Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Corner View - Bliss


CAYOS ZAPATILLO
PULAU KAPAS
PRAIA LOPES MENDES

Apart from the obvious bliss we share at certain moments with loved ones, there is a special kind of bliss that I feel when I am in paradise. For me paradise involves a voyage in a sailing boat to a deserted tropical island, where I can then snorkel in crystal clear waters with the rich marine life there. This has happened to me several times during my life. The first time was when I lived in a wooden house on stilts at the edge of the South China Sea. Opposite my house, a few miles offshore, was an idyllic desert island, called Pulau Kapas (Cotton Wool Island), which I could visit in a local fishing boat. This was my first time snorkeling in clear, warm, tropical waters, and the coral and marine life were stunningly beautiful. Island hopping in the Seychelles was another blissful experience, but, for me, Ilha Grande off the coast of Brazil is even more beautiful. There, you can be dropped off by a schooner and walk through the rainforest to what I consider to be the best beach in the world, Praia Lopes Mendes. I have had some wonderful times in the Caribbean, but the most idyllic desert island I have visited there is, without doubt, in Cayos Zapatillo off the coast of Panama. It is a picture perfect paradise. The most blissful experience I have ever had snorkeling, however, was on the reef near Caye Caulker in Belize, where after a beautiful trip in a schooner, I was able to swim with and touch sharks, stingrays and turtles, which was incredibly exciting and sheer bliss!

25 comments:

  1. What an amazing and blissful life you lead...

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  2. i'm with janis. to be able to say what you've just written.....and what you have written is just a shadowy whisper of what you have lived!

    since today is about bliss, i will refrain from jealousy, envy and all expression of ugly emotion and i will just affirm that you must have been really good in your previous life to have been able to spend so much of this one in paradise. makes my little blog look so much more virtual!

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  3. You are a lucky man to know thát kind of Blissful moments!

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  4. What a bliss :)! These pictures are amazing and enlighten my day.

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  5. well yeah..
    that looks like bliss

    oh my

    have you really been there?
    you took those pictures?
    yes?

    sigh...

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  6. WOW - your kind of bliss looks wonderful. I could get used to that!

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  7. I feel bliss just looking at your pictures! Such beauty. It is wonderful how even gazing from afar sends me a good feeling.

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  8. What a blissful post. And the comments too!

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  9. bliss indeed.
    thank you for these beautiful images and for your kind comment.

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  10. what bunch of blissful trips you had!!!

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  11. it's always the places that require a little extra effort to get there that are most worth the trip. wonderful pics.

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  12. Your bliss let my heart skip.
    I love snorkeling and when in the tropics I spend hours and hours head unter water.
    It's so good.

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  13. Oh, yes, and wow! paradise and bliss, the perfect combination, thanks for being our guide, you surely know the way there!!!

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  14. Except for the boat ;)I like your idyllic world... with the sharks and the stingrays !

    The French word for stingray is "pastenague" and it's a new word for me ;)

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  15. OK, am I the only one who wants to hear about that obvious bliss?

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  16. I love the sailboat / sailing to an island part, but I think I'd pass on the sharks and stingray swim.... but if the water's clear, consider me in!

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  17. Yep. Bliss. Beautiful shots ... I would love to be diving into that water right now!!!

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  18. >>For me paradise involves a voyage in a sailing boat to a deserted tropical island, where I can then snorkel in crystal clear waters with the rich marine life there.

    WONDERFUL expression, Ian! As if you were writing about me.. Very agree with you, it's the paradise to be in a sailing boat and swim nonstopping, touching with amazing underwater friends. I'm in big dreams to have my own sailboat, ahh wish a yacht, so it makes me impatient. Until then, during summer months I try to enjoy my sailing passion. A true bliss. I LOVED this post. Your penning is the second bliss because your way of pouring into words on this topic is great. Please make more articles like these.

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  19. you havent seen paradise till you have been to the maldives ! ;) come over, and let me convince you :)

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  20. How Lucky! I have never been sailing. On a cruise, but that I am sure is not the same thing.

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  21. how lucky you are... and how in the world did you get to live the life you do???? the pictures are fantastic!!!

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  22. That's pretty cool. I also like the Korean photos below :)

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  23. Ok... just paradise !!!

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