The magic of Manzanillo
By Bob Schulman
Maybe there's something in the water. Or on the hillsides overlooking some of Mexico's most breathtaking bays. Whatever it is, Manzanillo seems to draw ultra-rich hotel developers like kids to a piñata.
Take Robert Woolley. Stories tell how the Dallas-based hotel tycoon was so enchanted by the tropical beauty of Manzanillo that he decided to build a luxury resort here – in the shape of a Mayan palace. When it opened in 1999, Woolley used a variation of his wife's first name to label his Mexican masterpiece the Karmina Palace.
Sold to the upscale Spanish hotel chain Barcelo in 2006, the property today features 324 lush suites nestled around eight pools and a cozy cove.
Towering over a nearby beach is a $200 million hotel built on prime real estate once owned by former Mexico President Miguel de la Madrid. The hotel opened in 1991 and was sold a few years ago to its current owner, Tesoro Resorts. Rated five stars, the Mediterranean-flavored property's 331 rooms look out at the tranquil waters of the old-time pirate hangout of Audiencia Cove.
Just over the hill from the Tesoro is a place that put Manzanillo on the modern-day tourism map. It was built as a private getaway by Bolivian tin magnate Antenor Patino, and its opening party in 1974 made headlines around the world.
It wasn't just the 2,000 glitterati who showed up – everyone from Hollywood stars to European royalty – or the way they got there on sleek yachts, private planes and chartered jumbojets (the latter landing on a brand new airport financed by the tin man).
What got all that ink was the place itself. On arrival, the guests hopped into golf carts to enter Patino's Moorish fantasy of white minarets, cupolas and twisted minarets lining winding paths to their pink and white casitas. The world, thanks to hordes of reporters flown in for the party, would soon know this fairyland as Las Hadas.
Esquire Magazine rated it among the eight most luxurious hideaways on the planet. Vogue went even further, calling it “a delicious dream...the world's ultimate playland.” Playboy topped that with its supreme accolade, “A better version of heaven.”
Patino – who was one of the world's richest men (if not THE richest man) – is said to have built Las Hadas pretty much on a whim, some say to upstage playboy Aga Khan's opulent Costa Smeralda resort in Sardinia. Whatever the reason, the coming out party at Las Hadas went on for weeks, during which the guests tanned up on the beach, danced, chatted, drank champagne and dined in four gourmet restaurants while being pampered by a staff that far outnumbered them.
For three years, Patino kept the door open for his friends and their families. There was talk that the ongoing financial drain – coupled with tumbling prices for tin – prompted plans to turn Las Hadas into a kind of condo development. But the glitterati came here to play, not pay.
Las Hadas made the headlines again in the late 70s when it was sold, converted into a hotel and sold again, just in time to be showcased in the hit movie “10.” One famous scene showed Dudley Moore, playing a soused songwriter, cavorting with Bo Derek's corn-rowed bimbo in a fabulous Las Hadas bedroom while music from the record “Bolero” set the romantic mood. (The room is now known as the “Bolero Suite,” and you can stay there for $742 a night.)
The property changed hands several more times before winding up under its current Las Brisas brand in 2000. Visitors to the resort today will find Las Hadas and its 232 rooms still sparkle with Moorish splendor, thanks to a recent $4.6 million refurbishment.
How about bunking down in a little place on a 1,200-acre private island complete with a 250-room luxury hotel, a 27-hole golf course, a tennis ranch, a 207-slip marina and lots of gorgeous homes and condos. Called Isla Navidad, it was developed by – you guessed it – another business baron, Don Antonio Leano, the founder of Mexico's first network of private colleges.
Like Las Brisas, Navidad was a big headline-maker, too. Only here, the ink came in the mid-1500s when the Spanish conquistadores picked this spot for their chief boatyard. Super-galleons built there made annual trading voyages to Manila loaded with silver ripped from mines across Mexico and Peru and as many as a thousand crewmen and passengers. They returned to Mexico with cargoes of silk, porcelain, ivory and spices for the kitchens, dining halls, living rooms and bedrooms of the great haciendas of the Spanish nobility.
Things to see and do: Vacationers can get a taste of the area's history by hopping on tour buses for trips back in time (actually just an hour's ride away) to colonial Mexico. One tour goes to the centuries-old state capital at Colima (also the name of the state), where you'll browse through ornate churches and government palaces before getting down to some serious shopping.
The city is known for tremendous bargains. According to tour operator Hector Sandoval, Coliman merchants buy goods such as designer clothing and top-of-the-line fragrances right out of containers at the bustling port of Manzanillo, thus avoiding what would otherwise be hefty shipping charges. The savings are passed along to customers back in their shops.
From there, the tour goes on to the little town of Comala – one of Mexico's three dozen “magic” cities oozing colonial charm – a few miles away. Here, you'll wander around the cobbled lanes and porticoed walkways for awhile before a “botana” lunch of seemingly never-ending plates of tacos, ceviche, enchiladas, and local cheeses (along with other delicacies you probably never heard of but taste wonderful). And if you need more Mexican flavor, a mariachi band strolls around belting out “Guadalajara,” “Cielito Lindo” and other favorites.
The tours typically take seven or eight hours and cost around $65 per person.
Getting there: Passengers from major cities in the western U.S. can fly on Alaska Airlines to Los Angeles, then connect to Alaska's nonstop hops to Manzanillo. Other transborder flights to Manzanillo include nonstops from Houston on Continental.
Staying there: Visitors have their pick of some two dozen hotels, all told with around 3,000 rooms. Websites of top properties include: barcelokarminapalace.com, brisashotelonline.com (click Las Hadas Golf resort & Marina), tesororesorts.com, Wyndham's Grand Bay resort at islanavidad.com, and the 514-room Club Maeva at clubmaeva.com.
More info: Visit the Manzanillo Convention and Visitors Office at vivemanzanillo.com or the Manzanillo section of the Mexico Tourism Board's site, visitmexico.com. Check out Sandoval's tours of Colima, Comala and other regional attractions at hectours.com.
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“Manzanillo draws ultra-rich hotel developers like kids to a piñata.” Really? Well, Patiño more than 30 years ago and then the guy who built the Karmina Palace. How long ago was that? Where’s the rush?
By Jimm Budd on 2009 12 29
What the names mean
By Bob Schulman
Until 1974, the Port of Manzanillo had seen more rusting freighters than camera-toting tourists, much less autograph-seekers. That changed when thousands of movie stars, industrial titans and people who rated bows came here for the opening of Las Hadas that year. According to the resort's legendary pr man Hans Rothlisberger, one of the first questions they asked was, “What does Las Hadas mean?”
They were told: “When the Spanish sailors came here, they were amazed by what looked like magic lights dancing across the waters. They thought they were seeing las hadas – mischievous sprites or fairies come to welcome them.” (The lights were later found to be a natural phenomenon caused by phosphorus in the waters.)
On the other side of the Santiago Peninsula separating Manzanillo's twin bays (Manzanillo and Santiago), the Tesoros Resort overlooks Audiencia Cove, so-named because a Spanish big shot held an audience there with leaders of the local Indians. Later, Audiencia became a spot where notorious pirates of the likes of Sir Francis Drake and the Dutch marauder Joris van Speilbergen came to cool it between attacks on Spanish galleons.
The local tribes were ruled by King Coliman – hence Colima, the name of the state and its capital city. Santiago means St. James, Spain's patron saint. Manzanillo, of course, comes from the area's vast groves of manzanillo trees.