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WHERE TO STAY
PUNTA MITA
Four Seasons Breathtaking luxury just an hour
from Puerto Vallarta. They also perform samesex
commitment ceremonies.
fourseasons.com/puntamita.
NUEVO VALLARTA
Tahéima Wellness Resort All-inclusive hotel
with strong health focus. No beach but close
to Puerto Vallarta. taheimahotel.com.
SAYULITA
Haramara Simple yoga retreat in spectacular
mountainous setting with private beach. Ask
for the Ali McGraw hut. haramararetreat.com.
SAN BLAS
Garza Canela Hotel Family-run basic hotel with
Chef Betty Vazquez Gonzalez’s acclaimed
restaurant, El Delfin. Nearby nature excursions,
including La Tovara National Park.
garzacanela.com.
Also visit Riviera Nayarit online at
www.rivieranayarit.com
chile de arbol peppers on orange slices is to die for. "Too much spice
ruins the flavour and your tongue."
About her hometown – population 3,000 – Betty points out San Blas
was a big gay tourism destination in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"San Blas is like an old boyfriend that you never stop loving," Betty says.
Clearly, Mexico has come a long way. This press trip was the country's
first-ever gay press trip. I met and hung out with Alejandro Reyes Esparza,
the 20-something editor-in-chief of Mexico's first-ever gay publi-
cation, the glossy monthly OHM magazine. And in December 2009, Mexico City legalized gay marriage – marriages
now recognized in every other jurisdiction in Mexico.
"You don't [even] have this in America!" Alejandro said.
But just like in Canada and America, Mexico still has its fair share of homophobes, like the governor of Jalisco (the state
is also home to Puerto Vallarta), Emilio Gonzalez Marquez, who opened his big fat mouth the week I was there and
told a forum on family in Guadalajara, "Marriage is [between] a man and a woman. The other [gay marriage], as they
say, grosses me out."
El Informador now reports Marquez has apologized in a letter addressed to Mexico's Human Rights Commission.
Meanwhile, further south, we stopped in the classic ex-pat-filled beach town of Sayulita (great surfing here) where you
will have no trouble finding the art gallery of yarn painter Cilan Valadez, son of the Mexican legend Mariano Valadez,
both of whom are preserving Huichol culture (they are decendents of the Aztecs who built Mexcaltitán, a small manmade
island-city off the Pacific coast, accessible by boat from La Batanza). I also stayed at the Taheima Wellness Resorts
and Spa where my suite was three times the size of
my Montreal apartment. General manager Oliver Coupat
– who has been in the hotel business for almost three
decades – told me about my $1,500 per night suite:
"When you're paying $40,000 per night, then something's
wrong! But celebrities are hard to work with. One
of the hardest is Jennifer Lopez, who wants everything
white."
The worst he's ever worked with over the years? Coupat
reveals Johnny Hallyday had a huge hotel bill after trashing
his suite. "But," Coupat notes, "the house always
wins."
My favourite hotel on this trip was hands-down the very
exclusive five-diamond, beach-front Four Seasons Hotel
in Punta Mita, with one of the most gorgeous colonialstyle
bars I've ever seen. They pour a mean double-vodka
too.
And they perform same-sex commitment ceremonies
here as well. In fact, the Four Seasons – with its beaches,
several pools and golf course – is ideal for wedding parties.
Like chef Betty Vazquez Gonzalez told me one evening,
"Gay people brought their culture to our towns [along
the Riviera Nayarit], they have showed us another way to
live, and we respect them." qRichard BURNETT
: burnett@videotron.ca
Richard Burnett is Editor-at-Large of Montreal’s Hour magazine where
he writes his national queer-issues column Three Dollar Bill, which
you can also read online at www.hour.ca.
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