Made it to Paradise

December 17, 2009. We got an early start today to head into Paradise Village Marina. It took us about 45 minutes to motor from La Cruz to the marina. It was hard to find the opening to the marina among all the luxury hotels that rim this part of the bay, but as usual Phil was able to find it with his binoculars.

We came into the channel for the marina. “Oh my GOD” was what I thought. I’ve found Mecca. We were guided to our slip in the marina by a panga driver who helped us tie up. We ended up at the bitter end of E dock which is pretty much the end of the line in the marina but let me tell you we went by the high-rent district of A dock and B dock where the mega yachts 100ft plus anchor and let me tell you we were just happy to be in this marina.

Forget the laundry we had to go explore. This place has tigers, parrots, Baskin Robbins, McDonalds, indoor four story jungle gym, palapas on the beach and the best of all the dual crocodile shaped water slides into the biggest pool we’ve ever seen. But for best of all for Phil the Pacifico’s are less than 1USD a piece.

We had a great day playing in the pool which has underwater caves and the best ice cream flavors – I really liked the coconut. Needless to say any weight we had lost up to this point of our journey would be gained back ten fold staying here.
Kelly also got her hair braided on the beach.

The Main Pool at Paradise Village with the double crocodile slide.  The island under the tower has tunnels for the kids to swim through.

It took me a few tries but I finally caught Kelly and Ryan coming out of the crocodile's mouth.  The pool was fairly empty when we first arrived on 12/17, but the closer we got to Xmas and New Year's the more crowded it got to the point that we didn't even bother going to the pool until after the holidays.  Instead we opted for the beach.  Kelly has however managed to rip out the bottom of one bathing suit going down this sllide just one too many times.

The beach was great but what made it fun was we met a family - the Pond's - from Redondo Beach  - who was on a ship in our marina called Qualchan.  Since meeting them we have spent a lot of time with Todd (dad), Margaret (mom), Natalie (16), Charlee (9) and Luke (8). 

Water temperatures are about 80 degrees.  Air temp gets to high seventies during the days and can drop into the high 50's at night.  It  makes sleeping great and keeps the mosquitoes at bay.