Las Hadas on WatchBoom.com
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Las Brisas Acapulco has a Jeep that would make "Pretty in Pink" proud
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"......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.”
Kings, queens and movie stars showed up at the debut of Las Hadas. Photo by Bob Schulman.
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.
A Moorish paradise in Mexico. Photo courtesy of Las Brisas/Las Hadas.
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. ...."
