Just a short flight from Los Angeles lies the little fishing town of Loreto on Mexico’s Baja coast. The warm blue waters of the Sea of Cortez are so rich with unique flora and fauna that it has been designated a United Nations protected Marine Park; explorer Jacques Cousteau dubbed it simply as the ‘Aquarium of the World’.
Against the backdrop of its five islands on the horizon, the village offers plenty of natural beauty and nature activities. You can island hop, trek, hike, mountain bike, watch birds and sea life, explore ancient cave paintings, or plunge into the water to kayak, paddle board, sail, wind surf, snorkel, or scuba dive.
The beautiful resort of Villa del Palmar sits on the bay overlooking Danzante Island; its grounds feature two tennis courts, five swimming pools, and a world class golf course that had its grand opening in 2017.
Here, surrounded by so much natural beauty, you’d be happy just doing nothing, but the resort has upped the game of doing nothing with its Wellness Weeks with 5 or 7 day options offered several times a year. Instructors from the regular staff of the resort’s Sabila Spa are supplemented by experts from Los Angeles – blurring the political boundaries. The week is designed to pamper your mind, body, and spirit with wellness rituals and fitness routines to lay the foundation for a healthy lifestyle. The guided activities provide structure to doing nothing; now, instead of just vegetating, you actually do something constructive for yourself for which you never seem to have time during your normal routine back home. The Week will definitely have you rethink your ultimate vacation experience.
Claudine Riemer, Director of the Sabila Spa and runs Wellness Week. A Canadian expat married to a local, she says participants tend to be mostly women – not only because women tend to be more health conscious, but also because many are golf widows with husbands glued to the resort’s destination golf course.
Your day starts with a pre-breakfast group fitness class led by Rebecca Broxterman who has over 40,000 followers on Instagram and a thriving practice in Los Angeles with many celebrity clients. She is a big believer in exercise bands and introduces them to us the very first day. She hands us a set along with an ebook and gets us going. We jog around the gym stopping at different stations where we use the bands to tone different parts of our body. The ebook leads takes us step by step through the exercises, making them easy to understand, remember, and modify for injuries, pregnancy or other concerns. She points out that bands are especially good for travelling, “Take your Biti Bands with you everywhere you go”, she admonishes, “now you have no excuse for not exercising!” Another day, the Spa’s resident trainer Hector Ibarra leads a class on easy to do exercises using a fitball. The fitball is fun, and provides great hilarity as we try to stay on the ball as it is bent on rolling away, seemingly with a mind of its own. Ibarra points out that the variation it provides is a great way to break up the monotony of the same regular routine.
By this time, of course you have worked up an appetite; now, you get to enjoy a lavish breakfast buffet in the patio with ocean views. Topping the list of healthy options is a plentiful variety of fresh fruit, and for protein there’s an omelette station with your choice of fillings. If no one’s watching, you could try to sneak in some pan dolce pastry. There are plenty of juices, including the resort’s signature green juice – a blend of OJ with greens, and a range of espresso coffees.
Next up, Beth Manos from Long Beach leads a class on yoga and meditation right on the beach. Beth is also a certified nutritional therapist; her website Tasty Yummies helps people cope with food intolerances and allergies by offering recipes, personal stories, how-to instruction, and nutritional advice. Beth’s go-to move is grounding yoga that helps root you in the present time and location. As she points out, the move is a great way to dispel the disorientation that comes from travelling.
Now it is noon, and time for Chef David Fuerte’s healthy cooking demo. Fuerte has flown in from LA to make sure we not only eat healthy all week, but also learn to cook healthy back home. The chef loves vegan. His restaurant Masataco in Whittier originally offered one vegan taco, but that generated so much buzz on social media that the restaurant now offers an extensive menu with vegan versions of tinga, carnitas, and birria on handmade tortillas. To keep up with the demand, Fuerte also has more restaurants in the works. One of Fuerte’s demos featured the unexpected find of a jackfruit smoothie, something that I had never had before. As Fuerte points out, not only does jackfruit have a sweet taste that works well for smoothies, but it is also high in protein. I had seen jackfruit in LA’s Latin area markets but never knew quite what to do with it; now here was food for thought.
After lunch, Rebecca is back with a talk on a healthy, active lifestyle. One session features healthy cocktails that bypass sugar using agave nectar and stevia. In another session, we learn to make dark chocolate dollops topped with superfoods like chia seeds, mace powder, coconut flakes, goji berries and pumpkin seeds. No need to punish your sweet tooth.
The rest of the afternoon is left unstructured, presenting a variety of options. How about scheduling a massage? Rent some equipment to kayak, paddle, swim, or fish? Just hang out at the beach? Even in December the water is warm enough. You can also hike in the area. An easy one takes you to the 17th hole with its breathtaking 360 degree view. That will probably also tempt you to take the real estate tour of the property which includes a model home.
No need to be a homebody, though. Do work in a visit to the old town of Loreto. The highlight of the visit is the Mission of Our Lady of Loreto Concho which opens out onto the plaza of the old town. Built in 1697, the mission also houses a museum focusing on the colonization of Baja. Leading up to the mission is the charming Paseo Salvatierra Street with its souvenir shops, and just beyond it is a modern sea front street lined with lounges and restaurants, a boardwalk and boat rentals.
Another great option for venturing out is a boat tour to take in the breathtaking beauty. Your captain stops in secluded beaches where you can wade out into crystal clear water or don a body suit to snorkel and be thrilled by the marine life.
My own favorite afternoon activity was the hydrotherapy at Sabila Spa. Separate circuits for men and women each offer about 10 stations of hot and cold jacuzzis, dry and steam saunas, and hot and cold showers where you can slather yourself with aloe vera or use various herbs as scrubs. You can easily spend a couple of hours on the circuit, and with more time, you can nestle into a chaise, sip the Spa’s infused water or tea, and savor the view.
Come hungry for Chef Fuerte’s special dinners: healthy they are, but without cutting into the gourmet factor. You can sit in the Market restaurant and enjoy the family friendly variety show. Adults and kids alike are invited to come up on stage where the pros teach you basic salsa and merengue moves. There are also some fire dances including a show-stopping number where the entire stage seems set aflame. That one is definitely best left to the pros.
For more information on the resort and its Wellness Weeks, please visit www.villadelpalmarloreto.com.
