Columns

A few days ago, a quiet but feisty Australian named Caroline Durston passed away in Ajijic, and with her ended the story of Rancho Rio Caliente, for many years one of Mexico’s most famous spas, the favorite of cognoscenti from New York to Paris.

Skateboarding was invented in Santa Monica California in the 1950s, when surfers – frustrated on days without good waves – came up with the idea of putting wheels on a board so they could “surf the streets.”

Having explored wild caves in such far-flung places as Jamaica, France and Saudi Arabia I naturally wanted to keep up the tradition when I moved to Mexico in 1985.

This article was originally going to be a list of delightful hot springs and rivers where you might soak away your troubles and forget the pandemic for a while. However, most of those relaxing sites are temporarily closed to the public. So what to do and where to go in times of Covid-19?

It all began as a beach holiday. Having heard that the ocean-front town of Cuyutlán, Colima had “the nicest black sand you could ever hope to see,” we drove there one night only to discover that – in the month of October, mind you – the temperature was 34 C, the humidity 82 percent and the water was full of manta rays.

I received a text message a week ago: “Richard says Cuyutlán in Colima has the best black sand beach he’s ever seen and an incredible surf. Want to go?”