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Para el amor de Mexico
126 Fugues.com février 2011
"I'll snort a line of coke off his ass!" an
American reporter cracked about the lithe,
hot men in Puerto Vallarta as a bunch of
shvitzing international travel
journalists - including myself
- enjoyed ice-cold
Pacificos atop the
mountainous
Haramara Retreat
on the Riviera
Nayarit on
Mexico's Pacific
Coast.
"How about champagne and Valium?" someone else piped up.
One journalist (and doctor from Mexico City) rated Cialis and Viagra-fuelled hard-ons four out of four. "[But] I didn't
bring my prescription pad!"
All this fabulous unholiness took place in the middle of a holistic retreat made famous by owner Sajeela Delaborbolle,
her staff (including Liliane, the back-pain specialist hired by Russia's Vladimir Putin) and her famous guests, including
regulars like Hollywood star Ali McGraw.
"Is there anybody there now?" McGraw asked Sajeela before
she flew in to Puerto Vallarta last year. "No? Then I'm
coming!"
Puerto Vallarta has long been one of the world's Top Ten
choice gay destinations. Now, with its international airport,
it is also the southern entry point to Mexico's Riviera Nayarit,
which tourism officials here have steadily been developing
since 2002 with their long-term Tourism Corridor
program for Puerto Vallarta and the state of Nayarit.
The Riviera Nayarit is all about "sustainable tourism." In
other words, green ecotourism. And the hotels, spas and
retreats are all moving in.
At the Haramara Retreat - one stop on this first gay press
trip in the history of Mexico - Sajeela told me, "You have
to go to Africa or Bora Bora to find unspoiled beauty like
this. [Many] people no longer want to go to places that are
destroying nature."
So we found ourselves in the small town of San Blas
("Sandblast!" one journalist quipped) where the local La
Tovara National Park boasts over 600 different species of
birds (including hawks, pelicans, blue herons and papa
jays) living in mangroves filled with giant crocodiles.
Though the meanest creatures in the mangroves are by far
the black mosquitoes!
January is the most recommended time of year to visit La
Tovara National Park, and whale watching season (notably
humpback whales) in the huge Banderas Bay - which
stretches the length of the Riviera Nayarit - is from Dec. 15
to April 15.
San Blas is also home to renowned Mexican chef Betty
Vazquez Gonzalez's awesome restaurant El Delfin (part of
the Hotel Garza Canola) that was a featured guest in
Puerto Vallarta's recent 16th annual International Gourmet
festival (www.festivalgourmet.com).
"We have to remind people that Mexican food is not as
spicy as they think," Betty explains, whose side dish of
ù PHOTO ROBERT LALIBERTÉ
ù PHOTOs OLIVIER BLOUIN