Hide Away on a Hidden Beach in the Marietas Islands Steve MacNaull - Calgary Herald
go to original March 8, 2022

Marietas Islands and the Hidden Beach (PuertoVallarta.net)

We’re swimming through the inky, narrow cave opening to Hidden Beach where the sun, in contrast, is shining gloriously, coloring the tiny bay a sparkling aquamarine, the beach a golden brown and the sky a brilliant azure.

My son, Alex, my daughter, Grace, and I are on the Snorkeling at Isla Marietas adventure (US$99 per person) organized by Ecotours de Mexico, an hour off the coast of Puerto Vallarta. As we climb ashore we’re breathless and exhilarated to be in this enchanted enclave.

Our eyes automatically gravitate skyward to figure out where we are, how we got here and why Hidden Beach is such a stunning, geological rarity.

Hidden Beach is effectively mid-island, accessible only by the tapered cave we swam through. The opening to the sky, an oculus if you will, is a perfect oval formed when the roof of the cave, which was also part of the island’s surface, collapsed sometime in the 1990s.

The resulting crater isn’t the usual ruin associated with such a ground cavity because the uncovered beach and water below are so spectacular.

Once we have the geology figured out, Alex, Grace and I wander the beach, splash in the water, check out the antechamber caves and chatter about how lucky we are to have discovered this paradise. Well, maybe ‘discovered’ is too rich a word. We wouldn’t be here at all without Ecotours de Mexico and expedition leader Margarita Garcia.

Hidden Beach had become such a hot, international tourist destination that up to 2,500 people a day were showing up in all manner of boats, bumping into each other as they swam in and out and tramping the beach in a crowd. The Mexican government stepped in in 2016 and started limiting access to just 117 visitors a day. More are allowed on Marietas’ regular beaches and surrounding waters for snorkeling.

Read the rest at Calgary Herald

Related: Yelapa: Mexico’s Last Authentic Beach Town (TREG)

Related: Riviera Nayarit Named Best LGBT+ Beach Destination in Mexico (Breaking Travel News)