the water but the food was very good. Our group had snapper (grilled and blackened), grouper and short ribs and it was all very good. The chocolate lava cake for dessert was exceptional and was a lovely ending to a busy day.