Blog - Playa Viva Luxury Eco Resort, Mexico

Proud Gourds

The word Juluchuca is said to mean the “mouth of a gourd.” This makes sense from a geographic point of view since the town is located at the mouth of a small watershed of the Juluchuca River, and both the river and the gourd contain water.

In Mexico workers have used the Gourd since pre-Hispanic times to hold water while they’re out in the fields. It keeps the water very fresh even if it stays under direct sun. At Playa Viva, my Permacutlure work involves constantly thinking about how the strengthen the human connection with nature and our environment.

For the Permaculture crew, that means returning to the old way of carrying water. While they used to carry disposable plastic bottles, we have now returned to the old way of using gourds. Getting the workers to like and feel proud of their gourds is a small, but solid step to living closer to the earth.

The Gold dream

Wouldn’t it be nice to unexpectedly unearth a pot of gold while digging in the dirt behind your house? This fantasy is alive and well amongst the residents of Juluchuca, Mexico. While working in Playa Viva’s archeological site, I found a rather large pre-Hispanic clay pot. As we were carefully digging it out of the hillside, several of the workers came to tell me their gold stories.

There seemed to be quite a few people who knew people who had found clay pots full of gold. Here is one such story: It was full moon at the Salina (place were salt is made), and Mr. Martin Sosa and his wife were working on that night preparing the pools to evaporate the salty water. Digging out sand and limestone makes these pools. Suddenly, as they were digging, the shovel hit a clay pot. According to the story, Mr. Sosa had an impulse of curiosity and broke it open to find golden coins inside. He immediately started together them while trying to ignore the strong smell of gas that was coming from the pot.

According to this account, Mr. Sosa died after one week in consequence of that gas, and the ones to get the benefit of that gold were his siblings Lorenzo and Silvano who sold one by one at 300 pesos to a dentist in near by town Petatlan and used the money to fuel their drinking and gambling habits.

Here is an image of one of the coins found my Mr. Sosa:

The coin is from 1823 with an image of a nightcap and sunrays, which represents the freedom of México after getting the independence in 1821. It’s the first of its kind to have an image of the Eagle, Mexico’s national seal, on the back. In the 1820s Mexico was fraught with internal wars. Since power was continuously changing hands, it was common practice to hide your money if you happen to find yourself on the wrong side.

In Support of a Good Cause

We are sometimes approached by organizations looking for Playa Viva to make a donation to their non-profit’s charity auction. In general, we like to support organizations that support environmental and social endeavors near to the area we serve, Mexico, Guerrero, Zihuatanejo, etc. Most recently we supported an organization who’s mission is far away in Tibet, but during this Olympic Year, with much attention on human rights violations and the aspiration of Tibetans in diaspora, we decided to join forces and lend Playa Viva to this cause. Please go visit the Tibetan Aid Project and please bid on the auction items to help raise funds for this worthy cause.

Turtles on a Comeback for ’08

As usual in the beginning of the month, I got the monthly statistics from the team at the Turtle Sanctuary, La Tortuga Feliz, in Playa Viva, Juluchuca, Mexico. As of this month, the sanctuary is running 40% above the number of turtles released same time last year. While this large increase probably won’t be sustained as we head into the high season over the last 4 months of the year, it is still a good indication that the work of the all volunteer staff is effective. With over 200,000 turtles released last year, this bodes well for a large number of turtles to be released in ’08. We hope you can join us for this truly transformation experience when Playa Viva opens in early ’09. Below is a photo of a baby leatherback turtle taken during one of our visits back in March.

Branding Green Hotels

The following is an excerpt from an article by Lawrence Hefler of BrandShares International (www.heflerinternational.com) about “Branding Green Hotels”. We find it relevant to Playa Viva. For the full article click here:

“Consumers are often looking for a hospitality experience that will be relevant to their needs and align with their values. With more and more consumers basing decisions on environmental consciousness, ‘green’ hotels will appeal to consumers with those values and attract them. Building a brand that incorporates eco sensitivity helps consumers in their decision making process. Hotels and resorts need to differentiate themselves with a brand and being a ‘green’ and eco-friendly brand can be a part of that. A ‘green’ brand image can help hoteliers to differentiate their property from other hospitality choices in their market. This can attract consumers as well as groups and meetings that require a ‘green’ location. “

A Million US Baby Boomers in Mexico

This info from a press release fell into my in-box today: US Baby Boomers have been increasingly looking to Mexico as a retirement home destination. As of 2007, over 400,000 Americans and Canadians have retired to Mexico. The Dallas Morning News reported that as many as a million U.S. citizens now live in Mexico at least part time, up fivefold from a decade ago.

Only the Palm Trees Were Left Standing

When I saw this picture on the cover of the New York Times yesterday, my first reaction was the shock at the devastation the woman was standing upon. After the initial shock, I noticed the background. What was left standing, the palm trees. As the developer of Playa Viva, where we are building low treehousesupon palm trees, I am often asked by buyers, lenders, insurance companies and other stakeholders, “Will the Palm Trees survive a hurricane?” Here is the proof, a catastrophic cyclone that has caused unimaginable destruction and what is left standing? The palm trees. I’m not trying to be callous and overlook the human tragedy. Yet I’m amazed at the resiliency of nature.

Terraces at Playa Viva

The even lines on the topographic maps of Playa Viva’s upper lake hinted at the possibility of prehispanic terraces—this kind of symmetry does not often occur in nature.

With this information, Playa Viva’s permacuture team began to investigate the possibility that the terraces, and even the lake were part of an ancient system of sustainable agriculture.

A visit from INAH, Mexico’s National Department of Archeology and History confirmed our initial suspicions. There is evidence that the entire lake area was used for pre-hispanic housing and agricultural.

With this information we started envisioning a plan to re-build the terraces and bring them back to their original glory. Though it was clear that this would not be easy due to the high degree of soil erosion.

Now the work has begun. To protect the land from further erosion, we are working to re-create the terraces by hand, just men and machetes, instead of heavy machinery—returning to the age old methods of nurturing the soil and producing food.

Unexpected Common Ground

It’s still dark out but I can clearly hear Teresita’s soft voice calling me through the door. “Sadie, vamos a caminar.” She’s inviting me to join her and some of the other older ladies of Juluchuca for their daily walk to the playa. The idea of setting out for walk before sunrise is not usually part of my schedule, but this is something special.

An American woman in my 30s who is still struggling to learn Spanish, I didn’t expect to have much in common with my host Theresita, a grandmother who has rarely travels beyond her small community in Northern Mexico. But in our monthly visits when I come to Playa Viva to host our sales events, we have hit on some unexpected common ground: we’ve both recently been diagnosed with a form of type 2 diabetes. While mine is termed pre-diabetes and Teresita is struggling with a more advanced case, we’ve been prescribed the same medicine and are both interested in understanding how changes in our lifestyles might help.

Thus the pre-dawn walks. Theresa and the other ladies of the neighborhood (apparently about 1 in 3 are also dealing with some form of diabetes or pre-diabetes) have decided to get active on the advice of their doctors. An international health epidemic is felt very personally in Juluchuca where much of the population is either very young or aging. While their experience of the world may be somewhat limited, they are eager for information and willing to make changes.

So now, in the coolness of the early morning, when the men go off to work on the land, the ladies make their rounds through the neighborhood, rousing each other from chores to join the walk. We each walk at our own pace–the older ladies laughingly excusing their inability to keep up– swinging our arms we talk about life and family and breath deeply.

Dry Season

It’s the dry season here at Playa Viva but this place is so full of life and water that its still green in many areas. One good aspect about the dry season is that with less foliage you can see more wildlife because of less greenery to camouflage the animals. During last weeks visit on site, we saw a family of coati, an iguana, what looked like a Harris Hawk and many other animals. Playa Viva is teaming with life even in the dry season.