Careyes: Community at the Heart of Costalegre’s Future

When I archer radical I erstwhile lived successful Careyes, their reactions divided neatly successful two. A dreamy grin from those who cognize it, oregon a funny tilt of the caput from those who don’t. For the uninitiated, Careyes is simply a backstage enclave carved into the chaotic Pacific seashore of Jalisco’s Costalegre, a agelong of shoreline that remains 1 of Mexico’s slightest developed, though progressively connected the radar of luxury investors. To unrecorded there, nevertheless briefly, is to observe a satellite that is neither edifice nor accepted community. Rather, thing altogether much elusive, and successful galore ways, intolerable to replicate.

For me, it was besides home.

Life successful the Pueblo

Few communities boast a much picturesque coastal locale than Careyes. (Karla Cifuentes)

My days unfolded successful the Pueblo, the unapologetically “more affordable” portion of the assemblage tucked backmost from the emblematic cliffside casitas and palatial villas. Here, the kaleidoscope of pastel casitas is wherever staff, artists and creatives shared the aforesaid bougainvillea-draped streets. The architecture and determination of houses successful Careyes awesome antithetic terms points — cliffside castles perched implicit the oversea versus humble bungalows down cobblestone lanes — but societal beingness refused specified hierarchies. At night, 1 could drift from an A-list cocktail reception astatine a six-bedroom property to a barefoot euphony jam successful adjacent Perula, wherever neighbors creation to unrecorded euphony and drawback a sheet of nutrient for 150 pesos. 

The fluidity is the essence of Careyes. Wealth is acknowledged but ne'er weaponized. Here, a billionaire and a creator mightiness stock the aforesaid vessel of tequila portion talking astir wherever to find the champion surf interruption connected the coast. The connective insubstantial is not wealth, but a corporate statement that everyone belongs.

That doctrine was embedded from the beginning. When Italian financier Gian Franco Brignone arrived much than fractional a period ago, helium envisioned much than a clump of abrogation homes. He saw a sanctuary wherever architecture could beryllium playful, wherever creation was integral, and wherever assemblage (not commerce) was the binding force.

Careyes became celebrated for its fantastical forms: candy-colored casitas rising from cliffs, castles with wraparound infinity pools, and an eccentric postulation of villas designed arsenic overmuch for whimsy arsenic for shelter. Its guests ranged from movie stars to European royals, yet the ambiance ne'er calcified into exclusivity. 

Scruffy elegance

What makes Careyes bonzer is its paradox. It is undeniably a playground for the wealthy. Homes merchantability for millions, and backstage yachts ferry guests successful and out. Yet the acquisition is thing but polished. Roads on the road are rutted, Wi-Fi is temperamental, and it’s not uncommon to stock an outdoor repast with a meandering scorpion oregon tarantula. Luxury present is filtered done eccentricity and imperfection. 

There is simply a definite “scruffy elegance” to Careyes. Barefoot dinners nether the stars, avant-garde creation installations rising beside a jungle path, children chasing iguanas portion their parents sip a jamaica mezcalita connected the sand. It is precocious nett worthy without the precocious gloss — hippies with heavy pockets, arsenic much than 1 nonmigratory has quipped. That hostility betwixt sophistication and bohemian grit is precisely what gives the spot its vitality.

Costalegre’s adjacent chapter

Sunlight peeks done astatine the Nido de Amor (Karla Cifuentes)

Careyes, of course, does not beryllium successful isolation. It anchors the broader Costalegre, a 150-mile agelong of Pacific coastline extending from Barra de Navidad to Cabo Corrientes. For decades, its remoteness has kept it pristine, until recently, reaching immoderate sections required hours of unsmooth road.

That isolation is opening to fade, arsenic caller developments instrumentality basal and speculation swirls implicit a projected airdrome — with statement ongoing betwixt authorities officials and section landowners implicit whether it volition service backstage interests oregon the nationalist astatine large. The Jalisco authorities has unveiled a 20-year maestro program for Costalegre, pledging to pull sustainable luxury improvement portion preserving the precise wilderness that defines it.

“The existent luxury of Costalegre is successful its nature,” said Michelle Friedman, the Secretary of Tourism of Jalisco. “If we tin win successful blending luxury with biology consciousness, it volition stay 1 of the past virgin coastlines successful the Americas.”

Already, marquee projects are underway. Xala promises a premix of ultra-luxury hospitality with the Six Senses edifice and backstage residences, coupled with large-scale conservation and assemblage investment. El Tezcalame, anchored by Chable Costalegre, volition debut successful 2027 connected onshore that is mostly reserved for conservation, arsenic well. Even northbound successful Riviera Nayarit, Mandarina has introduced One&Only and Rosewood resorts with branded residences, portion Nauka, with its Ritz-Carlton Reserve, is preparing to adhd different infusion of backstage assemblage living. Infrastructure upgrades, from highways to caller airports, are knitting the portion much tightly into Mexico’s tourism fabric.

These projects volition undoubtedly signifier the Costalegre and Bay of Banderas of the future. But having lived successful Careyes, I cognize they volition ne'er rather replicate its essence.

A assemblage apart

Careyes remains singular precisely due to the fact that it was ne'er conceived arsenic a “development.” It grew retired of a imaginativeness some eccentric and personal, much funny successful assemblage and creativity than marketability. Its residents, whether full-time oregon seasonal, bargain into that ethos arsenic overmuch arsenic into the architecture.

Enjoying the views from Tigre del Mar, a Careyes-based luxury villa. (Karla Cifuentes)

To permission is not conscionable to permission down a villa oregon a beach; it is to permission a gait of beingness orchestrated by nature, by friendships that transverse boundaries of wealthiness and nationality, by nights that statesman successful candlelit homes and extremity wrong a accepted temazcal nether the stars.

The roadworthy ahead

As Jalisco’s Costalegre maestro program advances, the hostility betwixt preservation and advancement volition sharpen. For some, developments similar Xala oregon Nauka correspond opportunity. For others, they rise questions astir authenticity and sustainability. But for Careyes, the situation — and the committedness — is different.

It already embodies what the region’s planners accidental they anticipation to achieve: a equilibrium of quality and luxury, eccentricity and elegance, assemblage and exclusivity. In that sense, Careyes whitethorn beryllium little a relic of the past than a blueprint for the future.

And for those who’ve lived there, adjacent briefly, it remains thing rarer inactive — a spot wherever wealthiness and whimsy coexist, and wherever assemblage is the top luxury of all.

Meagan Drillinger is simply a New York autochthonal who has spent the past 15 years traveling astir and penning astir Mexico. While she’s connected the roadworthy for assignments astir of the time, Puerto Vallarta is her location base. Follow her travels connected Instagram astatine @drillinjourneys oregon done her blog astatine drillinjourneys.com.