RAINBOW BEACH

On one of our trips in the rain forest from Frederiksted Pier we had passed a beach/restaurant several times and decided we would head back over that way and check it out. It was on my list of beaches to go to. What better time right?

It was a place called Rainbow Beach and I believe it is a place that others recommend as a beach day when cruising. It's not far from the cruise port and easy to get to. So if you are a cruiser looking for a beach to go to on port day, here's my review on it.

Here's the location from the cruise port.

We arrived and it was such a colorful place and looked like it was going to be a great place to hang out at.

We headed to the restaurant...I guess I needed to feed these kids. 😄

So here's the menu and pricing:

We decided to order some sweet potato fries as a starter and man were they good! It was a pretty big basket and we all shared. ($11)

Karl immediately started with a drink. He ordered the "Blue Cruzan". I'm not convinced he liked it too much but still drank it. Sakari ordered a virgin Pina Colada. ($8 each). We stuck with our Diet Cokes ($3/each)

Sakari and I decided on the Mahi fish tacos which comes with 2 tacos on flour tortillas with lettuce, tomato, cheese and drizzled Ginger Citrus. This also comes with one side and we decided on the cole slaw. ($17)

It was pretty good but I did wish that the fish chunks wasn't so "chunky" and smaller bites. I usually don't like chunky anything...not even chicken. I like shredded.

The hubby with with the Chicken Tacos instead ($14)

Karl had the Huge Fried Pork Loin Sandwich that came with one side and he decided on Onion Rings because he just loves those. He said it was delicious. ($14 plus $4 upcharge for the onion rings)

Our view from our seat:

Once we were done, we ordered a bottle of water to go and our total bill was $101. Feeding 4 people is pretty darn expensive these days. It seems to be over $100 each time.

With our bellies full, we were ready to hit the water because it was so hot out. Down at the beach, we managed to see our kayak family from the other day. I stopped to say hello to them when we were in the water. They were leaving tomorrow. I was so glad we weren't...just saying.

So time to do a bit of snorkeling and see if there's anything good here. There's a beach area and when you head off to the left of it (in front of the restaurant) there's rocks along the shore and this is where I would find the snorkeling. A few over/under pictures to show you what I mean.

You will find a bunch of small fish hanging out under the rocks in the area. There was a lot of pink mushy sea "stuff" all over the rocks. It was like little powder puffs and pretty. Some of it had washed up to the shore and when you feel it, it was slimy and Karl shrieked when he touched it and pulled back quickly. 😁

There were plenty of schools of fish hanging out everywhere.

Large groups of Yellowtail Snappers under the rocks:

A school of Surgeons

Yellow Surgeon Fish (or Yellow Tang as some call it in the aquarium world)

As I was going along the rocks, I kept noticing movement on it...but it was fast. Darting in and out of crevices and never staying in one spot very long. I finally decided to just float and trying to be as still as I possibly could to get a picture. Finally, this came out and sat on the rocks for me.

It was very small and I was up close and zoomed in to get this picture. I first thought it was a blenny, but I'm not sure now with the shape of the mouth.

There wasn't much coral in the area either, but this red piece really stuck out.

High Hat (Drum)

We headed back toward the beach and I decided to take a few more over/under shots. Sorry, this would be the only shot I got of the beach. I completely forgot to take one.

When I came back in, after taking my over/under pictures, Sakari was fascinated with something and told me to "come look". She swooshed the sand back and forth with her hand and it uncovered a crab. As soon as he was uncovered, he would scoot his way back into the sand. We watched him as he zoomed from rock to rock and putting up his claws to make sure we knew he meant business if we were to try anything.

Sakari then ask me "Have you seen any green or orange crabs around the rocks?" "Nope, I sure haven't". So, we started looking for green and orange crabs. Yep, I seen them zooming around the crevices of the rocks along the shore. I tried hard to get pictures because they were so weird looking. Then we started noticing they were all over the place in the water. Hmmm. Sakari found that if she moved a rock, they would scurry. The only issue was they were super quick and with each movement they immediately went to the bottom of the rocks where you couldn't see them. Then Sakari decided to just lift the rock up and all of a sudden she let out a shriek and was just giggling away. I'm like what? She said they're in my hand! It tickles. Then she giggled again. "What?" She says "It just crawled down my leg!" (Yes, I got this all on video).

She managed to get one for me to take a picture and man was it weird. Karl ran of course... "I'm not holding an ocean spider!" I looked like a cross between a crab, spider and frog! I've never seen anything like this before. Orange striped legs and a green striped body. So cool looking.

So what are these? They are called Nimble Spray Crabs. Aren't they cool?

Here's a video of the snorkeling in the area and the crabs: