‘Hotelito Desconocido’ Fauna and Energy Aware Resort
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 10.17.05
Hotelito Desconocido is a small and romantic hotel located almost two hours away from Puerto Vallarta airport, along the Costa Alegre in Jalisco, Mexico, that offers a natural luxurious environment without the need of electricity and artefacts.
The resort uses solar energy only for the indispensable needs of the hotel, like ventilators and hot water, and candles as illumination devices at night. It also avoids the use of chemical products, and its amenities such as creams are 100% natural and organic.
The water that’s consumed comes from a neighbouring estuary, and the food is prepared with fruits and vegetables grown in its own garden without agrochemicals.
Plus, the beach where it’s located is one of the most important sea turtle and bird reserves in Mexico, so each year, when sea turtles make their way to the beach to lay their eggs, one has the opportunity to witness the eggs hatching and the baby turtles scrambling over the beach toward the ocean.
Hotelito supports a program to protect the olive ridley turtles that come to nest along the beach and every year, biologists from different states of Mexico come here to patrol the beach in order to collect the eggs laid by the females and to protect the female until she goes back to the sea. The eggs are buried again in a nursery to protect them from predator and pouching, until they hatch. They are then released at the hotel’s beaches.
"Hotelito was created for the new millennium", says Marcello Murzilli -former Italian Fashion Designer known as “Charro”-, creator and founder of Hotelito. “In every aspect, it speaks of change and of taking care of nature". After 20 years of building Charro to a multimillion-dollar company, Murzilli sold it in 1991. He began a two year sailing expedition around the world, when he conceptualized creating an “Eco-luxury” resort built in harmony with its natural surroundings.
Hotelito’s doors opened in the fall of 1997.
The place has received the attention of International Press with cover stories in Architectural Digest, Travel & Leisure, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, & Cote Sud, Travel Channel. ::Hotelito Desconocido
Hotelito Desconocido from the air.
One of the hotel's restaurants.
A sight to the resort's beach.
$300/night is too high for my taste, but I am willing to splurge and pay $150 for two adults. What are the least expensive of the "eco" resorts?
Try Puntacana resort, they have a special 'Discovery' package for $654 per couple for four days three nights, which is more less 150 per day. See the article at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/07/puntacana_resor.php
This one is one I covered, then you can always check our Eco Travel archives and find out more.
best,
Paula