March 8, 2015 - Paraiso

Paraiso is truly a gem of a location.  We only stayed there for four hours but it was well spent.  We arrived believing that it may be hard to find an anchor spot in this small cove as it is deemed "spectacular" in all the books.  Well, to our surprise, we were the only vessel there so we choose the middle of the narrow cove, dropped the hook and were ecstatic about what we about to experience.  Right as you enter the sandy bottom and water turns a beautiful turquoise color.  Rugged cliffs line the cove with just a small resort at it’s end.  The resort is exclusive and private so we knew we were not to go ashore there.   As we were anchoring I saw a large fish swim away, I would estimate three feet long or so.  We never saw another like it in our short amount of time there though.

After anchoring we got swimsuits on and sunscreen and planned to dive the anchor as everyone had said this was a good idea here.  The water we put it down in is about 16 feet deep and you could almost see it without diving down.  As we entered the water, some pufferfish were swimming around under the boat and would come closer to get a good view of us.  We snorkeled and saw quite a few fish.  We swam to the anchor and dove a little deeper to get a good look at the anchor.  It was buried deep in the sand and was not near any rock.  perfect.  We floated toward shore while watching fish.  There was a little cove with a beautiful beach and as we were getting closer to it, Kevin and Steve got some jellyfish stings.   Cindy and I each got one soon after.  Cindy may have been the only one to even see these stealthy and subtle creatures.  Well, that basically shortened our stay here but that was OK.  After regrouping on the boat, drying off, and getting a bite to eat, we decided to go and sight see via dinghy.  There is a small grouping of islands just beyond the entrance and they turned out to be spectacular.

mv Adagio looking out from anchorage.  The islands in the distance.

Kevin and Cindy as we head out from our anchorage

hummmmm, should we try this one?  We opted out

Which way, left or right?  We chose left.

Kevin - does this cave go through to the other side?

Cindy and Kathy checking out the water on one of the islands.

Kevin with arch behind

Hanging out at the islands

Frigate flying above us,,,,,,,,,

Island with beautiful cactus, Adagio in background

Cindy and Kevin - Adagio in background

We found this spectacular blowhole

in the next bay over from our anchorage.

We decided to leave Paraiso (pair-ah-ee-so) after 4 hours for two reasons.  First the kids were not very interested in snorkeling any more after their jelly fish stings, and second because some stronger winds were forecast and this is not a well protected bay for the predicted winds.  So, we pulled the anchor after a very wonderful 4 hours.  This is a place we will visit again if we are ever down this way in the future.