Just another day getting cleansed by a witch in Mexico City

First we learned why beer makes other people look hot. We also learned why beer spas, with their healing and skin-soothing properties, can make you look hot. Now it gets even better. Now you can be sizzlin’ sun-in-the-wintertime hot on a Mexican beach and once again, it’s thanks to beer.

The Mexico Tourism Board, itravel2000 and Corona have just launched  national campaign encouraging Canadians to share their zest for Mexico in a bid to win an annual trip for two for the next 25 years (!) to multiple destinations throughout Mexico. For all those shivering already at the prospect of coming winter, you might want to enter right now.

To qualify contestants have to submit a photo of themselves from a past trip to Mexico on the itravel2000 website. Even if you don’t have a picture of yourself in Mexico, the competition accepts created entries. Pictures will be approved and posted on itravel2000′s website where consumers will be invited to vote for their favourite photograph.

And they have to better than the Mexican photo above of me and the witch …no wait, they have to be worse or I won’t win. And PS: the witch is the one with the feathers.

For contest terms and conditions see http://www.itravel2000.com/wintravelforlife

Think abou it. With free Mexican trips for life you could a) drink a lot of Corona and b) visit a lot of great Mexican spas. Here are some spa ideas to get you started:

Rancho La Puerta – Tecate, Baja California

With 3,000 acres set in a valley just an hour’s drive from San Diego, the venerable Rancho La Puerta is one of the earliest eco spas. In true eco spirit, this family-run spa has been promoting sustainable practices for years. Organic gardens, adobe casitas, holistic treatments, an on-site waste treatment facility, natural lighting and “low-flow” toilets make this a solid eco choice. One of Mexico’s best-known spas, Rancho La Puerta has a long eco legacy, a history that goes back to 1940. (Read more on eco spas here)

Ixtapan Spa Hotel and Golf Resort – Ixtapan de la Sal

The popular 4-star Ixtapan Spa Hotel and Golf Resort is found high in the Sierra Madre Mountains, which means temperatures are balmy rather than sweltering, and was voted one of the most affordable spas in the world. Located in the small town Ixtapan de la Sal it offers 220 rooms, tropical gardens and seriously good prices on their 5 day/4 night Spa Classic Package  from September 19-October 2, 2010. (Read more about this great deal here).

One&Only Palmilla  Los Cabos

The One&Only Palmilla has a lavish spa with 13 private treatment rooms in a refreshing flowery garden setting and a variety of treatments and packages that will end the need for beer goggles once and for all. Try a Body Detox and Contour Journey, Super Active Repairing and Restoring Facial, or a Bastien Global Pedicure.  And of course it’s Los Cabos, so how can you go wrong?

Who is itravel2000?
This Canadian travel retailer was a pioneer of online travel and provides vacation packages, cruises, airline tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars. Visit www.itravel2000.com. And win!

So many things are happening in the Toronto travel-writing world that I don’t know where to begin. So I’ll start where all good things begin … with rejection. Yes, I just got rejected by the Ontario Arts Council for a grant. I’m quite proud of my rejections, my personal favourite being the Banff Centre of the Arts which turns me down every year for their Literary Arts Program. It’s like getting a Christmas Card. Only this year, I’ll have to deprive them of this warm and happy occasion as I’ll be slothing around in the South of France instead. But I’m not saying no to next year!

Shaun was here

Kudos to Shaun Smith, food/travel/fiction writer who did get Ontario Arts Council grant. I know it, because his name is on the list of successful applicants at the bottom of my rejection letter. It’s impossible to hate Shaun. I travelled to Northern Spain with him and he’s easy-going and interesting and really knows about food. Plus he spent a lot of time picking out the right present for his girlfriend, and you have to love a guy like that. Yay Shaun!

The week hasn’t all been about rejection. (Although it may be when I hear from the Canada Council.) It’s also about winning! I just got a North American Travel Writers Association Award of Merit for Bylined Travel Column – Greater than 250,000 Circulation for my controversial article about Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, David, and David’s spectacular ass. Read it here.

My compadres, Heather Greenwood Davis and Amy Rosen won Merit Awards, too. Heather, a talented writer and Toronto Star columnist, is also famous for her applause phone app, which she used to great benefit after each speech at the recent Travel South function at Sassafraz the other night. Yay, electronic applause!

Heather contemplates life in Peru

Amy, troublemaker, celebrity food writer and voted one of the ‘thirty most eligible bachelorettes in Toronto’ has the Best. News. Ever. That feisty vixen just got a book deal! Her book is called “Indigestion”, and it’s  ”a funny, smutty delicious work of culinary fiction — recipes included!” Yay smutty!

Amy goes to the ball

So that’s it for now. We’re all winners! And I’m a loser, too! It’s the key to a well-balanced life.

There are lots of of writing contests going around so no matter what your genre is, grab and pen and enter. Or, I guess, grab your computer. Well, don’t grab it exactly. Whatever. Just read the post.

Contest 1 – For Travel Writers:

I plan on entering this as I think you can enter previously published stuff. If I can just get off my duff and dig something up before Jan 31, that is. Well, I guess I don’t need to get off my duff exactly, I need to sit on it. What is a duff? A bottom? And did you read in the paper last week that people who sit a lot die younger? There goes my life. But I digress … Summit Studios is offering a travel and outdoor writing contest with a $1,000 Grand Prize and five $200 Second Prizes. Deadline is  Sunday, January 31, 2010 so hurry up and get out those travel essays and adventure stories. Here’s their blurb:

Here at Summit Studios we are looking for your funniest, wackiest, and most bizarre stories related to Travel and the Great Outdoors. Dazzle us with your wit, make us belly laugh, cause our palms to sweat, and impress us with your sense of adventure (or misadventure). We can take it! All submitted stories must be TRUE stories and may take place anywhere around the world. The six winning stories will receive prize money as stipulated above, and will also be published in our newest travel humour anthology to be released in the Fall of 2010.

Contest 2 – For Travel Bloggers:

Well known travel blogger Nomadic Matt  is running a contest offering  a free 2 week trip to Costa Rica with airfare in conjunction with eco-friendly GAP Adventures.  All you have to do to enter is write a blog post or post a video saying why you should be chosen for the trip. Contest ends Feb 14th 2010.

Contest 3 – For Novelists, Memoirists, Travel Writers, etc – Anyone who has a book burning to be written – and that’s all of us, isn’t it?

This is a kind of a cool contest and I’ve gone ahead and entered it. It’s the Page of Fame! You enter the first page of your manuscript along with a short summary and then your peers rate it. The top-rated pages advance to the next round and the next until you can get your manuscript published. I think that’s how it works but don’t quote me on it. Or, you can just go to the site and rate pages if you’re one of those rare sorts who haven’t written a first page to a book. I entered yesterday and it’s not doing too bad. Only 48% have rated it a “1″ – “1″ being the very lowest crappest grade of all. Hahahaha. Lucky I see the humour in this. On the positive side, 24% think it should advance and when I went onto the page of fame forum, everyone was complaining because all pages were being given a low grade so I’m doing quite well considering. The reason that some people are doling out scary terrible grades to everyone but themselves is because then theirs has a better chance of winning. Or, they are miserable SOB’s. Or, they just hate the writing. Or, the writing is just really really awful and deserves its “1″ rating. This, of course, is probably me. Ah well. It’s good fun anyway. Here’s the thing. There is a price – $4.95 which isn’t much, but um, here’s a secret: if you go to Media Bistro website and look under community and then under bulletin board and then under contests you will see that if you type in the coupon code mediabistro01 then it’s free. Did I say that out loud? You didn’t hear that here folks. And may your first page get a better rating than mine.