Nice sport. Interesting sport. I just don’t play. So when I found myself heading to Punta Mita, a new gated resort development about 30 km up the coast from Puerto Vallarta and home to two new Jack Nicklaus Signature courses, friends and colleagues, looked at me quizically.
Especially with word that Nicklaus himself would be on hand to inaugurate the second, Bahia.
Truth is, I have golfed — and that tree in Bermuda probably still has the scar from my three-iron to prove it.
And the larger truth is, I love Mexico, not unlike the 1.2 mil ion other Canadians who become enraptured every year. Drug wars and swine flu notwithstanding, there is little substitute for its warmth – literal and figurative – culture and just plain fun.
In contrast to the almost tiresome Cancuns and Acapulcos, Punta Mita is the new kid on the block.
The developers — DINE, one of Mexico’s largest — arrived about a dozen years ago and haven’t so much built Punta Mita as they have sculpted it out of a 1,500-acre spear-shaped peninsula. The master plan calls for some 1,000 residences — currently there are about 250 — shops, restaurants and, yes, probably another golf course and resort to go along with the dazzling five-star Four Seasons and St. Regis.
The architecture, atmosphere and clientele are decidedly upscale, which come to think of it might be another reason for a non-golfer to feel slightly out of place.
But this lasts for, oh, about 35 seconds — enough time to look out over the shimmering Pacific from the expansive open lobby on a sultry fall day and be handed a cocktail by an even warmer face.
Around me I hear chatter about — argh! — golf. But already my mind is elsewhere, like wading along some 15 km of sandy beach meandering its way along the coast of Banderas Bay.
The often heavy surf can be intimidating at first, although its hypnotic cadence and enticing mix of blue and green, soon wins you over.
Besides, waves like this draw an element you’ll never find on the country’s Caribbean side: Surfers. Youths and adults tote their boards atop cars all California-like in search of the biggest pipes, usually a little further up the coast in the intoxicating village of Sualito.
(In contrast to pristine Punta Mita, Sualito is positively Bohemian and oozes old Mexico).
The temperate waters are also home to an abundance of marine life, species that are both mundane and rare, and usually a few sizes larger than what you’ll find in most Caribbean outposts.
They don’t get much bigger than humpback whales, calves in tow, who reside in the bay through the winter months before migrating north. That means nearly four full months of whale watching; Their flumes visible from both the beach and sundry boat expeditions.
Then there’s the marlins and sailfish — this is, after all, world record country — and the uniquely Mexican false killer whale, slightly larger and, er, carnivorous than your every day Orcas.
Fortunately, they steer well clear of snorkellers and scuba divers — and vice versa.
Divers may be surprised to learn the area is what Nick, our guide on one snorkelling trip, calls “almost word-class.”
What the area lacks in bountiful reefs and colour it makes up for in visibility and marine life; what it lacks in wrecks it makes up for in caves and tunnels, some of which, Nick says, go on for hundreds of metres before turning into an air pocket.
A 15-minute boat ride to the tiny Marietta islands is a haven to the usual suspects — grunts, angel fish and sea turtles — and visibility nearing 50 metres.
The craggy coral cliffs, dotted with sandy caves, are a designated nature preserve and consequently a steady stream of nature chasers come and go by boat.
For it is here that the famed blue-footed boobies, an ungainly bird with, yes, blue feet, calls home. The water was a little too choppy to get close on this day but not enough to prevent you from spying hundreds of blue feet nesting atop the cliff and in rock-sheltered havens.
But you can only spend much time on the sea — or golf course — and the brains behind Punta Mita know this.
Toronto-based Four Seasons was first on the scene. Never mind the exquisite landscaping, three pools and waterfall, you really know you’re in a luxury resort when it boasts Richard Sandoval — Mexico’s version of Jamie Kennedy — as its executive chef, and has its own tequila sommelier (Raymundo Vazquez), one of only a half-dozen in the world.
And, oh yes, just for fun the resort also boasts its own 17-metre luxury yacht available for charter.
Rates begin at about $550 per room a night but for a limited time the resort is offering a $1,249 resort credit for every five nights. That ought to cover your meals and drinks.
Just along the cobblestone road from Four Seasons is the year-old St. Regis, which, with its lush vegetation, water treatments and stunningly adorned rooms, is to hotels what Rolls Royce is to cars.
It should come as no surprise then, that a few of society’s wealthier sun-lovers have come to call Punta Mita home, including nearly two-dozen Canadians.
One of the transplants is a personable 37-year-old from Timmins named Phil Ferrari, the resort’s golf pro.
After bouncing around the Canadian Tour and working as head pro at Devil’s Paintbrush in Caledon, a “total fluke” saw him turn down a job in Hawaii and end up a few months later working at the Four Season in Great Exuma, Bahamas. Four Seasons then brought him at Punta Mita.
He and his wife Deb and their bichon frise landed two years ago and have little inclination to return to the snow, cold and seven months-a-year golf.
He does, however, return home occasionally to visit his former golf pro dad, John, and other family and friends.
Smart thinking, he figures.
“If people come down to visit us here, we’re afraid they wouldn’t want to leave.”if you go
to Mexico
More information
For details on travel to Mexico, see visitmexico.com. For information on accommodations, see fourseasons.com and stregis.com. For more on the Punta Mita luxury villas, see puntamita.com.
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