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 Travel & Outdoors | September 2007 
If I Had To Be Sick...
 Janet Podolak - News-Herald
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 |  | Being ill on a trip is hardly ideal, but this Puerto Vallarta resort made it as enjoyable as possible. |  | |
If I had to be sick while on the road, Casa Velas was a perfect place to hole up. The destination resort in Puerto Vallarta has the kinds of amenities that encourage guests to stay put. People who have come for years to this city on Mexico's west coast often stay here and barely leave the property.
Casa Velas is made to order for the best kind of relaxation, with a world-class spa, 36 holes of golf and even a diagnostic clinic for those hoping to get a physical.
It's a place for adults - no children.
My room was an uncommon sanctuary - the bed piled with pillows and dressed with fine linens. The marble tile floors, cool to my bare feet, led me to a bathroom with a Jacuzzi as its focal point.
Sadly, it was in that room where I spent the better part of my three-day visit.
Puerto Vallarta, along Mexico's Pacific Coast, has long been a favored destination for Northeast Ohioans, many of whom have vacation homes there.
It gained its earliest fame to the outside world in the early 1960s when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fell in love in the sleepy fishing village while filming "Night of the Iguana." Many of its charms remain, though its sleepy fishing-village days are long gone.
The advent of Apple Vacations packages and inexpensive USA 3000 flights from Cleveland have increased Puerto Vallarta's popularity in recent years.
I was really looking forward to my visit - the first in 20 years. To prepare, I contacted friends who are Puerto Vallarta regulars and asked their dining, shopping and sightseeing recommendations.
But I was sick the whole time. And it had nothing to do with Puerto Vallarta.
Before boarding my flight in Cleveland, I was suddenly stricken with what was probably an especially violent version of intestinal flu. Had I not been dropped off at the airport, I would have turned around and gone home.
By the time I arrived in Puerto Vallarta - after a flight that was memorable for obvious reasons - my intestinal distress had abated, but I was burning with fever and feeling dehydrated. Other travelers were wisely keeping their distance.
I'd been told that a driver from the resort would meet me, so I ignored the gauntlet of offers for transportation.
Casa Velas is an 80-room, all-inclusive boutique hotel aimed at adults and surrounded by the Marina Vallarta Golf Club - a private club where resort guests enjoy preferred tee times. Although it's not on the ocean, a short walk or a frequent shuttle takes guests to the private beach club, which has its own pool and dining.
But, alas, those discoveries were not to be mine for another two days.
I maintained a brave front at check-in, accepted the chilled wash cloth for my brow but declined the cold fruit drink that was offered. When I confided my illness to the concierge, I was told not to worry - I could have meals delivered to my room.
"Just be comfortable," he said. "Don't worry about anything."
As a Casa Velas guest, I could order room service 24 hours a day and would also have the facilities of two sister hotels at my disposal, he told me.
Although I usually don't care for air conditioning, the cool comfort of my room was just the sanctuary I needed. Downing the aspirin - something I always pack - with one of the bottles of water in my room, I fell into a sound sleep.
As the concierge had indicated, I could have ordered room service. But meals were among the perks included at this all-inclusive, so the next morning I made my way to Emiliano - the main restaurant.
Another guest worked on his laptop on the patio, surrounded by tropical landscaping as koi fish lazily lapping one of several reflecting pools. The hotel is a wi-fi site ideal for those wishing to catch up with friends or with business to conduct.
Word that I was under the weather apparently had spread because the hostess asked if I was feeling better before escorting me to a table outdoors near small pond. It reflected the tropical lushness and attention to detail that soon came to characterize Casa Velas in my mind.
Oatmeal - a surprise on a breakfast buffet brimming with fresh fruit and many other foods - proved the perfect restorative to my still-queasy tummy.
But I remained sick, so I canceled my prearranged tee time on the golf course and retreated to my room for another session of sleep.
That afternoon, I crawled from my bed and donned a swimsuit, figuring a cool dip in the pool would be soothing. It was fine with me that few other guests were there, as I didn't want to share my illness.
Giving me a large towel and bottle of water, a pool attendant told me my fellow guests were probably at the beach.
The beach club, shared with guests at the two sister resorts in the same neighborhood, is a two-story building in a gated garden with a pool, patio restaurant and great sand beach on Banderas Bay. It's an easy five-minute walk, but a regularly circulating shuttle takes guests of the three resorts there.
Views are of the cloud-draped Sierra Madre Mountains across the bay. It was late on my last day, and the sushi restaurant at the beach bar was just wrapping up service as hotel staff worked to set up tables on the beach for a special evening event.
Knowing that I was unlikely to experience much more of the area, I stopped a vendor on the beach to marvel over the jewelry he carried. I made a few purchases and returned to the resort, where I slept the rest of the day.
I missed out on the resort's spa and its golf, the zip-line over the forest canopy, the scuba and snorkeling excursions, the four-wheel drive forays and the fine dining that has become almost a Puerto Vallarta trademark.
But despite my state, Casa Velas was delightful, and I look forward to returning some day.
JPodolak@News-Herald.com |
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