In recent years those of us who live on the north side of Sayulita have seen walls go up around several of the larger empty lots in the neighborhood. These lots are not really empty, but rather are populated with mango trees that are the remnants of the orchard that once filled this little valley. Given that several of these spaces are adjacent to hotels, and owned by the hotel owners, our natural assumption and fear was that with walls going up around their properties, these hotels would expand, building more hotel rooms in what is essentially a quiet residential neighborhood.
This was especially true when a massively tall and somewhat imposing wall went up around a lot behind and adjacent to the lovely, quiet little Villas Sayulita Hotel. This lot previously was home to half a dozen mature mango trees, with the usual weedy, buggy growth carpeting the ground between the trees. Though we didn’t really “use” it, we all sensed it was there, open space nearby; and so when it disappeared behind the “great wall of Sayulita”, everybody was certain a hotel expansion was coming. Our wealthier neighbors, leery of overdevelopment, called their lawyers and got ready for the fray.
After all, there are plenty of mango trees in the neighborhood still, and you can make a lot more money from a hotel room than you can from a mango tree. Isn’t that the way enterprising people think these days?
Imagine our surprise when what we got, instead of a two-year construction site and another bunch of hotel rooms, was what you see here in the photos: the Secret Garden. This rustic, soothing space now encompasses an organic garden, a worm farm, a small chicken coop with several egg-laying hens, a meditation zone, a fountain, an earth-box learning center, and a circular pavilion, enclosed by netting, used for what hotel manager (and garden planner) Salim Zermeno calls a gong bath—a place where people can sit between a pair of gongs, whose vibratory tones represent male and female energy, yin and yang, and bathe in the harmony of the two. Very mellow. Salim and his family live by the garden, and the space above their house is a yoga studio for hotel guests and others seeking the yogi vibe. The Hotel Villas Sayulita is now a Health Center as well as a hotel, and the Secret Garden is an integral part of it.
You don’t have to be a guest of the hotel to visit the garden, take a yoga class or a gong bath– a first for most of us, I suspect–and/or learn how to make earth boxes for growing organic food. No doubt, in season, if you come for a visit you’ll walk out of there with a mango or two in hand, since they seem to rain down this time of year. So drop by while you’re in town, as a traveler or a resident. Salim welcomes all visitors. Access is through the entry garden of the Villas Sayulita Hotel and Health Center.
