Con­struc­tion began recently on El Encanto’s Ocean Club, which will fea­ture an adult pool, children´s pool, decks for sun­ning, and ter­races with tables and chairs. “We are excited about deliv­er­ing this amenity to the El Encanto com­mu­nity as a place for own­ers to gather with their friends and fam­ily,” says Maria Cin­tron, COO and Vice Pres­i­dent of Sales and Mar­ket­ing for the devel­oper of El Encanto. “It will be a ter­rific spot for enjoy­ing the spec­tac­u­lar Bay of Ban­deras views, and also get­ting together for light meals from the grill.” Sched­uled for com­ple­tion in March 2009, the Ocean Club is reserved for El Encanto own­ers and their guests.

In other news, con­struc­tion con­tin­ues on seven ocean­front residences—several each of Res­i­den­cia La Marea and Res­i­den­cia La Brisa models—properties fea­tur­ing two story designs and four-bedroom floor­plans. Pro­vid­ing more than 7,000-square-feet of indoor/outdoor liv­ing space, all the res­i­dences over­look Hole 3 of the sec­ond Jack Nick­laus Sig­na­ture Golf course, sched­uled to open in Novem­ber 2008.

Work on 15 La Vista con­do­mini­ums is also occur­ring. Designed for sin­gle floor liv­ing, the three-bedroom prop­er­ties offer approx­i­mately 3,800– to 4,000-square-feet of indoor/outdoor space. Of La Vista’s total offer­ing, half has sold, which speaks to the pop­u­lar­ity of the units. Addi­tion­ally, El Encanto now has 10 new video “shorts” on its web­site that give view­ers an idea of life in the gated enclave, Punta Mita and Puerto Val­larta. Prices range from $1,115,000 to $3,030,000 USD. For pur­chas­ing infor­ma­tion, please call 1–888-647‑0979 (toll free from U.S.) or log on to El Encanto Web­site.

An expan­sion of Punta Mita’s Ten­nis Cen­ter is well under way with a “soft open­ing” of the new facil­ity sched­uled for this month. Man­aged by Four Sea­sons together with Peter Bur­wash Inter­na­tional, the upgraded facil­ity when com­pleted will pro­vide ten­nis enthu­si­asts with 10 courts. Those cur­rently avail­able for play include two hard sur­face and two syn­thetic grass courts, all of which are lighted for evening play. The other six courts will fea­ture a com­bi­na­tion of those surfaces.

Located adja­cent to CasaMita, the ten­nis cen­ter has a new apparel and equip­ment shop as well as men’s and women’s locker rooms. As part of the Cen­ters’ ten­nis pro­gram play­ers ben­e­fit from a match-up sys­tem that is per­fect for any­one look­ing for a sin­gles or dou­bles match. With advanced notice The Punta Mita Ten­nis Cen­ter can arrange spe­cial func­tions, enter­tain­ing clin­ics, tour­na­ments, socials, camps, ten­nis car­ni­vals or the resort’s acclaimed Ten­nis Show.

The Ten­nis Cen­ter has a staff ten­nis pro, com­pli­men­tary rac­quet rental, a spectator’s ter­race and a ball machine. Play­ers can also arrange for pro­fes­sional instruc­tion for a fee. The Grand Open­ing of the Ten­nis Cen­ter is planned for later in 2008.

In one of nature’s most intrigu­ing rit­u­als thou­sands of female tur­tles of vary­ing species travel hundreds—even thousands—of miles to Punta Mita and neigh­bor­ing shores to lay their eggs.  Begin­ning in July and wind­ing down in Novem­ber, females dig nest with their flip­pers, deposit­ing as many as 120 eggs, which hatch between 45 and 55 days later. Given that only about one in a 1,000 hatch­lings sur­vive to adult­hood in the wild the Ban­deras Bay Tur­tle Pro­tec­tion Pro­gram was cre­ated to help ensure the tur­tles’ survival.

In recent years Punta Mita prop­erty own­ers and resort guests have been invited to assist in the release of the newest marine neigh­bors. The most com­mon of the tur­tles in the region—the Olive Ridley—is small enough at birth to fit in the palm of a hand, yet even­tu­ally weighs between 80 and 110 pounds. It takes between eight and 12 years for a tur­tle to mature enough to repro­duce and an innate “GPS” sys­tem leads the tur­tles to the same beach where they were born to spawn.

For those inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing in a hatch­ling release, please con­tact Eduardo Vàzquez M. at the Res­i­dents’ Punta Mita Beach Club eduardo@rivieraconciergeservices.com or call (329) 291‑6781.