My first trip to Copala, and Daniel's(then just a small restaurant) was in the early '80s. My gut feeling was that I had found Paradise. At that time Papaya Cream Pie was the speciality dessert and I understand that Gourmet Magazine requested the recipe. But, believe me, the Coconut Banana Cream Pie is world class. Daniel became a friend for life and Copala became the only place my children and I wanted to be.

Many trips and many years later came the hotel and major expansion of the restaurant - both wonderful additions to "my" Paradise. Although illness and obligations have kept me away for several years, I can close my eyes and smell the millions of flowers, the rich red soil; hear the braying of the lovelorn burros, the constant crowing of the roosters and the squealing of a new liter of piglets and be carried back to the magic of a Copala sunset when the seed pods of the Haba trees explode like firecrackers in the cooling evening air.

I am going... more