Healing Sanctuary Does Good Works in Mexican Village
 Nick Gallo - Vancouver Sun
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| | A client gets a massage. (Shaughn Butts/Edmonton Journal) | |
Mar de Jade offers foreign visitors a unique space to rejuvenate and relax - and to perform service.
Like a jaguar on the prowl, the morning sun creeps out from a thicket of clouds and stretches itself resplendently across the sky. I hardly care, huddled in the sand under two blankets, shivering with headache, fever and chills. First day on vacation and I've brought a respiratory virus from home.
"It's better to be sick on a beach in Mexico than at work at home," my wife Laurie says, failing to cheer me up. I'm miserable and churlish, unashamed to grouch about barking dogs, a fat guy in a Speedo and the noise of the pounding surf. "Doesn't the sea ever shut up?" I rail.
We are staying at Mar de Jade ("Sea of Jade"), a hotel in a jungle by an ocean. Hotel isn't quite the right word because this isn't a resort or highrise. The lodge consists of several two-storey buildings with guest rooms and a Mediterranean-style house with a red-tiled roof.
Brightened by bougainvillaea and banana trees, Mar de Jade is postcard-pretty, but I'm more intrigued by its hidden-in-the-tropics mood of sanctuary reminiscent of the Costa Verde, the jungle outpost in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana. The lodge's owner Laura del Valle reminds me of Maxine, the film's hotelkeeper played by Ava Gardner, who exuded earth-mothering, middle-aged sexiness.
Instead of pouring booze, del Valle plies me with hot tea, herbs and homeopathic remedies. "People come here to recuperate from the modern world," del Valle murmurs in a soothing, throaty voice. As I say, I'm fevered and possibly delusional.
Chacala sits at the northern end of the beach, a half-mile sweep of palm-fringed sand. At the southern tip is Mar de Jade, perched on a bluff above the water. Arriving just before sunset, we're greeted by a fiery red sky, flamboyant as a Carnivale drag queen. In contrast, the mighty Pacific is a pussycat, its calm waves tiptoeing along the coastline.
Sick and fatigued, I check in quickly and head straight for our room, one of 25 tucked into the hillside. About half have marvellous ocean views overlooking tropical gardens, and there is a touch of elegance in the lodge's stonework and brick-arched ceilings, but the overall theme is comfort and simplicity: clean, spacious rooms, pleasant interiors, plain furnishings. No TV, no pillow concierge, no pampering.
As del Valle tells me later: "We're not about fluffy white towels."
For the first few days, I feel too wiped out to have much interest in people or goings-on, but I make it to the main house for meals, mostly Mexican dishes and fresh, healthy salads, a rarity in rural Mexico. These are served at set times in an outdoor dining room that fronts the sea. Guests are free to eat by themselves or dine with other visitors, family-style, at large tables. Laurie mingles, but I'm content to stay off in a corner on the veranda in the healing air.
From my perch, I observe del Valle, a woman of American-Mexican descent. Chatty, charismatic and constantly in motion, she is a whirl of long, brown hair, one moment dashing to the kitchen to fetch more empanadas for lunch, the next overseeing workers patching the swimming pool.
Fluent in English and Spanish, she's besieged with entreaties in both languages. A California guest wants to discuss a videotaping project. A Mexican mask maker appears, hoping to sell crafts. Then a barefoot villager approaches, needing help for an infection. "Tetracyclina," says del Valle, rushing off to find antibiotics. Finally, my curiosity piqued, I join the line of beseechers: "So, Laura," I ask, "what's your story?"
Thus, del Valle launches into her experiences at Chacala. A family physician who grew up in Chicago and Mexico City, she was travelling on vacation in the early '80s when she discovered Chacala, then an isolated settlement of fishermen who lived on ejido, or communal, land. A one-acre plot was for sale, which Del Valle snapped up.
Eager to practise community medicine, she used a blend of western medicine and wholistic methods to treat villagers out of a palapa shack. Local farmers believed she possessed the powers of a curandera, a healer who can cast spells. Del Valle didn't dissuade them, approving of traditional healing rituals, such as boiling herbs by the light of the moon.
In the early '90s, del Valle began to modernize Mar de Jade, putting in a well, electricity and the first modern guesthouse. Additions followed every few years. A lifelong Zen Buddhist, del Valle built a meditation hall in 1994 and found Zen teachers such as Norman Fischer of the San Francisco Zen Center to conduct group retreats.
Passionate and visionary, del Valle was creating something new in the wilderness: a combination vacation spot, spiritual retreat and community-immersion experience. Soon, alternative-minded travellers were arriving for yoga workshops and human-potential sessions.
Guests volunteered at the health clinic, founded a library in the village and pioneered Techos de Mexico, a program that helps villagers generate income by renting out rooms to tourists. "We've had a lot of really good-hearted people stay here - people who want to make a difference," says del Valle.
Today, many travellers continue along that path, but things are evolving.
"We've always tried to strike a balance between learning and serving with relaxing and enjoying," del Valle says, breaking into a smile: "Self-renewal takes different forms."
The next morning, I awake clear-headed and fever-free, ready to rejoin the human race.
IF YOU GO:
• Travel: The closest international airport to Chacala is in Puerto Vallarta. Rental cars are available for the 90-minute drive north. Taxis cost $80 for up to four people. Northbound buses ($7) leave the Puerto Vallarta bus station, about a kilometre north of the airport, and stop at Las Varas. Grab a taxi ($10) in Las Varas for the 15-minute ride to Chacala.
• Accommodation: Mar de Jade offers spacious suites and guest rooms that start at $200/night US for two people, which includes three meals per day per person. Contact www.mardejade.com; toll-free, 1-800-257-0532. Inexpensive bungalows for rent through Techos de Mexico (www.playachacala.com).
• Retreat: The Praxis Spiritual Centre of B.C. will hold a Meditation and Creative Spirit retreat at Mar de Jade Feb. 25 to March 1. Participants will learn a simple, integrated daily meditation practice and participate in creative arts activities. Tuition is $650 US. Seven nights accommodation and three meals/day cost $700 US. Phone 1-250-860-5686, e-mail infopraxiscentre.ca or visit www.praxiscentre.ca. |
Vallarta Weddings
Health & Beauty | February 2009 
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