‘Where the 60s never end
A continuation of The Original Situation
Welcoming the Return of the Flower Children’

At the end of our cove there’s a very tatty ghostly pile called (Gloria’s) Shambhala (more like Shambolic) – as previously mentioned, it’s as if The Addams Family had a Mexican holiday home, or as one review described it, ‘Dr. Seuss meets Swiss Family Robinson’. One particularly droll Trip Advisor review said of it ‘Horrible place, you couldn’t pay me to stay there’ – so I’m rather intrigued and drawn to this pile from the relative luxury of El Alquimista.

I wandered up there today and there was no one there, not a soul, oh, apart from one ‘guard’ Chihuahua on the steps. No reception, no check in, no guests, nobody – save suddenly for an ancient old man sitting in the shade mumbling something to me in Spanish…in the end I caught ‘mi casa su casa’….so off I wandered for a squiz. It’s New Age gone wild – tattered dream catchers, rainbow serpents painted on rocks and the best signs yet: ‘Hoy es un dia silencioso’ (Today is a silent day), no kidding…and ‘Asegúrate de no despertar al dragon dormido’ (Be sure not to awaken the sleeping dragon) and, ‘Shambhala. Where the 60s never end. A continuation of The Original Situation. Welcoming the Return of the Flower Children.’

From the Shambhala website: ‘Loma de Meditacion’ is a vortex point of etheric energy, and those fortunate enough to visit this sacred location can vibrate at a higher level of consciousness and experience oneness with nature.’ Really? So perhaps there are guests but they’re on another plane or in a parallel universe. Or, just not there!

Half of the hotel is in ruins, literally – apparently as a result of direct hurricane hits over the years. As for Gloria, no sign…but then again, with no guests or staff either, perhaps not surprising. All the ‘rooms’ and, in some cases, dorms were either locked or empty. It’s super ghostly here…however, the location is stunning and can’t be beaten and I would have thought prime real estate in these parts – but then again, it would be a demolition job, and that would be incredibly difficult given the clifftop-site and super expensive. Some of the ‘rooms’ look charming in a Hobbit fashion but on closer inspection through doors and cracks they’re a mess and smell.

So, there it sits clinging as it does to the side of the hill, just waiting for that next hurricane to sweep it away. Oh and I believe ‘rooms’ start from A$4 a night, so that’s a bonus – but then as that review on Trip Advisor said, you couldn’t pay me to stay there.