C & R, Caliente, November 6 - 12, 2005
We arrived at Caliente in a rental car and were greeted by a friendly man and woman at the front gate. They gave us a map of the property and directed us to the clubhouse to check in. There was no sign of life and we wondered if we were the only ones there. The grounds were nice but not especially lush. It looked like any of a thousand other Florida hotel complexes until we approached the clubhouse and saw a couple strolling across the parking lot of the motel building. He was dressed but she was nude and we knew then that we were at the right place.
The present system has a greeter or two at the front door to 'welcome' you to Caliente and check your ID. We were directed to the front desk on the right of the lobby. Everyone was fully dressed and some doubt set in again. While checking in though, several nude couples walked through the lobby and assured us by their presence that we were in the right place. It is funny how when everyone is dressed, you don't have a strong desire to be nude, but when a nude couple comes in, you just want to get naked immediately. Diana at the front desk took good care of us throughout our stay. Her husband does a good job helping keep the pools clean. Viki offered to get us things from town on her time. Angelo got us change from his pocket. Marisela always had a genuine, gorgeous smile.
Since we were early, our room was not ready so we decided to do the tour which takes one days usage fee off your bill ($54 for 2). They take you around the property and then around the clubhouse pool area. This was during the Buc-Panther game and the sports bar was jammed with clothed partiers. The pool area was crowded with all manner of naked revelers. By the time we got our room and finally got our clothes off, the crowds were starting to go home.
Saturdays and Sundays are busy with locals who come for the afternoon or evening. They can get up to 2000 people on any weekend. By suppertime they were mostly gone and except for the night club crowd, it was quieting down. Unfortunately, they left a TV blaring at the sports bar. It is right next to the motel and didn't get turned off until dawn. Fortunately that was not repeated any other night.
There was a Taebo class on the schedule, so I decided to go. It is a class in the aerobics room using videos. The leader of the class is a resident (lives on the campus) who also runs the little clothing shop also on the lower level of the clubhouse. There were a total of 3 men and 3 women. All were dressed in workout clothes except of course for me who was not only nude but also shoeless. It is more of a workout than you might think. It lasts about 40 minutes and you will be sweating at the end of it. I went every day and none of them minded a bit that I was naked.
There is a shower nearby in the clubhouse, but I preferred the outside shower not far away. We had absolutely perfect weather all week and the temperatures were almost 10 degrees above normal for that time of year. All the better to be naked day and night.
When I got back to the room, R was ready for a walk, so we got dressed for a walk. By dressed I mean that we put on running shoes. There is a great walking track which winds through the property and totals two and a half miles. We ended up walking it every morning and every evening. We timed it so it would be just before the outside construction workers started in the morning and in the evening just after they left for the day. We were not getting paid to put on a show for them. A few times we stumbled on workers and tried to go by as quickly as possible.
We usually met nobody or only one other couple on the walk and they were usually dressed (undressed?) just like us. We got back in plenty of time for an outdoor shower and get the pick of the chaise lounges. They have over a thousand, so you will definitely be able to find one, but on the hot sunny days like we had, we wanted to have shade during the hot part of the day. There are lots of choices and you can move around and try them all. During the week there were about 40 people to use the entire facility.
The upper pool and hot tub is usually quieter if you want to get away from the crowd. It has a great conversation pool which is kept at about 90 degrees. The hot tub was a bit hot for my taste, but most of them are. The wife thought that the hot tub should have been about 5 times bigger and she is probably right.
The main pool is unheated and is a shock to the system after all the other warm pools. Once you are in it is great and a pleasant change. It is perhaps the prettiest pool I have ever seen. Every day I swam around the islands in the pool and stood under the waterfall and let the pounding water massage my neck and back. It is much cheaper than a massage.
We did not try any spa services and that was partially due to the rudeness of some of the spa employees. The last time we got a massage at a nudist resort was at Terra Cotta and they were superb. People skills are more important than any other skill in the people business.
Water aerobics was our next stop and it is held in one of the water volleyball pools at 10:30 every morning. We happened to get the last week of Norma the Spanish drill sergeant. She was tough but fun. We got to meet several of the ladies who live on the property and liked them a lot. They were sweet and friendly and helped make the week even more enjoyable.
After a good water aerobics workout, it is time to stretch out in the sun, and that is what we did. About the time your stomach starts rumbling, along comes a waitress and asks what she can get for you. Sylvia had just started and did a fantastic job covering the entire pool area by herself. They don't have to wear tops, but they have to wear bottoms, although I think that a colorful thong would be more attractive than the ill fitting white shorts that they are told to wear.
The food in the restaurant and bars and poolside all comes from the same kitchen and was always good and came very quickly. I have never seen it done better and that includes fast food places that are supposed to do it quickly. We ate on the veranda at the sports bar every night and the girls there were also great. Niki was as sweet as she could be.
Tuesday night was a dress up night with a jungle theme. There were not many people staying there, so we didn't see many people taking advantage of the theme. R put on something for the first time. She wore a jungle print g-string from Victoria's Secret and a see through top with heels and looked sexier than I have ever seen her. There was no competition. She was stunning. I dressed up in the closest thing I had to ties and tails...a black satin g-string and we had dinner as if we were at the country club.
Wednesday we finally figured out that the bicycles with the Caliente plates were for our use, so we added bicycling to our exercise regimen. We wore the same outfit as we did for walking...shoes. The bikes were a lot of fun and we were about the only ones who used them. We went up and down all the streets (inside Caliente ;-) ) We used a washcloth from the room for our seats.
Thursday we decided to try tennis and we ended up having a blast. We had thought that since it had been so long since we had played that it wouldn't be fun. We were wrong. Naked tennis is a whole lotta fun! Yes, things flop around, but it is not painful and is fun to watch!
That night we were told there was water volleyball and since we are both good volleyball players we went down to check it out. It turned out to be an all male group of locals who came in every Thursday night and we quietly left them to their game. They were more than a little loud and unencumbered by any rules of the game.
Friday night was a night club night and we decided to try it, since we had not tried it yet. R wore a lovely wrap she had bought at Terra Cotta and I wore a smile. Her wrap was tied at the neck but was open in the front . We walked into the restaurant first and were seated among tightly fitted tables of clothed patrons. We sat for about 20 seconds before we decided we were not going to be comfortable there, so we got up and went into the dark, quiet disco.
We ordered an appetizer and virgin pina colladas and watched the 2 couples on the dance floor. The disco is large and is well equipped in terms of lights and sound. After eating, we moved to a booth where we could snuggle and watch the dancers. They came in and mostly just slow danced. When the tempo picked up, they were just 2 couples on the floor. One of the couples was excellent and got applause when they finished. There was every kind of clothing variation, from fully dressed to fully nude (me).
You will find that the motel is a bit backward in that it is open to the parking lot, but closed to the pool area. That means you have to go into the clubhouse, upstairs, through the lobby, with all its fully clothed people, past the teenage boy waiters, past the greeters, outside to the street, down to the motel and up to your room. Then repeat the process 30 seconds later to return to the pool. All they would have to do is put a white rail like the one on the second floor on the first floor and move the locked gate about 20 feet out so that the motel is now closed to the street and open to the pool area. Then you could run back and forth to your room without bothering anyone...or being bothered.
We did that at least a dozen times a day every day and found it curious that the 'greeters' never seemed to have a clue that we had just walked through the door a minute before. Each time we were treated like new visitors who were possibly trying to get in without a badge. Every time we walked through the door, we got the fake smile and "I need to see your badge." When walking out the door it was the same fake smile and "have a nice day" or "can I get you a ride" or "hope you enjoyed your visit" even though I told them countless times that I was just going to motel room and would be right back within 60 seconds. I despaired of the IQ of this crew until I met Anita at the front gate who knew everyone by name who came through the gate. That is the type of person you need as a greeter.
I never did get over the fully clothed nature of the lobby and the many single male clothed employees. The management does not seem to understand the demographic that they are purporting to serve, i.e. nudists. Virtually all the male employees should be replaced by female nudist workers. Then they could work all day in the pool area and not bring any discomfort to the paying guests. Girls usually do a better job, anyway. Female activities directors like Desire and Hedo has, would also add a lot to the experience.
There also seemed to be an undercurrent of fear in many of the employees which is indicative of poor management. That will translate into lower job performance and losing the best employees. They have some excellent employees, but virtually all of them had just been hired and you can only hope that they will stay. Most of these things may not be visible to the casual visitor. Caliente has great potential and merely needs good management to realize it.
It is also my opinion that a 'no single males' policy would greatly increase the numbers of visitors. The dozen or so single men that walked around staring at crotches did not bring in enough money to balance the income lost by the many couples that prefer a couples only atmosphere.
There is a strict 'no sexual activity of any kind' policy which left some of us wondering if we would get in trouble for patting our wife's butt. The upper pool and hot tub is ideal for a couples only play area. If that were ever to happen, I think that business at Caliente would double.
The occupancy rate while we were there appeared to be quite a bit less than 50%. We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. (Although Saturday and Sunday are quite busy) There is a lot of room to grow. Management seems oblivious to the homeowners and nude market that pays their salary.
No one used the beautiful beach volleyball court while we were there. That would change if they were able to attract some more younger couples. The shuffleboard court was used about once a day after the sun was low in the sky. The pentaque court was very nice and used a few times. The pool table was used mainly by clothed single males. The evening crowd that came in and ate at the restaurant clothed seemed to be a little sleazy.
We had a great time and hope to go back again soon. It is a great facility with beautiful, pristine pools and all the needed amenities. We met some great people but there are a lot more of them (us) out there. We didn't have to wear anything all week long. Since we stayed on the campus, we had no reason to go out and no reason to get dressed. That is the way it should be. We had the run of the place from Monday to Friday. If management changes are made for the better, we won't have it all to ourselves next time.