Villa Santa Cruz

We are lucky in Todos Santos to have many festivals, parades, and events throughout the year, but, without doubt, the biggest night of them all celebrates the Día de Independencia - Mexican Independence Day.

While the actual Independence Day is September 16, the celebration begins the night before with a grand party in the main plaza.  The Mission is dressed up in a light show, food stands made of palm fronds appear so you can feast on authentic and delicious churros, tamales, and pozole (just to name a few), you can play Mexican Bingo, vote for the queen of Todos Santos, and watch the dance and music troops performing on stage.

                 

 

The night culminates around 11pm with the infamous El Grito - literally "the yell."  The yell is a call-and-response between the speaker and the audience, mimicking the yell from Hidalgo in 1810, encouraging the people to revolt against the Spanish colonial government.  

In Todos Santos, this year's yell was led by Esthela Ponce, the Presidenta Municipal de La Paz (akin to the Mayor).  She yelled and we spiritedly responded:

"Viva Hidalgo!

Viva!

Viva Morelos!

Viva!

Viva el Pueblo Mágico de Todos Santos!

Viva!

Viva Mexico!

Viva!"

Yes indeed, Viva Mexico!

             

Villa Santa Cruz was aglow on Saturday, September 10 to celebrate the union of bride and groom, Katie & Oliver.   With a calm breeze in the air and beautiful afternoon light filtering through wispy clouds, the pair exchanged vows on the dunes before 35 of their closest family members and friends.  The bride was truly a sight in a lovely sheath style gown, next to her darling flower girls who blew bubbles throughout the ceremony.

After the ceremony, the newly married couple joined their guests around the pool for cocktails, appetizers and lively Mexican guitar music.  

Katie & Oliver then invited their guests to find their seats at the reception and join them for a champagne and tequila toast (yes, tequila from the Villa Santa Cruz barrel)!

Landi's Restaurant catered the wedding and prepared an exquisite traditional Mexican feast, complete with chicken mole and delicious chili rellenos.

After dinner, all the wedding guests went out to the beach in front of the Villa to watch a beautiful sunset.  When they returned, it was time to cut the cake (a rich chocolate truffle delight prepared by the Hotel California).  

As guests danced the night away (and jumped in the pool for a midnight swim), the full moon was a sight to be seen.  The moonlight washed over the Villa and property, providing the perfect ambiance for love.  

We wish Katie & Oliver a lifetime of happiness!

When life gives you mangoes, it is time to get creative in the kitchen! With over 40 mango trees on our property at Villa Santa Cruz, our trees are just dripping with fruit. In fact, the entire Pueblo Mágico of Todos Santos is overflowing with mangoes. We love to incorporate mangoes into the meals we serve our hotel guests – fresh mango slices at breakfast and mango salsa to liven up fish tacos at lunch. 



Here is our favorite mango salsa recipe. Enjoy!

Mango Salsa

1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons minced red onion
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Prepare the mango salsa by combining the mango, red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper in a bowl. Add the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Buen Provecho!

Villa Santa Cruz, Boutique Hotel on the Beach, was the ideal setting for 20 yogis from San Diego to take a deep breath and find their inner calm. From July 16 – 20, the Villa was the main headquarters for a Yoga Retreat organized by Asana in Paradise. The Retreat’s yoga instructor, Roxanne DePalma, led morning and night classes on the Villa’s Roof Terrace and at the Pool. Combined with a week of warm weather and delicious meals prepared by Todos Santos local Dominique Sawyer, the Yoga Retreat was a huge success!

Yoga photographers, Todd LeVeck and Micaela Malmi of Epic PhotoJournalism, were on site capturing the experience. Click here to see their complete photo album of the Yoga Retreat on Facebook. Additionally, you can read Micaela’s Blog Post about the Retreat here.  We love the sentiment captured in these lines from her Blog, "Lunch is followed by another yoga class by the poolside where our yoga teacher reminds us that we should really feel the surfaces beneath our feet - the grass, the sand, the ocean.  It is a beautiful reminder to just stop and observe. And to take time to feel."  

Villa Santa Cruz was ready for its close-up yesterday evening when the internationally recognized shoe company, Söfft Shoes, came to do a photo shoot for its Spring 2012 collection. The team arrived just before sunset and headed out to the beach to take advantage of the beautiful golden light of Todos Santos. The model, Gabriela, was absolutely stunning as she posed on the winding path that leads from the hotel out to the beach – the Villa’s version of a runway! After hundreds of camera clicks and a wardrobe change, the photographers got their shots and excitedly said, “It’s a wrap!” Check out the pictures below to see a few photos of the shoot.

 
                     

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.

For many people living in the United States, the 5th of May, or Cinco de Mayo, is a day to let loose and celebrate. With visions of margaritas and cervezas, crazy sombreros and delicious Mexican food, for many Cinco de Mayo is a day to leave work early and hit the neighborhood cantina for a Mexican fiesta. The irony is that while the Americans are partying it up in the USA, it is just a normal day in Mexico without fanfare, parties or even as much as a second thought given to the day…why is this? 

Americans widely believe that Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico’s independence, but this is just not the case. Mexico earned its independence from Spain in 1821 and celebrates this day – the most important national holiday of the year – on September 16. Cinco de Mayo is merely the anniversary of the Mexican military’s triumph over the French army at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It was an important victory to the Mexican people because their smaller, outnumbered army defeated the larger French forces, helping the Mexican people develop a much needed sense of national identity in Mexico (which is the reason for its continued celebration).

Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in Mexico as a regional holiday in the State of Puebla (where the famous battle took place), but really nowhere else in Mexico. Yet, the celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the United States has exploded! It seems that Americans have transformed the day from its origin as the commemoration of a Mexican military victory into a day to celebrate Mexican pride and culture – similarly to the celebrations of the Irish, German and Chinese heritages associated with St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest or the Chinese New Year.

So, even though the US celebration of Cinco de Mayo has evolved into something bigger than the actual holiday itself, it remains a great day to join in to celebrate the vibrant Mexican culture. So, go on, leave work early, head down to a Cinco de Mayo celebration and shout “Viva Mexico!”

For more information, visit http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm

Our April Newsletter was filled with updates from Villa Santa Cruz, included our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended our Grand Opening Celebration, and featured the two amazing Farmers' Markets we have in Todos Santos each week. Click here to check out the April Newsletter!