Varun is taking a break from his Daily Diary for a few days and has entrusted this responsibility to Tim & James
Filming of the 2010 series of Inside Luxury Travel is near completion. During 2010 Varun and the Inside Luxury Travel film crew travelled to Melbourne, Hawaii, KwaZulu-Natal, Quebec, Istanbul, Prague, Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, French Polynesia, Barcelona and Tasmania.
We are pleased to announce the filming locations for 2011 - Malaysia, Antigua, Napa Valley, Sydney, Big Sur, Wales, Geneva, Sweden, Botswana, Egypt, New Delhi and Mumbai.
Over the next few weeks there will be a series of Look Back Diary entries. Our eleventh filming location was Mexico.
The two properties that we filmed in Mexico were "Las Ventanas" (www.lasventanas.com) and Four Seasons Punta Mita
(www.fourseasons.com/puntamita)
Oliver Chong - tequila expert and Varun trying a 150 year old drop that costs $1000 a shot!
Diego, Varun's pooch provided by Las Ventanas.
Varun on the beach with Francisco Barr outside Las Ventanas. Instructor Francisco Barr. Varun and Francisco took a horse-back excursion which ran along the coast finishing at Las Ventanas where there was a gourmet beach picnic awaiting Varun.
Pamela and Varun watch the world go by ...
"I was very impressed to find that the factory recycles glass from all the local hotels & restaurants and turns them into wonderful & colourful creations. The glass artist trains for 3 years and he has an apprentice that helps him take glass bowls, vases, glasses etc from one oven to another. Beer, wine and champagne bottles are melted at 1500 degrees and then blown into shapes. I watched in awe and even had a go myself. We were lucky as we had a guide from Baja Outback - the number one ground handler in Cabo - to hand for translations and transport." - Varun
" I have the largest suite - nearly 10,000 square feet - the Coral Suite. It has: 5 bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, 8 showers, 5 baths, 3 swimming pools, a kitchen, 10- seater cinema, spa, gym, butler & chef, 800 square feet living room, Las Manzanillas beach front with hammocks and recliners, telescope ... is that not enough? It sells for $17,500USD a night ... I am here for 4 nights ..." - Varun
Cilau Valadez who creates some amazing art with yarn ... a true genius.
"We headed to La Cruz (30 minutes drive) where we picked up the Four Seasons yacht and headed onto the Sea of Cortez." - Varun
"This eveniing we drove down to Neuvo Vallarta - just 25 minutes from the resort but still in Nayarit. I met with local vet Antonio Razo Perez and around 300 baby Olive Ridley turtles. Adult turtles stumble onto the shores and lay their eggs between January to September. These eggs take 45 days to hatch and the vet teams take the eggs and protect them from predators (racoons, birds etc) and then when they are born, release them into the wild - the SAME day they hatch." - Varun
"The last day in Punta Mita was quite exciting ... as I went swimming with Jenny, a 90 kilogram sea-lion. Before you get stressed, Jenny comes from Uruguay. She comes from an island where sea-lions breed naturally ... however, if there are too many of these beautiful creatures, they are culled by local fishermen." - Varun
The two Mexican properties were fantastic and we will never forget the people and the animals that we met!
