I made a short trip to both of those resorts the weekend before this. I hadn't been there since May, so I thought I'd post a new report. I made this trip with two friends. As usual, we stayed at Paradise Lakes in a two-bedroom condo and went to Caliente for two evenings and one day.

This was a much shorter trip than usual (I'll be making a trip that's one day longer in two weeks and then my usual length in November), but I did notice some changes. In some sense, what's more noticable is how few changes there were.

I noticed almost nothing different, either in atmosphere or "physical plant", at Caliente. The music in the club seemed a bit better and they made better use of the lights. When I was last there, quite a few pool lounge chairs were in bad shape, but they've either been repaired or (more likely) replaced. On the other hand, the condition of some of the lakes around the grounds has worsened.

There were more changes at Paradise Lakes, but still nothing too major. The largest change is that they were just finishing up the construction of another water volleyball pool just behind present one. They have a (sand) volleyball net near there that I don't remember seeing before and a court for petanque or bocce also looks new.

When I was there in May, the condo association was doing a major irrigation project. The improvement in the grassy areas is very noticable. Possibly related to this project was the addition of some brick-tiled areas near some of the condos that have an outdoor shower and often a small seating area.

Unfortunately, there are still nasty battles between the Paradise Lakes Condo Association (PLCA) and Paradise Lakes Resort (PLR). According to posted minutes of a PLCA Board meeting, there's been a dispute with PLR (who controls the entrance gate) about access for homeowner's vendors and guests and PLCA went to court to obtain an injunction forcing PLR to admit these people. PLCA alleges that PLR cancelled the "lifetime membership" of two PLCA board members over this action. This is a shame since when the present PLR owner took over (just over a year ago), all the condo boards were supporters of his and felt it would end the years of battles with the two previous resort owners. Unfortunately, it didn't.

It's impossible to get a sense of how room occupancy is doing at either resort by looking at how many people are around, since most are day guests. The week we were there, Caliente had a special promotion where Paradise Lakes members could come in for free, so that might have affected things. We were at Caliente Friday evening and all day Saturday and at Paradise Lakes on Sunday. There seemed to be more people around in both places than on my last trip, but still not what I'd consider a "good showing".

Like last time, on Friday evening at Caliente there were a small number of nude people both for dinner and the dance (I think these were homeowners), but there were none other than my friends and I on Saturday evening.