Villa La Estancia, Cabo

Starting this month, you can have personalized diet and exercise plans, as well as yoga and step aerobics instruction. The instructor is Robyn Littlewood, a Canadian certified personal trainer who lives and works in Cabo full time. Click here to see details of the program.

The owners newsletter for 12/19/06 has been published and is available for viewing by clicking here. Recall that the newsletter is e-mailed directly to those who have listed their contact information in the Voluntary Owners Directory.

I hope this new way to do it is not too inconvenient, I am trying to find good ways to have it available to us online, yet not take up the entire blog. I'm certainly open to suggestions, and I hope you will make comments etc. by clicking the word "comment" below. If you think you might really stir things up, then please initiate a new post. Thanks.

I'm starting this thread to provide a forum for exchanging ideas on technology at VLE, both successes and failures.

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To start, we've just installed a Skype VOIP phone. Skype is owned by eBay; Skype users can dial Skype users at no charge. Calls from Skype to "normal" telephones are about 2 cents/minute ("SkypeOut"). Skype users can use a normal computer with a headset or, like we did, purchase a Linksys CIT200 telephone for about $50 which gives Skype more of a "normal" telephone appearance (our renters will appreciate this). So far, we're pleasantly surprised at the quality of the Skype service.

Additionally, we opted to pay $40 annually for "SkypeIn," which features a USA phone number so that callers may reach us by dialing our USA phone number. The Linksys CIT200 telephone then rings in our VLE unit. Calls made to your SkypeIn number are no charge (except for possible normal long distance charges that may be incurred by callers; for example, your Skype phone number is in California and cousin Bob in New York calls to California).

A competitor to Skype, Vonage offers unlimited calls for $25/month. We haven't tried Vonage but hear that several owners are satisfied with the service.

A cool feature of Skype and Vonage is the ability to purchase a WiFi phone -- wherever there's WiFi service (like at the VLE pool), your Skype or Vonage phone works. Meaning you can be by the pool and make/receive calls -- this might be a good thing or a bad thing, but just making sure people know it's available.

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Of interest to other owners may be the use of Slingbox. A slingbox is a hardware device that resides at your permanent residence and is connected to your cable box; the Slingbox then slings your cable through the internet to any computer which has their viewer software installed. As a result, you can watch "the game" while in Cabo by running your cable box via your Slingbox. One time hardware cost is about $200.

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Both of these tech ideas are easy to implement. Skype was unbelievably easy to install and run. My hopes are that someday the HOA will be able to justify having someone on staff to manage the tech at VLE, ensuring fast and reliable internet connectivity and assist owners with individual technology requirements.

Hi All. We currently have our unit in the VLE rental pool and pull it out of the pool when we need it. If friends or other guests use the unit, we are always asked if they are "paying" or "nonpaying" guests. When I asked what they were referring to, the reply I received was "A non paying guest is a guest that is not paying you any kind of money for the use of your villa." Does anyone know why this should matter to the resort - what are the implications? Most of the time, our guests would fall under the "nonpaying" definition, but I'd like to understand why the need for the distinction. Thanks.

Any owners who will be at VLE in January, 2007, and who would be interested in meeting and socializing with other owners are invited to post their schedule as a comment to this post.