Pariaso, Jalisco, Mexico

Saturday, March 23, 2013

019-28.399 N
105-3.644 W

The crew of the BlueJacket wishes you a warm "Ahoy!" from Pariaso!

After spending what turned out to be a rather rolly night at bahia Chamela we looked at the surf breaking on the beach and decided that we wouldn't be able to land the dinghy there. The forecast showed the SSW swell increasing over the next several days, so it seemed like a good time to move on. Just S of the main anchorage at Chamela are a series of islands, two of which are large enough to provide some protection and have anchorages. We headed out to Isla Pajarera where there's an anchorage on the NE side of the island, but saw a boat anchored there which was pitching and rolling, so we quickly decided that this wasn't a viable option, so we decided to head to an anchorage named "Paraiso", which was about 8 miles S of bahia Chamela.

Paraiso provides great protection from SW swell, but is relatively open to NW swell. There are a series of island to the NW of the anchorage which break the heavy swell coming in, but still allow the swell to enter. As a result I wouldn't recommend this anchorage if a large NW swell was running. Luckily for us there wasn't and I was quite amazed at how calm it was inside of the anchorage.

When we arrived 2 boat were in the process of of pulling their anchors. One of the boats was having a lot of problems retrieving his stern anchor and had to dive on it to free it from a large nylon rope lying on the bottom. After quite some time he freed it, the boats left and we had the whole anchorage to ourselves! We got ourselves anchored in about 20' over sand and put out a stern anchor to keep ourselves pointed into the swell.

There's a small beach at the back of the bay which has nice soft sand, but it's very small, so we walked it several times just to do some walking. There's a very small hotel located there, but from what I've heard, they ask that you not to enter their facilities. Despite that, there's plenty to see and do in the area. There are several sea caves in the area (which we couldn't get close to due to the swell), some blow holes located located on the N side point and a pass through located on the islands. According to the guide, the snorkeling is supposed to be quite good too. Unfortunately I didn't read the later until last night and we're S very soon.

All in all, this was a beautiful place to stop and we're lucky that the conditions let us stop here.

-- Geoff & Sue

Log ID: 2202