Chez Panisse Comes to Playa Viva

Last week was a landmark moment in the culinary experience of Playa Viva. Zack Nishimura, a chef at Chez Panisse, came down to work on the Playa Viva menu and teach our team a few of his tricks for making the most of local food.

After a night of soaking in the tranquility of Playa Viva, Zack jumped right into his work. First off was meeting Alejandro, the head of Playa Viva’s kitchen and his wife (and co-cook) Feliz. Even with a slight language barrier, they chemistry was clear they shared a love of Italian food and spicy salsa—this was going to be a fun week. Zack especially liked Playa Viva’s open air kitchen with a view of the ocean and the wood fired pizza oven out back.

Zack’s second day at Playa Viva started bright and early with a trip to scout fresh meat, fish and veggies for the week from the local market in Petatlan. As soon as we got out of the van it was clear that this was no tourist market. Piles of whole fish, fresh from the ocean lay on tables lining the street along with stalls offering just butchered chickens, pigs, massive cuts of beef. Zack surveyed the scene with a savvy eye. Scouting nice looking whole bass, he started to brainstorm meal ideas.

As we walked through the market he noticed beautiful spring onions, an amazing array of fruits at their peak of ripeness. This was quite a selection, even compared to the bounty of northern California. The freshness of the handmade cheeses also caught his eye. Loading up the van with bag after bag of bright vegetables and carefully wrapped meats and cheeses, it looked like we had food for a month, not the few days we would be cooking together.

But, once back in the Playa Viva kitchen, immediately started organizing the food and pulling together meals. Lunch would be an array of the seafood and fresh salads: spicy shrimp with Chile and Tomatoes, Jicama Salad with Grapefruit and cucumber, a deliciously light ceviche served on crunchy house-made tostadas. The plate was full of bright contrasting flavors and colors.

Living in Northern California, Zack is pretty familiar with Mexican food, but he was impressed with the rang of ingredients that were new to him, such as the variety of peppers available, unique cheeses and new fruits such as the Lima (a cross between a lemon and an orange). Using simple techniques and a keen awareness of flavor combinations he created fresh and inspired meals that mixed the best of California and Mexican cuisine.

With so much to learn in the kitchen and delicious food to eat, the week flew by all too quickly. Lucky for us, Zack agreed to keep the inspiration coming. He is eager to help us create recipes and menu idea for some of Playa Viva’s own readily available bounty of produce, including: Coconuts, Papaya, Mangos and Squash. This is clearly just the first taste of a delicious culinary adventure at Playa Viva.

Playa Viva at Responsible Travel Conference at Stanford

Playa Viva was invited to present at the CREST (Center for Responsible Travel) Conference in Stanford this past week. The conference had an all-star line up of speakers and with the theme of “Rethinking Coastal Tourism Development: The Importance of Innovators in Times of Climate Change & Economic Crisis” that brought together an excellent set of developers, operators and NGO’s in this field.

What were some of the key highlights of this event for us?  First, meeting and spending time with Deborah Szekely (read her bio, it is most inspiring), founder of Rancho La Puerta which is celebrating its 70th year of operation.  As a matriarch of the industry, she doled out soulful and thoughtful stories and advice on being sustainable.  One of Playa Viva’s core missions is to “Create A Living Legacy”, spending time with Deborah reminded me of what this legacy might become.  Tecate, where Rancho La Puerta is located had only 400 people when they first started, similar to the 400 folks who live in Juluchuca. Today Tecate has over 100,000 inhabitants and two mayors and many city council members where once busboys, waiters and manicurists at Rancho La Puerta.  Their dedication to education, training and developing their staff has proven to be a strong component of that legacy.

The line up of speakers included excellent talks from oceanographer Sylvia Earle, Dr. David Orr (on greening Oberlin College) and Lisa Curran (Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Roger and Cynthia Lang Professor in Environmental Anthropology).  But one of the real “rock stars” of the event was Chris Blackwell, Founder and Owner, Island Records and Outpost Resorts, Jamaica. Fascinating to hear Chris’ story on signing Steve Winwood Bob Marley, but on a personal note, hearing Chris discuss his battle with his operation team to not put air-conditioning in his rooms was just as interesting. The operator pushed for air-conditioning saying it would lower their ability to rent rooms and reach needed occupancy levels.  Chris eventually relented but only with a policy of renting rooms at $25 less per night for those who did not operate the air-conditioning. We, at Playa Viva, are proud that we could construct and operate with no A/C (this win might have more to do with our being on the Pacific Coast of Mexico over Chris being in more humid Jamaica).

Playa Viva participated on a panel on Innovations in Community Development and Engagement.  Our presentation was well received.  We focused on our background in environmental and community responsibility from Rainforest2Reef.org to Casa Viva Troncones and now Playa Viva.  We then addressed key influencer’s in our community development strategy including Chris Carfi (looking at virtual and real communities and their overlap), Regenesis (history of place and the aspirations of the community) and most recently our work with Verde Ventures and Conservation International on how our community engagement plan addresses the key securities. We addressed three case studies including our work with La Tortuga Feliz (turtle sanctuary), TerraCycle in developing local manufacturing and finally our work with the local salt cooperative in developing Sal Viva. In summary, our key innovations revolved around promoting a local living economy (influenced by BALLE) and promoting a holistic approach. For a copy of the presentation, go to SlideShare or see below.

What would make the conference move from good to great: staying regional, participation from government officials in tourism and more time to work collaboratively and less time in presentations.  To plug a different type of event, Opportunity Collaboration does this well, they have a “no powerpoint” and “no panel” policy, creating a space with plenty of time for meaningful collaboration.  If you are in the sustainable tourism business, we highly recommend attending the next CREST event as well as the Opportunity Collaboration event in Ixtapa, Mexico.

In summary, one of the underlying issues at the CREST event was “can you be both big and sustainable?” Can you develop a large resort and still be truly sustainable.  This was most evident in a presentation by David Butterfield related to his project and work at Loreto Bay.  Conclusions from his presentation: he stated they were way under capitalized ($19 million on a $600 million project), crucial mistakes like the $10 million dollars spent on clay brick design that seemed like the most sustainable policy to begin with but backfired on them for various reasons and finally the fact that they entered with quotes for building homes at $60-68 per square foot that eventually cost $200 per square foot. The reason for this massive discrepancy, scale. That is, it was cheaper to build single homes or a smaller number of units, but due to location and other factors, scale make it cost prohibitive.  So what does that say about that underlying issue of the event, “can you be sustainable and big at the the same time?”

Special thanks to Mark Spalding and the Ocean Foundation for their support of Playa Viva, La Tortuga Feliz and for inviting us to participate in this panel and event.

Iguana Rescue at Playa Viva

The two newest guests at Playa Viva are a male and female iguana rescued from locals who were selling them for…well, someone else’s dinner.  This is the first step in setting up what might become a larger iguana reserve at Playa Viva. We have been approached by municipal ecologists about setting up an iguana reserve in addition to supporting the local turtle sanctuary. 

Odin, head of the permaculture team, put his crew to work and in just a few hours, they had made quick work and set up a nice pen for this pair of iguanas with drift wood and an ocean view.  The goal is for them to become accustomed to being in this area and over time, expand their pen and then eliminate it all together, generating a sense of comfort for the iguanas who will then feel secure enough appear out in the open in this area for everyone to enjoy.

MANGROVE RESTAURATION AND CLIMATE FLUXUATIONS AT PLAYA VIVA

This year a heavy draught hit most of Mexico and was especially strong at the pacific cost. Here at Playa Viva we got at the most five mild rains through all the season, our north lagoon got dry for the first time, according to people that have lived in the area or the last sixty years.

This draught is an example of how we must increasingly take climate change into account while undertaking the ecosystem restoration projects at Playa Viva. Less rain this year meant less inland water running into the ocean. While this would normally create a difficult growing environment for our new plants, there is at least one example of an unexpected benefit.

The sandbar between Playa Viva’s estuary and the ocean didn’t open as wide as it normally would and it closed earlier in the year. This meant more water stayed in the estuary, bringing much-needed moisture to the lower part of the land where we have many newly-planted trees, including mangrove seedlings trying to take root. Hopefully this unexpected benefit of extra water will enable the mangroves and other new plants to get a strong healthy start so that they can thrive even in the heavy down pours and heavy currents that will come when this draught finally does break.

Volunteer Tourism – SunPower at Work and Play

A team of 14 volunteers funded by SunPower Foundation including members of SunPower Corporation, SunPower distributors, friends and associates have spent the last few days working jointly with members of the community of Juluchuca in solarizing the new turtle sanctuary.  The founders of La Tortuga Feliz, have built a new turtle sanctuary after 10 years in the same location in order to provide clean and fertile sand.  By moving to a new location, they reduce the threat to incubating eggs that comes from bacteria, parasites and diseases that accumulate after too many years of constant use of the same location. This decision was made in parallel with the contribution of SunPower to bring solar power to the sanctuary.  Taking advantage of the investment by SunPower Foundation in bringing “clean” energy to the turtle sanctuary, the members felt it was an opportune time to likewise move to “clean” turf to continue their work of turtle rescue.

SunPower Foundation donated sufficient funds to electrify the fence in order to protect against predators such as raccoons, dogs,  ”tejones” and other animals that often breach the fences of the current sanctuary. Additionally, enough funds were available for a solar-powered water pump. The pump is used to set up a hydration system for use in keeping turtle nests moist. By maintaining the appropriate temperature in the sand, you can maximize the number of eggs that hatch and survive.  As a result, the volunteers of the turtle sanctuary will no longer need to use gasoline to power pumps and lights, significantly reducing the threat of contamination of the site by fossil fuels.  What a perfect way to start fresh with a clean slate – clean and fresh turtle incubation site plus clean energy powering protection of this endangered species.

We want to thank SunPower for their commitment to the turtle sanctuary and the local all volunteer staff. The support of SunPower will make a direct impact on improving the turtle sanctuary results and hopefully increasing the number of turtles rescued.  We also want to thank The Ocean Foundation for their part as fiscal sponsor of this project.  We hope this will be the first of many visits by the team from SunPower in brining clean, solar power to this community.  Finally, we want to thank Elirmex, our Mexican partner in providing all the hardware necessary for the installation.

As a side note, Playa Viva runs 100% off grid on a solar power system installed by Elirmex.  Pictured above are a few of the volunteers from SunPower and from the community of Juluchuca and the turtle sanctuary.

The Perfect Trifecta at Playa Viva

What makes for a perfect day at Playa Viva?  Yesterday started at midnight with a turtle coming ashore right in front of the Playa Viva common area to lay 122 eggs.  The day continued at noon with half a dozen dolphins cruising down the coast, riding the waves, checking out the work of the SunPower team working on the new turtle sanctuary (La Neuva Tortuga Feliz).  After finishing the days work, we all headed into the ocean for a swim, surfing and boogie boarding and at 6 PM we spotted a whale a few hundred feet off shore.

What a magical day to have these great ocean creatures grace us with their majesty.

The New Playa Viva Team

Playa Viva is up and running and hosting our first guests. The hard work of construction is done and now the work at Playa Viva is going through its own “changing of the guard”.  The artisans and craftsmen who take local building materials and supplies and turn them into lovely palapas are being replace by artisans and craftsman who take local produce and fish and turn them into delectable meals.

Our team consists of only folks from the local community of Juluchuca, several of whom moved back recently from “el Norte” to be closer to home and family. Some of them are familiar with techniques for more sustainable living but in general we have lots of training ahead of us. Each of you that visit us are part of this process of transformation. We hope you will engage the staff in teaching them your ways and methods for using fewer resources and treading lighter on this earth.

Also, what we hope you can see emitting from this photo is their spirit, their joy, their happiness.  While we  are sure that this team will evolve and change organically over time  like so many other parts of Playa Viva, we are lucky to have such a great team to craft your stay and to insure a joyous and happy visit.

Collaboration in the Community

What do you do with a conference full of people interested in solving world poverty? You pack ‘em up on a bus and you take them into the community to talk directly to the people in need. 

That’s exactly what we did last week. As over 200 delegates converged at Club Med Ixtapa for the inaugural Opportunity Collaboration conference, Playa Viva was invited in by conference organizer,  Jonathan Lewis, to lead a group of 30 on a field trip to “Collaborate in the Community”. 

The group first met with the local organic food producers coop called La Costa.  La Costa has been exporting basil to the US and is now adding additional products such as Hawaiian papaya.  The leaders of La Costa spoke to the delegation  about the progress they have made over the years in building their program to support 77 partners and 50 affiliates.  The group presented their needs for funding refrigeration of the processing facility in order not to break the “cold chain”. Additionally, they are interested in additional resources in order to form a store to support local farmers in obtaining organic fertilizers and for selling their organic produce to local hotels, restaurants and private homes.

Our second stop was with the local artisanal salt coop. This group consists of 120 members, about 100 of which are currently active in the process of harvesting salt from the nearby lagoon. Of these, 50 are using traditional “organic” methods of harvesting salt using hand-made ponds. The remaining 50 have abandoned these artisanal means of production and are using plastic liners to speed up the process. The plastic drying beds are leaching into the salt as well as polluting the lagoon creating a health hazard for consumer and producers.  Playa Viva’s goal is to help locals find better markets that will pay the premium such healthy salt deserves - on par with Sal de Mar, Himalayan Pink Salt, etc. – branding the name “Sal Viva”.

Our final stop was at Playa Viva where the members of the turtle sanctuary as waiting for us with a huge surprise - almost 3000 baby turtles waiting to make their run for the ocean. 

Many of the participants told us that this field trip was one of the highlights of the conference.  Jonathan Lewis has invited us back next year to be a more integral part of the agenda.  The presentation by the artisanal salt coop to the group from Opportunity Collaboration was also covered by the local press – Despertar de la Costa.  We look forward to generating results for the community from this visit. Please join us in supporting the economic vitality and health of this community – visit us at Playa Viva.

Tread Lightly Wherever You Travel

A recent guest at Casa Viva, our sister property in Troncones, recommended that we provide bags at the gate to the beach so that guests can use them to put trash when they walk the beach. We listened and added our own twist, the bags we are providing for beach clean up are all made in Mexico by cottage industry workers from recycled, canvas billboard material [more on this in future blog].

As part of our continued commitment to regeneration, both in the ecology and the community, we recently invited Laura Kuri, a specialist in community development and environmental engagement, to moderate a group of local leaders. The goal was to address the problem of garbage management and develop a set of concrete commitments from this group. While the bad habits associated with garbage management may take a long time before we see major improvements, it only takes 4 minutes to watch a short video, produced by Carlos Cardenas, about the town of Juluchuca’s commitment to cleaning up. Do you want to get engaged with the local community? Are you the type that feels good about taking an empty bag for a walk on the beach and bringing it back full of waste? Is your idea of travel and living to “tread lightly and leave the place better than how you found it.”?

Come stay with us at Playa Viva. The New Year holiday is completely booked, but we still have space Christmas.  For reservations, contact us at info@playaviva.com.

Akasha Restaurant hosts Turtle Fundraiser

Last week, Suzanne Biegel and Daniel Maskit held a fundraiser at Akasha Restaurant, the acclaimed organic eatery in LA, for the benefit of “La Tortuga Feliz” – the turtle sanctuary at Playa Viva.  A small group of friends of Suzanne, Daniel and Playa Viva gathered for a wonderful dinner and to talk turtles.  The group raised $1,400 in one night for the turtle sanctuary. This amount will be added to the funds already donated by The Norcross Wildlife Foundation, the World Turtle Trust, the Greater Good Network (through CharitiesUSA), The Ocean Foundation, Gente como Nosotros, WildCoast and the donations of individual donors. The amount is sufficient to fund the purchase of a 4×4 ATV vehicle for use by the volunteers in preserving more turtle eggs and baby turtles.  

The turtle sanctuary, La Tortuga Feliz, located at Playa Viva, is staffed by 12-20 volunteers who donate their time to protect baby turtles from predators along an 8km stretch of beach near Juluchuca, Mexico.  The group releases close to 200,000 baby turtles per year including Golfina (Green or Olive Ridley), Laud (Leatherback Turtles) and Prieta turtles.  Playa Viva is supporting the volunteers by providing access to needed resources to allow them to continue their work as well as to develop eco-tourism volunteer programs to bring visitors to the area to work with the local volunteers.

While the only photo taken of the evening is somewhat dark and blurry, the evening was bright, cheerful and delicious.  Akasha executive chef, Akasha Richmond, personally created a menu for the event that included seasonal heirloom tomato salad, choice from three main dishes and two deserts including group favorite, chocolate with sea salt, combining sweet and savory in melt-in your-mouth, bite-size morsels.  Dinner guests inquired about Playa Viva and how it interacts with the turtle sanctuary and local volunteers in promoting eco-tourism. Guests received a parting gift of artisanal salt from Playa Viva as well as coconut macaroons made in the town of Juluchuca.

If you are interested in hosting a fundraising dinner for the turtle sanctuary, please let us know, we are happy to support with materials and, if schedules allow, travel to join you for the event.

The volunteers at the turtle sanctuary have been asking for assistance with a 4×4 ATV as well as funds for gas, food stipends to attract more volunteers and resources to attend training sessions.  The funds raised this evening will be added to those funds already collected and provide the needed cash to purchase the vehicle.

We at Playa Viva cannot thank Suzanne and Daniel enough for their efforts in organizing this event.  If in LA and near Culver City, we highly recommend a visit to Akasha Restaurant. The food is delicious, service attentive but not intrusive and the chocolate dessert is just plain divine. Oh, and did we say that it’s all organic?!  Thank you to all in attendance for their support.