Liming for Two in Puerto Vallarta

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There are many ways to do a "romantic holiday". Maybe you like adventure to live in the jungle or camp in the high country. Maybe you like to meet people from cultures very different from your own. Maybe you just want a luxury hotel and world-class dining in the big city. There is another, simpler option: liming on the beach.

That's right "liming," not lying. Although liming does involve a bit of the latter, the idea is to do as little as possible, to slow down and appreciate with your senses the environment where the ocean meets the land. Liming is not an escape; it's a style of living.

Sun, water, food, love, sleep ... with a twist of lime

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For proper liming you need a place with a quiet beach, with mellow rhythmic surf. There must be as few people as possible, especially children and drunks. You need to feel safe on the beach day or night, free of harassment by vendors, thugs, or the law. There must be enough sun to feel the warmth on your skin, and the water should invite you to swim. And most importantly, someone else should take care of your needs for food and shelter. If you have to plan and execute each day to survive, you cannot get into the groove of liming.

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My partner and I had a week to recharge at the end of the summer, before launching into new projects and hectic schedules. We wanted a romantic liming holiday. Given our home base on the west coast, we could go to Hawaii or San Diego, but these places are full of people. Instead, we chose the Pacific Coast of Mexico in the off season. There are several places within a few hours of San Francisco. We chose a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta. On the recommendation of friends, we discovered a boutique hotel that turns out to be the perfect liming resort.

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Casa Las Brisas is a seven room villa on the beach, with a truly all-inclusive offering (see my review). We were picked up at the airport and driven the hour north of Puerto Vallarta, leaving behind the grotesque hotel and condo development of the tourist destination. It is a good thing we were driven, too, because the route traverses muddy roads and unmarked detours around construction zones. We arrived to be welcomed by owner, Mark, an American with taste in interior design and good living. He showed us to Room 1, which we had requested over email on the advice of our friends. The room faces the ocean and is close enough that you can hear the waves from your bed. The pool is for cooling down (no lap swimming while liming!) with a poolside bar under a thatched roof. You can drink anything you want, including top shelf tequila and reasonable wines from South America (the Casillero del Diablo Malbec from Chile was a winner with food). Every meal is prepared for you, when you are ready. This is important, since you can't be on a schedule when liming. One day we ate breakfast at 10:30, then lunch at 3:00 and dinner after 10:00. The food was great; we were never tempted to find a local restaurant. At night, the place is quiet. No disco or loud stereo. No noisy machinery. Just the waves.

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There are 14 people on staff here, serving at most 7 couples. They will take care of anything. We had them arrange for some horses one afternoon. Of course, we were terribly late from our walk on the beach, and the horsemen waited cheerfully. We inquired about diving. They checked the weather and arranged for a local who does fishing tours to run me out to the Marrietta Islands (see my review). They let us borrow a car to drive into town for some crafts shopping. This was a Very Bad Idea. We had violated liming protocol, and were punished by the gods by getting horribly lost after dark on the way home. Of course, the staff had figured as much and kept some salmon and chicken dishes warm for our return. The next day, the staff arranged for massages on the roof to erase the memory of the neurotic outside world.

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The beach is lovely. Clean, light tan sand with a pattern of darker earth (see photo). A short walk down the beach, past a row of geometrically challenged villas, leads to a patch of shoreline littered with bleached coral remnants. The coral are all dead, probably the victim of a hurricane there years past, but their skeletons support a vibrant reef. I snorkeled in the bathwater-warm water to play with schools of sergeant majors, damselfish, and gorgeous blue spotted puffer fish. A heavy storm had clouded the water with river sediment, but the ocean cleansed itself quickly (this is not true of the Puerto Vallarta bay on the other side of Punta Mita, which can be strangled by red tide for days). Best of all, this stretch of beach was essentially secluded. We could lay in the sun with no one in sight. In high season (December-January) there are schools of dolphin and hump-backed whales. We were happy with the pterodactyl-like terns over our heads and nervous aquarium fish at our feet.

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A week past quickly with nothing accomplished, nothing to write home about. Sun, water, food, wine, love, sleep. Breathing at the pace of the waves. Stirred, not shaken, with a twist of lime.