Villa Santa Cruz

In a matter of days, Villa Santa Cruz, Boutique Hotel on the Beach, will have an eco-friendly heated swimming pool! While the weather in Todos Santos is amazing year round, a heated swimming pool will ensure our guests’ comfort whether it is December, March or July. And, most importantly, the pool will be heated by an innovative solar system, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.

After doing the research, talking to experts and investigating the options, we decided to buy a solar pool heating system by Heliocol. We learned that the Heliocol solar “panels” that heat pool water are actually quite different from the typical electricity-generating solar panels that we see on homes in the United States or that we have on the Roof Terrace at the Villa. In fact, the Heliocol panels are actually solar “collectors,” composed of a series of tubes in which the water is heated by the sun as it is cycled through the system and then deposited back into the pool. This cycle is repeated until the pool has reached the desired temperature – at least 80⁰F! Check out this diagram which shows the process.

                                                                               
                    
                                                    (Follow the blue/cold water up out of the pool, through the
                                            solar collectors where it turns red/hot, and then goes back into the pool)

The panels are nothing short of enormous. Each one measures 4 ft. x 12.5 ft., and with our monstrous 55,000 gallon pool, we have 24 of them! Here is a picture of the racking system that the solar collectors will soon be affixed to. As you can see, the racks sit comfortably between the pool and the dunes and blend into the landscape behind well-placed palm trees

Our “green” efforts don’t stop at the pool heating system as we are also in the process of replacing our diesel pool pump for one that runs on the sun’s energy. The solar pump will serve two main purposes – to filter the pool and cycle the water through the new solar collectors to heat the pool water. We love that this new solar system will cut down drastically on our diesel consumption and take advantage of one of the Earth’s renewable resources – the sun!

We are thrilled with our new solar pool heating system and solar pump and we know our guests will appreciate a heated pool and our eco-friendly nature. Bring on the sunshine!

                       
                              

With clear skies, a warm breeze and a peacefulness that only summer can bring, this is the kind of day that you wish would last forever - and, since today is the Summer Solstice, it almost does just that.  On this longest day of the year, we have 13 hours and 32 minutes of daylight in Todos Santos.  At Villa Santa Cruz, the sun won’t set until 8:10pm, leaving an impressive amount of daylight hours to get in a game of beach bocce ball, nap in the hammocks, take a dip in the pool and have a margarita…or two!  Here are some pictures of this gorgeous first day of summer – enjoy!

           

                  

Itching to get out on the open road and explore a new area of Baja Sur, we decided to take a day trip to El Triunfo, a small historical mining town about 1 hour northeast of Villa Santa Cruz and Todos Santos. Up in the mountains, the town itself is very quiet and very quaint, but with some surprisingly notable things to see. With only a few restaurants, some mining ruins, and a lovely mission, you need just a few hours to get a good look at El Triunfo.

To begin our afternoon, we first dined at the delicious Caffe El Triunfo for a casual lunch. Serving amazing homemade pizzas, pasta dishes and enormous salads, the Caffe seems to be the center of life in El Triunfo. We enjoyed lounging in the café with iced teas (a nice respite from the heat), watching a steady flow of customers, and chatting with some of the local expats who have made El Triunfo their home. The food is simple, but wonderful, and the homemade bread and sweet treats for sale at the counter are worth the trip on their own.

 

After lunch, we strolled behind the restaurant to see the remains of the silver and gold mines that were active in El Triunfo from the 1860s to the 1920s (these mines are the reason the town came to be). While most of the structures were crumbling and decrepit, the one beacon that remains is an impressive 35-meter-high smokestack designed by Gustav Eiffel. While it is no Eiffel Tower, it is très magnifique. During the late 1800s, Eiffel traveled throughout Latin America designing a variety of structures and made a stop in El Triunfo – what a wonderful legacy for the town.

                       

Equally as impressive as the Eiffel smokestack, the collection of pianos on display at the El Triunfo Piano Museum is both remarkable and a bit bizarre. The Museum boasts pianos and other instruments from New York, Chicago, Germany, Austria, etc. and are from all different historic time periods. For such a small town like El Triunfo, it is quite unbelievable to see vintage pianos from around the world collected and exhibited in this unlikely location.

                         
After wrapping up our walk through the Piano Museum and wandering through the old Mission, it was time to head home. On the drive out of the hills of El Triunfo and back to the beaches of Todos Santos, we were quite content with our day trip. With a lovely café and noteworthy historical sites, we will definitely recommend this excursion to our Villa Santa Cruz guests.