I’ve posted some info on here before about the ongoing soap opera that is the Yellowstone Club World Blixseth couple, a man and wife that have led a boom and bust life more dramatic than any reality TV script Bravo could throw together. The latest news from the Wall Street Journal has a Mexico twist: wife Edra Blixseth is putting their Los Cabos home up for sale at a list price of $12.88 million.

If you’re interested, it’s a two-acre oceanfront estate with 10,000 square feet of living space inside (six bedrooms) and another 7,000 feet outside.

She was awarded the house as part of the couple’s knock-down, drag-out divorce proceedings, but she has since declared personal bankruptcy. This Los Cabos home pales in comparison to their one near Palm Springs, CA. That listing has “excess” written all over it. The Journal described “a fountain with jets whose sprays rise about 80 feet and a private, 19-hole golf course of about 240 acres. The roughly 25,000-square-foot main residence is decorated with several ceiling murals and has a prayer room and separate wings for guests and children.”

My personal background on all this is that several years ago I was reviewing the property called Yellowstone Club World Tamarindo that was part of their vacation club, located in the Costalegre area a couple hours south of Puerto Vallarta. The lackey general manager pointed to the Blixseth yacht moored off the shore and told me how rich the owner was, that he was a billionaire who traveled the world and was pouring money into the resort to make it the best in Mexico. If you’ve seen the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie, picture this guy as one of the Red Queen court helpers with pasted on large ears. I could tell then that something was not quite right, but the resort looked great so I moved on.

Thankfully the resort and excellent golf course were quickly bought by someone else and both are still great, as simply El Tamarindo, but there’s no Blixseth yacht in the harbor anymore…

“Central America” and “great golf courses” haven’t exactly gone together like chocolate and peanut butter, despite all the opportunities for scenic vistas and locations next to the sea. Mostly this has been a matter of economics since the local demand wasn’t there and the stream of upscale tourists wasn’t dependable enough.

In some places the situation is improving though in the lands south of Mexico and La Reunion outside of Antigua, Guatemala is a great example. We just posted a review of La Reunion Golf Resort in our luxury Guatemala hotels section. Even if you’re not a golfer, how about that view in the picture here? If you’re a golfer, can you think of any other place where you’ve teed off having a view of four volcanoes? Nice.

“Its designers, Pete and Perry Dye, gleaned inspiration from the Mayan Solar Calendar, which consists of 18 twenty-day months. Each of the course’s 18 holes is named after its corresponding month on the Mayan calendar. The 19th month, Wayeb, is a five-day month dedicated to rest and contemplation and so makes a fitting name for the bar and restaurant. Facilities include a driving range, putting green, chipping green, practice bunker, and pro shop. Incidentally, Pete’s eldest son Perry Dye recently spent the last days of 2009 on vacation at the resort with his family and nailed a 178-yard hole-in-one on the course’s 12th hole.”

This review was from the author of the Moon Handbook Guatemala guidebook and Living in Guatemala. See our interview with Al Argueta for more.

Michael Brown is half of the partnership of Mead Brown, a boutique vacation rental firm serving Costa Rica. The company offers private villas and homes plus premium condominiums for those who expect excellent value, personal service and supremely comfortable accommodations. Co-founders Mark Mead and Michael Brown once enjoyed successful careers in the U.S. working with the likes of princes, presidents, celebrities and sports stars. We asked Michael about the appeal of Costa Rica and what makes Mead Brown the go-to company for travel in this popular destination.

Tell us where your Costa Rican rental villas are located and how your clients get there from North America.
Mead Brown villas are located in Los Sueños Golf Resort and Marina, Manuel Antonio, and the lively beach town of Jaco. Guests fly into Juan Santamaria International Airport (SJO) in San Jose and then transfer by private Mercedes van or helicopter.

What are the draws of this region and the developments where you have properties available?
People are attracted to Costa Rica specifically for the adventure; for the flora and fauna. Because Costa Rica is such a relatively narrow bridge of land connecting North and South America, the country has a remarkable abundance of nature. Costa Rica boasts more than 1,000 species of butterflies and 1,300 types of orchids. Sixty-five world-record fish have been caught here. Beaches, rainforests, and the championship, par-72 golf course designed by Ted Robinson, Jr. in Los Sueños are all draws.

(Punto de Vista in Manuel Antonio)

What makes these rental properties ideal for a vacation or honeymoon?
For the price of a hotel room, one can have a spacious 1-, 2- or 3-bedroom condo with the amenities of a hotel and the space found in a private home, including a fully-equipped kitchen, plus washer and dryer! All Mead Brown vacation rentals include daily housekeeping and wireless Internet. Some even have room service from a close-by hotel. Spend less, and get a greater value at every price point.

Continued – Full Mead Brown interview here

Up the road from Los Cabos, some new golf resort communities are springing up. We’ve got the lowdown on them in this new Mexican real estate article we just posted: Golf Communities Sprout in La Paz, Mexico.

This probably sounded like a better idea when there was a flood of California real estate bubble money flowing south, so the developers spared no expense in designing the golf courses and working out the water issues with desalinization and specialized turf. Homes are going up in phases, with the developers targeting those retirees and vacation home owners who find themselves priced out of Los Cabos—or just wanting to get more for their money.

If you’re interested in buying real estate on the Baja Peninsula but your eyes bulged out when you saw the prices in Cabo, read our article and follow the links on golf real estate in La Paz.