Welcome to Hotel Playa Blanca located twenty miles out to sea in the middle of this giant sprawling reflecting pond. From a distance, the hotel floats like an austere mirage, still and silent on the polished horizon reflecting the ever-changing cloud sculptures. Closer up, the practical features are evident. The hotel sits on a built-up mound of packed salt three feet above the surface. The walls are built without wood, nails, mortar, adobe, bricks or plaster. Instead, the place is built entirely of salt blocks with a thatch roof.