Las Alamandas: “The last paradise on earth“

What do picky Richard Gere and Sean Penn, Sting and Annie Lennox have in common? Where did Ali Landry and Mario Lopez get married, and Christy Turlington and Ed Burns spend their honeymoon? Nicolas Cage, Robin Williams, Cindy Crawford...? The answer is: “Las Alamandas”, for many today known as - "the last paradise on earth”!

When he bought 3,700 hectares of pristine Pacific coast south of the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, "Bolivian lead king" Antenor Patiño did not even imagine that, instead of his idea to make the largest national holiday resort in Latin America, only six villas would "grow"!

White sand on an immersive long beach, swinging palm trees, sparkling turquoise-blue waves, a breeze that rises from the endless sea and only six villas to 28 hectares of completely empty and preserved coast. The owner is Isabella Goldsmith Patiño. Her grandfather, Antenor Patiño, a Bolivian of Spanish-Indian origin, worked in a shop where people bought necessities for the mines. One day, there was a digger who did not have the money to pay for the goods. He offered to the seller, that is to Atenor, his ownership of the lead mine. Although he knew that nothing would be left of the mine, Atenor pitied the man and the contract was made. And he was fired because of this bad contract! The mine was unusable until the end of the 19th century, when the poor owner of the mine Patiño finally discovered a lead wire. Then, says the legend, Atenor Patiño became the richest man in the world, because he owned 50% of national production and control over European processing of Bolivian lead.

A fairytale piece of cake

As he needed to marry a woman with a noble pedigree, young Atenor married a Spanish Countess Durcal, with whom he lived long and happily in the exclusive Parisian avenue Fosh. He left huge sums of money to his children and their children, a phenomenal collection of paintings, works of art, furniture, porcelain, rare manuscripts and jewellery. And love for the beautiful.

One of his grandchildren, Isabelle, born in Paris, lived between London and Beverly Hills. Her father Sir James Goldsmith, famous financier, film producer, owner of L'Express magazine, founder of the British magazine "Now!", the inevitable figure of the world's jet-set in the 1950s and 1960s, had several official women and many children.

Isabelle was the first child of Jim's first wife, Isabelle, the only daughter of Atenor Patiño. When Goldsmith, known as the beautiful Jimmy, flew into the life of young Isabelle, Atenor shuddered at the thought that his loving daughter would fall into the hands of one Jew: "It is known that in my family we don’t marry Jews". Goldsmith responded coldly: "It's not common in my family to get married with redskins!" To the shock of Patiño and his family, Jimmy literally stole Isabelle. And while her brothers searched for them all over the world, Isabelle and Jimmy got married in Scotland. Unfortunately, in the seventh month of pregnancy, Isabelle was given a blood flow into the brain and died, while the tiny baby Isabelle was saved.

I do not know what others from the family got from the inheritance of Atenor Patiño but, it seems, that the granddaughter Isabelle got a piece of a fairy cake - the longest beach on the Mexican coast. Instead of turning succession into hotels, hotels and hotels... stretching along the blue Pacific, as the grandfather had imagined, Isabelle did something unimaginable: she has built only six exclusive villas in the place that Atenor called Las Alamandas - the flowers of the Copa de Oro, which is raging in this part of the world. Isabelle decided to preserve the beauty of the area by raising a small and exclusive resort with six villas, one hour and a half from Port of Puerto Vallarta.

"Playa de Soledad"

There are white-blue Casa Miguel in front of Dolphin Square, Casa Azul, which is led by the most courageous and brightest stairs, the youngest, Casa Isabel, then Casa del Domo with its own cuisine, Casita San Antonio for Honeymoon and Casa del Sol, the original residence of the owner today, mostly, rests actor Robert De Niro with his family. Here Isabella welcomes screenwriters, directors, stars from Los Angeles, lovers and celebrities in search of "complete peace and privacy." In the golden age of their marriage, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have rented all six houses and welcomed the new millennium with their friends.

Rattan sofas are coated with a fabric of canary yellow or shocking pink colours; the pillows are hand-woven. All bathrooms are covered with blue-yellow Talavera tiles, painted by hand. In each room the guest enjoys folk handicrafts and hand-painted figurines. The big sliding doors allow you to view the lush gardens, palm trees, the sea... There is no TV in rooms - what is considered to be the ultimate luxury for the busy celebrities! In “Las Alamandas” there are no menus. It's up to you to arrange with your chef what you will eat on a particular day - Mexican or European food. And where: at the restaurants “Oaza”, "La Palapa Beach“ or “Estrella Azul” the rooftop bar, waiting for the fishermen to bring fresh fish.

Serbia in heart   

Isabelle Goldsmith is a philanthropist, the person mostly oriented towards preserving the human environment. She works on developing various projects to protect the Mexican coast. And not just for this country. A few years ago, at the great surprise of the city of Niš’s residents, Isabelle appeared in their city! Thanks to the humanitarian organization "Lifeline" of Princess Katarina Karađorđević, Isabelle donated a large sum of money to the Clinical Centre of Niš. With this donation, the Department of Molecular Biology and Pre-natal Diagnostics was opened. On that occasion, Isabelle Goldsmith was presented with the statue of Emperor Constantine as a sign of gratitude for this valuable donation called "Isabelle Patiño" - as a homage to Isabelle's mother.

If you are curious and want to feel the pleasure of the "Garden of Enjoyment" with your senses, all you have to do is reach Puerto Vallarta from Europe via Los Angeles. The hotel driver will drive you along the slopes of Sierra Madra, next to iguanas and signs showing the place where famous director John Houston recorded an unforgettable movie "Iguana nights" with Ava Gardner and Richard Barton in the lead roles. Small and dusty road will take you to the vast cultivated grass, palm trees, six villas the colours of which shine in the reflection of the great blue Pacific. You’ve reached "Las Alamandas"!