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Destination: VALLE DE BRAVO,
Mexico
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Mountain hideaway
Ecological hotel designed for relaxation
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VALLE
DE BRAVO, Mexico -- To say the least, it was strange, perhaps
the most bizarre experience I've ever encountered on a travel
junket.
There we were, 10 travel-weary, jaded
journalists relaxing on a Mexican mountaintop when this
wealthy businessman suddenly beckoned us into group
meditation.
Really.
 Entrepreneur Michel Domit relaxes
in his new hotel, El Santuario (left), located just
outside Valle de Bravo, Mexico. |
"Close your
eyes ... breathe deeply ... try to imagine a blue light coming
down from heaven and entering your head," he instructed. "The
white-blue light is coming from heaven, entering through the
top of your head and travelling slowly down your spine."
"The light fills you with warmth," he intoned.
I looked at the others. Some had obediently shut
their eyes. Others glanced around nervously.
I
shut my eyes. I could feel the warmth of the sun and a breeze
tickled against my face. But no blue light.
Michel Domit continued to chant us into
transcendental bliss. I felt fidgety and opened my eyes. The
others still had theirs closed. Some were smiling.
Domit owned a Nike factory in Mexico until the
NAFTA free-trade deal almost dealt him out of business. Today
the millionaire designs and manufactures fashion accessories
such as shoes and jewelry. He's also building a unique (for
lack of a better word) ecological hotel.
El
Santuario, which appears to be carved into the mountain he
recently purchased, is located just outside the Mexican resort
town of Valle de Bravo.
 El Santuario is still under
construction.
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Designed by
Domit himself, El Santuario is scheduled to be completed by
year's end. It's a rather enchanting layout with its graceful
curves and use of sheer glass walls. Water falls from the
mountain outside, gushes into the hotel, bubbles along the
corridors then trickles into each room before exiting into the
lake below.
It's a hotel designed for
contemplation. Spiritual redemption. Under a glass dome along
the curved suspended staircase leading down to the six rooms
(more are to be completed later), gazes a huge stone Buddha.
Rooms don't come cheap in paradise, however.
It'll cost you $800 US for a one night stay in the grandest
suite - two bedrooms plus dining room and an incredible
Jacuzzi that looked large enough for eight, plus the Titanic -
when the hotel officially opens.
Earlier that
day, during our media tour of his hotel, someone noticed
Domit's black dresswatch.
"That's a nice watch,"
came the remark.
Domit immediately unfastened
his watch and tossed it over. "It's yours," came the reply.
Outside, there was still the tennis court, an
unfinished golf course and the horse stables to see, we
continued the tour. "That's a nice Jeep," I said, hopeful, as
we passed the parking lot. Alas, he didn't hear me.
Meanwhile, back on the mountaintop our mediation
drew to a close and a round of group hugs followed, which I
avoided by pretending to fiddle with my camera gear.
"Don't pat on the back when you hug," he said,
hugging a twentysomething female travel writer from New
Jersey.
Why not? I asked.
"It
comes across as insincere," said one of his assistants.
Don't get me wrong. Domit seemed very sincere.
Nice manners. A nice guy even. But the whole scene seemed
wacky. Surreal even. Forget the New Age nonsense. Construction
on his hotel hasn't even been completed, and yet he was
entertaining travel journalists from Canada and the United
States who likely had no intention of writing about it.
I mean, you can't really recommend a hotel -
however beautiful - that has yet to open, can you?
We scrambled off the mountaintop and passed by
the huge modern house he had build for his sister up there.
"That's a nice house," I said, again, hopeful.
This time one of his assistants shot me a dirty
look.
Well, at least I got a watch out it.
More on Valle de Bravo
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