Day 7 - The "Grote Knip" with (sea) pig(s)

Day 7 (8/12/23)

We manage to get out of the house before 9am. With a fully loaded cool box (drinks, rolls, snacks, fruit) we go to the “Grote Knip”. There are already quite a few cars on the road. It is weekend. We expect it to be full today. Almost 30 minutes later we reach the Grote Knip. The parking lot is almost empty, there are maybe 10 cars here. Perfect! We grab our things and head down to the beach. The lounger operator seems to still be asleep because the first two rows don't have any parasols yet. We opt for a large palm umbrella in the 3rd row, where all of our 4 loungers find a place in the shade. Before we can sit down, we are visited by the beach pig. We feed her a piece of carrot, but the sow won't let herself be petted, and then she goes for a bath. A real guinea pig 🤣

When the beach becomes more crowded, the pig moves into the thicket at the back of the beach. Now various little birds are besieging us. The little yellow “nectar birds” that we know from our terrace sit on our cooler and look for food. They find a lounger in front of us, where there is an open can of soda. You can drink from there 😅

After a chill hour we go snorkeling. It's very cloudy today and visibility is pretty limited. However, the water is generally not as clear as on the last beaches. We snorkel along the rocks on the right side of the beach and see some fan corals and various fish. On the other side, also along the rocks, 3 small calamari swim in front of the camera. They literally play with my underwater camera and swim well in a formation of three from left to right, swim away and come back as soon as I stop filming them and ignore them. In the end, one of the squids is actually so cheeky and “inks” a cloud of ink in front of the camera. We play this game for probably 15 minutes, then my husband and daughter have to jump from the rock above me into the sea.

From midday onwards the beach is full. Whole groups sit in the water with beer cans in their hands, selfie sticks, cell phones and the boom box on the beach is a must. Party is on.

A birthday party is there because at some point a birthday song in Spanish is played. Even after 3 hours of “sitting in the water”, the group still doesn’t seem to have any swimming fins 😜

What's unpleasant, however, is that the toilets are closed on weekends!? Now I'm imagining where all the canned beer from the partygoers sitting in the water is going 😱

There are showers, but the knobs are unscrewed. Excellent. Previously there were only functioning showers on Kokomo Beach (although you had to pay 50 cents for them here).

Back on the loungers, we are visited by both pigs.

They are very curious and cheeky, clear out one or two bags that have been carelessly left on the beach and lie down on the beach by the sea to let the waves cool them down. Very funny! The highlight is the pack of Pringles chips, which they steal from a bag and then grunt loudly and eat next to the lounge chairs. However, you should be careful when touching it. They are not “tame cuddly pigs”, which is what one or two children found out today when they were bitten while trying to pet one of the pigs.

The big Knip isn't really a snorkeling paradise either, but we still test both rocky sides of the bay. On the right side we come across schools of fish, and we find the highlight on the left side: 3 squids that are super curious and play with me and my underwater camera on the selfie stick. They constantly dart around me and then wait briefly so that I can follow them.

The kids follow their husband onto the diving rock and jump into the sea while I continue snorkeling along the bay.

We spend the whole day here, nibbling our cheese cubes and snacks for lunch and only leaving the beach in the late afternoon.

We drive up the coast to Playa Forti and have dinner at the restaurant of the same name ( https://www.playafortirestaurant.com/ ). Here there is the famous jump from the cliff, right in front of the restaurant, down into the bay. That's really damn high! The husband and daughter are already rubbing their fingers, but (luckily!) postpone the jump until another day, because it is already after 6 p.m.

We eat delicious pesto noodles, the husband treats himself to a fish, which immediately attracts the little restaurant cat. After a long time of begging, the kitten also gets a piece of fish 😊