On a 35 ft. cliff over looking the Marietas Islands and Punta de Mita within the luxury resort development called El Banco, Casa Siete is
one of the finest new homes in all of Mexico.

Spread across most of the massive estate, this 8 bedroom villa is
25,000 sq ft under roof and another 25,000sq ft of paths, pools, and
out door living areas. With nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet of volume,
Casa Siete draws you to water and sun.

Amidst lush tropical fauna, the main entrance pathway leads you over a wooden bridge across a swimming pool that doubles as playground and volleyball venue, in-pool lounge, kids’ pool and spectators palapa
with game room featuring pool table, foosball and bar with stereo and
TV.

A dramatic entrance opens to a breathtaking view under grand palapa and over water that stretches to the sea.
The wooden patios are sophisticated with lounging areas spread apart. Color and light follows the sun, changing temperature and tone of brown and subdued oranges and blues to bold, dusk lit hues, to the
brilliant glow of night.

Each of the eight bedroom suites are air conditioned and are appointed with LCD flat screen TV’s, Ipod doc, safes, and separate bath and showers.

There are 3 master suites, the main master is upstairs and boasts its’
own infiniti pool / hot tub overlooking Banderas Bay from the Marietas Islands to Puerto Vallarta across the bay under the Sierra Occidente.

Pricing fluctuates and is often negotiable.
Please check with us for pricing and availability.

http://www.lapuntarealty.com/casa7/

While city living certainly has its perks and many people spend a large portion of their year nestled in their luxury apartments and high-rises, there’s something special about leaving the urban life behind and curling up in one of the following highlighted places where having a second home allows for lifestyle like no other.

Punta de Mita peninsula - Riviera Nayarit, Pacific Mexico

Whether you’re looking for a part time second home or even just a vacation spot to call your own whenever you feel like stepping away from city life for a while, there’s no shortage of options. In a recent list compiled by the International Property Journal, ten markets were examined based on relevant factors such as uniqueness, affordability, physical and financial security, and the opportunity for capital appreciation. The goal of their research was to “spotlight markets that combine a variety of factors, not serve as niches like the best jungle locale or the best golf course market.”

The list was based on the definition of “second home” strictly as vacation properties and getaway spots, “which left off Paris, Barcelona, and other urban centers where many people own second homes, but may not use them strictly as vacation getaway properties.” Preference was given to places that were away from strips of hotel towers and feature a mixture of isolation and resources that make “an idea second home market, the ability to generate rental income and snorkel in warm waters without fear of getting run over by a cruise ship.” Good thinking.

Here are a few great spots taken from the list of destinations that not only represent a major investment opportunities, but also promise exclusive escape with riches and adventure.

RIVIERA NAYARIT, Mexico

While the International Property Journal is quick to know that Mexico is in fact experience “waves of violence and upheaval,” they rebuttal by simply noting that “that’s the way it always is in Mexico.” That aside, the area north of Puerto Vallarta is highlighted due to its recent “mini-explosion” of luxury home development. There is a master-planned area on Punta Mita that is anchored by a Four Seasons and a St. Regis which offers A-list, gated community lifestyle. “Further up the coast a variety of projects are going up along a route of white-sand beaches, surfer spots and small fishing towns. Best of all, the starting point is Puerto Vallarta, one of Mexico’s classic, romantic old cities.”

http://www.hauteliving.com/blog/national/five-great-second-home-markets/

The year was 1970, and I was about to turn 21. The Chicago Seven Trial was winding down, the Vietnam War was in full rage, Nixon had lowered the voting age to 18, and the Beatles had released their final album, “Let It Be.” The message to my generation was “Keep on Truckin’.” So naturally, I figured it was a good time to take a Mexico road trip.

I called an old boyhood friend, regaling him about a place in the jungle called Puerto Vallarta. The first paved road there from Tepic had just been completed. Using advanced calculus, with gas costing 15 cents a gallon and sleeping on the beach costing nothing, I estimated we could do a two-week trip from San Diego for about $100 each. So off we went in my 1966 VW van with no jack, a case of beer, and four bald tires. I had no idea then that this trip would come to define my life.

This was long before all of the freeway-like toll roads in Mexico, so we drove through every town and village along Highway 15 heading south. The term hadn’t been invented yet, but this was “rural tourism.”

Beyond Puerto Vallarta: Cabo Corrientes

That first trip I took to Puerto Vallarta spurred a life-long fascination with Mexico that endures today. I recently went back to Puerto Vallarta for about the hundredth time, exploring an area a short distance south of town called Cabo Corrientes. You may know it as home to the town of Yelapa, which was once primarily accessible only by boat. Today, the entire region can be reached by auto, although most of the roads are dirt.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/12/30/mexicomix123009.DTL#ixzz0bF6CD8Od

With full access to all the best resort amenities, these exquisite villas are unique in privilege...quintessentially Four Seasons

This single story, private villa boasts an expansive view of the Pacific Ocean and the offshore Islands and is a five minute walk to the beach.

The lush green landscaping of the neighboring Four Seasons Resort offers an idyllic hillside retreat. Elegantly decorated in modern Mexican decor.

Villa Sirena is a 7,500 sq. ft, spectacular villa, located inside the Four Seasons resort at Punta Mita, Mexico.

The Four Seasons resort is now rated #10 by Andrew Harper’s 2007 Hideaway Report as the World’s Top International Resorts & Hideaways!

The Villa has been sited for maximum privacy, with a scale that fits perfectly with the hillside setting.

Surrounded on three sides by nine and a half miles of glorious coastline, Punta Mita is one of Mexico’s premier communities and resort sanctuaries.

Its fine collection of properties is distinguished by ocean views, a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, rejuvenating exclusive spa treatments, array of water sports, residential concierge services and the amenities you would expect from the most exclusive resort destination.

http://www.lapuntarealty.com/villasirena/

If you’re not familiar with Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit, you’re not alone. This coastal region, located just north of Puerto Vallarta in the state of Nayarit, is a relatively new destination for mainstream travelers.

Riviera Nayarit is made up of a series of quiet villages, including Nuevo Vallarta, the former fishing village of Punta Mita, and the rustic northern town of San Blas.

For years, this area was a well-kept secret among avid surfers, far off tourist and celebrity radars with none of the glitz, glamour or crowds of Puerto Vallarta.

The opening of luxury hotels such as the Four Seasons and St. Regis in Punta Mita, golf resorts and marinas, and the proliferation of second-home buyers has led to the steady growth of travel-friendly amenities. But while locals are proud of the recent development, they maintain that region has not lost its original essence.

Read on to find out some local favorites in Riviera Nayarit…

Mark Callanan Photography - explore photos of mexico

http://www.petergreenberg.com/2009/12/12/ask-the-locals-travel-guide-punta-mita-riviera-nayarit-restaurants/

The Four Seasosn Resort, Punta Mita Mexico - North Shore Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta sits on the Bay of Banderas, one of the largest bays in Mexico, at the northern tip of the state of Jalisco. A popular cruise port, the city is heavily developed for tourism and day visitors. But just north across the border in the state of Nayarit, more than 30 miles of less-developed beaches line the bay.

Essentially a suburb of Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta is the first community over the border in Nayarit, and as you head north things quickly become more rural. The bay ends with the Punta Mita peninsula, home to Mexico’s premier luxury residential community, but the Riviera Nayarit continues north for more than 100 miles.

While many developments are stalled or on hold these days, Punta Mita just celebrated its 10th anniversary and continues to expand, also fueling growth in surrounding areas. The 1,500-acre gated community has almost 10 miles of continuous beach, with ocean on three sides of the narrow peninsula. It opened in the late 1990s with homes and condos, a Four Seasons hotel and a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course. This year Punta Mita got its second luxury hotel, a St. Regis, and its second Nicklaus course. Throughout are a broad mix of condos, townhomes and single-family homes, from $450,000 to more than $20 million.

“This newly minted Riviera is not just spas and luxury resorts. A half-hour drive north takes you to the funky clothing boutiques and beachfront surf shacks of Sayulita,” says Mike Stevens of Endless Vacation magazine, who has covered the region extensively. “If you drive a little farther north, you’ll need good suspension. Most beaches are reached only by dirt roads — for now.”

The beachfront town of Sayulita, with its cobblestone streets and taco stands, boasts one of the best surf breaks in Mexico, and it has a relaxed, almost hippy vibe. It also has become a popular day and night destination for the entire region, thanks to a broad array of good restaurants and artisan boutiques.

“As an American, if your budget is in the $200,000-$300,000 range, your best bet is to buy in Sayulita or San Pancho,” says Gary Pepin, vice president of sales for Punta Mita Properties. San Pancho is a less developed beach town 15 minutes farther north. Beyond it lies more than 100 miles of dirt roads and empty beaches, the future of Riviera Nayarit.

A look at three Riviera Nayarit neighborhoods

•Nuevo Vallarta: Just across the state line from Puerto Vallarta and Marina Vallarta, the appeal is proximity to the airport and the many shops and restaurants of Puerto Vallarta, plus a beachfront setting on the Bay of Banderas. While some pay a premium for the location, others are put off by it, an extension of the city with several all-inclusive resorts. Recent upscale development includes the new Villa La Estancia luxury condo-style hotel with apartments from $900,000 to more than $5 million (villalaestancia.com).

•Punta Mita: The 800-pound gorilla of the Rivera Nayarit, this community has driven much of the surrounding development. About 70% of the buyers are American, and while you can easily spend eight figures on mansions here, luxury condos start at $450,000. You can get a very large three-bedroom in the complex with private pool and beach club for $750,000. In addition to facilities such as spas, gyms, a large tennis center and beach clubs, buyers have access to the spas and restaurants of the two resort hotels (puntademita-realestate.com).

•Sayulita: The first destination in Nayarit to be discovered by Americans, Sayulita has long attracted surfers. More recently it has become mainstream, while preserving its authentic old-Mexico flair. Viable second-home options start around $200,000. Early adaptors can look north to San Pancho or even farther up the coast, where prices have not yet risen as much.

Best for: Golfers, surfers, beach lovers.

Claim to fame: The Pacifico golf course has the only natural offshore-island hole in the world, a legendary par-3.

Don’t miss: The Bay of Banderas is a top whale-watching spot, in the heart of the humpback migration route. Whales are easily viewed from shore or boats from December to April.

Getting there: The Puerto Vallarta airport is modern and well-appointed and actually closer to Nuevo Vallarta, less than 5 minutes. It’s about 45 minutes to Punta Mita.

http://puntademita-realestate.com/

Bellamar is a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath, unit right on the beach in Punta Mita.

The condo is being sold furnished and has a fully equipped modern kitchen with island.

Enjoy a peaceful afternoon by the pool and Jacuzzi or take an afternoon walk on one of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico.

The Bellamar complex has only 8 units, none of which have ever been put on the market till now.

This complex was designed and built by the owners themselves and it shows!!

Beautiful Pool, BBQ area and on the beach!

http://www.lapuntarealty.com/bellamar/

Punta Vista Signature Residences are boutique beachfront condominiums are known for luxuriously solid construction, generous finishes and arguably the best beach inside the protected Bay of Banderas.

This oversized unit with large open terraces was designed to be a dramatic, modern and cozy 2 bedroom coastal indoor-outdoor living spaces.

2 bedrooms with king bed and full bath, bathroom amenities, fine linens, towels and robes

State of the art open kitchen with Viking appliances

All modern necessities available : Wireless Internet, Satellite TV, Phone, A/C, flat screen TVs

Daily cleaning and concierge service included in rate. Airport transportation available. Cook available. Pre stocking grocery shopping service available.

http://lapuntarealty.com/pvsr302/

Punta Vista 1 - on Playa Punta de Mita, Riviera Nayarit, Pacific Mexico

Punta Vista I #501 is a beautiful three bedroom condominium located directly on the most beautiful white sandy beach of Punta de Mita, Riviera Nayarit, Pacific Mexico.

This unit is fully furnished and has been very well taken cared of.

Experience the jungle mountain ocean scape just 3 hours flight from Los Angeles.

Enjoy your panoramic mural: the horizon beyond Jack Nicklaus golf courses on the Punta Mita Resort peninsula, across Banderas Bay to Puerto Vallarta in the distance, ringed by the Sierra Occidente.

The Marietas Islands are an intimate presence, bathed in morning light, alive in your view as day turns to magic sunset then moonlit silhouette under the stars.

Beach restaurants of neighboring El Anclote continue to compete ambitiously and diversely as the Four Seasons / St. Regis Resorts raise the bar for all.

Punta Vista #501 is perfect for those who want to enjoy the ambiance of local Mexican town and people while you can also enjoy the modern amenities of Punta Vista and the beautiful ocean.

Contact:

Yumiko Takinami-Dilday
La Punta Realty – Christies’ Great Estates
T: 011-52-329-291-6420
C: 011-521-322-779-8125
F: 011-52-329-291-6421
E: yumiko@lapuntarealty.com
W: www.lapuntarealty.com

http://lapuntarealty.com/puntavista501/

Development continues along the Riviera Nayarit, Mexico’s newest resort destination, although the economic recession and downturn in Mexico tourism have halted some construction and caused other plans to be shelved.

St. Regis Hotel at the Punta Mita Resort

A spate of openings in 2008 added four major hotels: the St. Regis Punta Mita, Villa La Estancia, Dreams Villa Magna and the Riu Palace Pacifico.

This September, Imanta Resorts opened a boutique hotel at the exclusive Punta Mita enclave.

Luxury villas and homesites along the Mexican Pacific

In the coming months, the Riviera Nayarit is preparing for more resorts and championship-caliber golf courses.

In December, the 171-room Marival Residences and World Spa is scheduled for a soft opening in Riviera Nayarit’s Nuevo Vallarta area just north of Puerto Vallarta Airport.

Adding to the Riviera Nayarit’s growing reputation as a premier golf destination, the Jack Nicklaus-designed course Bahia Punta Mita makes its debut Nov. 16 in Punta Mita, which already offers one Jack Nicklaus course, Pacifico Punta Mita.

That course is known for its signature hole, 3B, on a tiny island 194 yards offshore.

Tale of the Whale - Pacifico course by Jack Nicklaus - Four Seasosn Resort, Punta Mita

At low tide, duffers use a pathway through shallow waters to reach the hole. As the tide moves in, course staffers shuttle golfers in an amphibious golf cart.

Nearby, the recently completed residential development Porta Fortuna (http://puntademita-realestate.com/portafortuna), in the same gated community as the Four Seasons and St. Regis.

La Punta Realty – Christies Great Estates offers sales services for all projects in the area, as well as a villa rental program that includes all-inclusive packages for clients, who can choose activities and amenities such as private chef services on an a la carte basis.

Another Jack Nicklaus-designed course is scheduled to open in February, this one in Nuevo Vallarta at the Mayan Palace resort, which is closed for major renovations and expected to reopen in November 2010.

However, the downturn in tourism has taken its toll in this area as it has in the rest of Mexico.

Aerial of the Litibu - Riviera Nayarit project - November 5th, 2009

Construction has been halted on Ibero-star’s first venture on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, in Litibu, just north of Punta Mita.

The 400-plus room Iberostar Playa Mita Beach resort at Litibu was originally planned to open this winter. About 35% of the resort is complete — several stories of the hotel’s two buildings overlook the Pacific — but construction was stopped because of worsening economic conditions.

“Demand is not strong right now,” said John Long, Iberostar vice president of sales and marketing for North America. “We’re a family-owned business and privately owned. It’s not a matter of investors or our financial situation. We’ve opened hotels this year in Brazil, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. It’s just that the timing is not right now for Mexico.”

Spain-based Iberostar hopes to restart Litibu construction in the next year so that the Playa Mita hotel could be completed by November 2011, in time for the peak winter 2011-2012 season, Long said.

The resort is being built between two beachfront holes of a Greg Norman-designed championship golf course at Litibu, an area selected for development years ago by Fonatur, the Mexican government tourism agency.

Construction on that course is complete, but no inaugural date has been set, according to the Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Iberostar’s plans for Litibu involve two more resorts: the 300-room Iberostar Playa Mita All-Suites and a luxury Iberostar Grand Resort of 200 to 300 rooms. Once economic conditions improve, construction is expected to start on those two neighboring properties, Long said.

All this activity comes just two years into a marketing push that introduced the Riviera Nayarit, an area defined as the 192-mile stretch of coastline along the state of Nayarit just north of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast.

Nayarit state officials launched the marketing and branding effort to make the coast of Nayarit distinct from Puerto Vallarta, which lies in the state of Jalisco.

Nayarit officials determined several years ago that its coastline would be developed differently from its famous neighbor, with an eye to protect natural resources (endangered turtle nesting grounds dot the shores) and limit construction to relatively small-size, low-rise resorts of nine floors or less, said Richard Zarkin, spokesman for the Riviera Nayarit CVB.

The bureau, which operates on a $4 million budget derived from a local lodging tax, hired a marketing firm that suggested the Riviera Nayarit rebranding to differentiate the area from Puerto Vallarta. The subsequent marketing, public relations, advertising and trade campaign has made great strides, particularly in familiarizing travel agents, he said.

“Seventy-two percent of travel agents in the U.S. know Riviera Nayarit,” said Zarkin. “They are saying that in three years we’ve built the kind of brand that took Puerto Vallarta 15 years to build.”

However, the rebranding of the Riviera Nayarit has not been without its challenges. The state’s coast covers vastly diverse areas, some built up and some isolated and undeveloped, which can make it complicated to describe the region.

The areas include the developed area of Nuevo Vallarta just north of Puerto Vallarta Airport; the beach towns of Flamingos, Bucerias and La Cruz de Huanacaxtle along the highway north that follows Banderas Bay; Punta Mita, which juts into the Pacific and is home to Four Seasons and St. Regis properties; north of Punta Mita, the more isolated resort area of Litibu; Sayulita and San Francisco (also known as San Pancho), two surfing towns with large American expat communities; and a string of even more remote small towns along a coast of rocky coves and mangroves north to the port town of San Blas and the border with the northern state of Sinaloa.

The area is already attracting a growing percentage, now 62%, of passengers who fly into Puerto Vallarta, Zarkin said.

Explore Punta de Mita and beyond from the air

The opening of the St. Regis, the brand’s first hotel in Latin America, did much to draw attention to the Riviera Nayarit’s Punta Mita, he said.

More luxury brands are expected to follow: Among the hotel companies with plans to build on the Riviera Nayarit are Ritz-Carlton, which is eyeing Punta Mita, and Park Hyatt, which has tentative plans at another Fonatur development, El Capomo, about a half-hour drive north of Punta Mita. However, there are no firm dates set for groundbreaking, Zarkin said.

The state is also expanding beyond traditional leisure markets to target boaters and yachtsmen. In 2008, it completed the Marina Riviera Nayarit in the fishing village of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle. The 400-slip marina accommodates yachts of up to 400 feet.

The one market that Riviera Nayarit probably won’t target is large meetings and conventions. Puerto Vallarta has a convention center, and Riviera Nayarit is happy to work with its neighboring destination to house delegates, but there are no plans for a convention facility in the state, he said.

http://www.travelweekly.com/mexico/article3_ektid206494.aspx

Litibu - Oceanview homesite for sale North of Punta Mita and Litibu. South of Sayulita

Ripe with fruit, fauna and future aspirations, this large and lush tropical ocean view homesite is a wondrously gentle slope down a jungle hillside of Huigera Blanca, nearly adjacent to Monkey Mt. and the Imanta Resort and between the ultra-exclusive Punta Mita Resort, the mega resort development of Litibu and the young and eclectically eco-trendy surf town of Sayulita.

A wandering tour of the property is a diverse discovery that starts on the second floor of construction with a spectacular 270 degree view of the sea, mountains and jungle. Raised hillside ocean view homesites are often preferred by people who prefer a bit of tranquil privacy to the bustle of beachfront passers-by.

A stone’s throw away from the water can save quite a bit of money in any real estate market, but there are other distinct advantages to re-thinking the oceanside vacation home ideal.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For one, the wear and tear on beachfront homes is a significantly greater expense to maintain.

Hillside owners at Litibu enjoy a divinely dependable ocean breeze that flows up the hillside and helps you save on air conditioning / electricity. A ventilator fan on the terrace lounge may be all you need 10 months of the year. An air-conditioned media room or bedroom is respite in the still of late summer night.

Exit the house by the back door and step into a magical and lost age of mystic jungle with towering forest palms and temple-like boulders in whose presence one feels friendly spirits with rich stories to tell.

Winding out of the cool shaded jungle opens to green pasture, bananas, flowers and blue ocean scape.

This home is a builders dream, perfect for a unique estate or eco-bungalows…and it awaits a lucky person with vision.

Specifics of the property are: 1 hectare of land (2.5 acres) with 100 meters frontage.
Density permitted is T15 so one could build up to 8 homes on it or boutique eco-retreat with up to 15 rooms.

http://explore.mexicolandcatalog.com/litibu-lot/

Experience Mexcaltitán – the tiny Venice of Mexico.

http://expmexico.com

Thus continues our quest to better document the Pueblos Magicos of Mexico.

If you’re at all familiar with “Vallarta” as a concept in luxury living – try adding to that the concept of pueblo mágico or “magical town”. Nice?

About 2 and a half hours north of Puerto Vallarta – up the long road that affords occasional but magificent glimpses of the Pacific Ocean – you can arrive at the Island of Mexcaltitán very near to San Blas – the northernmost point of infrstructure development in Nayarit. This is actually a very early infrastucture project as the island is actually man-made – in the fashion of better known man-made islands at Xochimilco – and which made up a good part of the land beneath Tenochtitlán, the precursor to today’s Mexico City.

With the often flooded streets laid out like the spokes of a wheel, Mexcaltitlán is every bit as charming, thought provoking and striking as it appears in the photo above.

The name dates back from the Mexicas and some say it means “home of the Mexicas or Mexicans”, others mention that it comes from the word Metztli, the moon goddess of the Nahuatlaca people. And one final story is that the Aztecs are rumored – or mythologized – to have actually originated in this island before departing in 1091 to later found the city of Tenochtitlan in 1325. See OurMexico.com for a more complete history of the island.

This small island relys economically mostly on fishing for shrimp, so you can imagine the number of dishes prepared with as fresh as it gets: shrimp. It is common that residents leave their doors open, inviting visitors to come in – and locals love to share the stories and myths about this island Pueblo. And there is no shortage of great history.

Tourism is increasing, but the island is not swamped with visitors, and the few that visit are normally from other parts of Mexico rather than international tourists – so you may very well have the place virtually to yourself.

How many islands do you know that are actually “just in from the coast” ?

Guided tours of the Island of Mexcaltitan go for about US$60/person and they include a boat to and from the island, a tour to the sites where you can see the wildlife and mangroves, meals and beverages and a good tour could last all day.

Now doesn’t this sound like a great way to spend the day?

Want to know more?

Derek’s Travels includes a good history of the island and some more nice photos. And author, Paul Kekai Manansala, reprints in full a (difficult to find) Jeremy Schwartz/Cox News Service article on the academic and immigration-rights argument over the place of Aztlán in history, mythical or otherwise.

The Nayarit state government is paying serious attention to the island’s needs and they are investing several million pesos into improving the roads taking tourists to the island from the coastal highway, rehabilitating the environment and painting many of the islands few, charming and priceless buildings.

http://expmexico.com/2009/07/magical-mexcaltitan-nayarit-puerto-vallarta/

IMANTA Resorts Luxury Residences, Boutique Hotel/Spa, and signature Lots represent a unique concept: the harmonic interaction of natural beauty in magnificent places with environmentally sensitive architectural design that highlights the individual charm of each site.

The story of Imanta is really the story of our name: Imanta, “Magnetic Attraction”. It’s the feeling you get when you fall in love with a person or a place. It’s immediate, exhilarating and mysterious, the way we think you’ll feel when you come here.We first experienced this sense of ‘imanta” on a four-day visit to Thailand where we were in search of a place to “get away from it all”.

Lot 12:
From $11′200,000 USD to $4′900,000 USD (construction costs not included) with 85 meters of frontage and a total surface of 7,462 square meters this lot is located on a cliff but it is pretty easy to build stairs to get right on the sandy beach. Click here for a full profile.

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After many years of searching for the perfect place, we knew we had found it the minute we set foot on the shores of Imanta.Originally called “Playa Los Orcones”, here was Nature at its most resplendent, a magical place where the jungle met the ocean in one of the world’s most majestic landscapes.

Spectacularly situated in the heart of Mexico’s most majestic landscape, IMANTA Punta de Mita is a hidden gem.IMANTA’s first resort is located in Punta de Mita, 30 minutes from Puerto Vallarta’s International Airport, on the Riviera Nayarit Mexicana, Mexico’s Gold Coast.

What we found there enchanted us. Nature and luxury existed in complete harmony. As hoteliers, we were impressed with the extraordinary level of service we experienced. As humans, we had fallen in love with a way of life. Since that first visit to Thailand, we were determined to provide this same balance of nature and luxury in our native country of Mexico.

We were astonished by the incredible variety of wildlife, by the vegetation and the cycle of the seasons, by the way the earth and the sea attracted us like a magnet force, binding us completely to this place. We decided immediately to buy this property and to implement our dream.

Designed by Overland Partners, IMANTA’s Casas have been created as a work of art. Nowhere is this more evident than in the masterful blending of architecture and the land. The Casas at IMANTA have been built by expert craftsmen usingmostly local materials in a way that evokes the spirit of pre-Hispanic Mexico.

Our concept is minimalist and contemporary, yet inspired by the richness of our Mexican heritage and by the exquisite artistry of Asian culture. We are committed to using the best and most sustainable materials, woods and fabrics. All the Casas have been designed with guests’ complete comfort as our goal.

Most bedroom suites have full plunge pools or custom Jacuzzis handmade in stone. Master suites have two main bedrooms, each with its own large full bath. In addition, there is a large living room, dining room, well equipped kitchen and an extra half bath for guests.

Many of the architectural details and custom furniture that make IMANTA so special were specifically designed for IMANTA Punta de Mita. Our magnificent stone bathtubs have been hand hewn from the giant boulders that characterize the site.

Lot 37:
Previously Priced at $4′700,000 USD it is now offered at $2′000,000 USD. This lot is located on the 2nd row of lots with a magnificent ocean and jungle views. It’s total surface is 4,862 square meters and 56 meters of frontage. Click here for a full profile.

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Each Casa has its own unique qualities, while remaining unified by a central vision. Every home consists of three to six individual suites oriented around a central master suite, a design that allows for both privacy as well as communal gathering.

Some master suites also come with a laundry room, TV/game room, a private office, gym, library, and wine cellar. All of the master suites have an outdoor garden, a stone terrace, hardwood decking, a private swimming pool and/or a Jacuzzi. Oceanfront suites have a private beach.

The independent suites are ingeniously designed to serve as single units or additional accommodations in a family compound. As luxuriously appointed as the master suites, each bedroom suite is equipped with a desk, indoor and outdoor seating, and a magnificent bath.

La Punta Realty is a luxury real estate firm based in Puerto Vallarta and Punta de Mita, Mexico. Associated with Christies Great Estates, La Punta Realty is an active member of AMPI (Mexican association of Professional Realtors and the Puerto Vallarta Multiple Listing Service MLS.

Punta de Mita is located on Banderas Bay in Nayarit State on Mexico’s west coast.The weather at IMANTA is usually lovely. Average daily temperatures are in the 80’s and the sun shines almost every day. Summers can be hotter and more humid. Evenings can be cool, so it is wise to bring a light sweater.

IMANTA´s first resort is located in Punta de Mita, 30 minutes from Puerto Vallarta’s International Airport, on the Riviera Nayarit Mexicana, also known as Mexico’s Gold Coast. Spectacularly situated in the heart of Mexico’s most majestic landscapes,.

The Puerto Vallarta International Airport is 27 miles from the Resort and is served by numerous airlines. Rental cars are available at the airport. There is valet and self-parking at Imanta.Our Concierge will be happy to arrange transportation for our guests.

Paramount to the IMANTA experience is personalized service, five-star attention to detail and first class amenities. IMANTA residents and their guests will be entitled to all of the hotel/spa’s luxurious services.These include premier home maintenance, maid service, access to pricate chefs who will cook in your own kitchen and room service from IMANTA’S restaurants.

Spectacularly situated in the heart of mexico’s most majestic landscape, IMANTA Punta de Mita is a hidden gem.
IMANTA’s first resort is located in Punta de Mita, 30 minutes from Puerto Vallarta’s International Airport, on the Riviera NAyarit Mexicana, Mexico’s Gold Coast.

In a stunning synthesis of beautiful architecture, environmentally concious landscape design, and interior style inspired by the remarkable beauty of the region, IMANTA Punta de Mita is an aesthetic masterpiece.

For more information, please visit the website:
http://www.imantamexico.com

Contact:
La Punta Realty – Christie’s Great Estates
http://www.lapuntarealty.com/

Within Mexico
Tel: 01 (329) 291-6420
Fax: 01 (329) 291-6421

From US/Canada
Tel: 011 52 (329) 291-6420
Vonnage: (213) 291-7590

Casa Dos Estrellas, a jewel of Careyes, is a Coastal Pacific Mexican storybook seven bedroom villa created by world renown architect Manolo Mestre. Crested high on a cliff, Casa Dos Estrellas is a sensual and glamourous tropical retreat with dreamy views of Careyes from every room and from the rooftops, spellbinding 360 views of all Careyes.

Vivid interiors and ocean vistas create a joyful atmosphere at this cliff-top villa overlooking an intense blue sea, Casa dos Estrellas boasts magnificent views from every room.

A playful color scheme of canary-yellow and turquoise walls accented by vivid orange, red, and pink fabrics sets a joyful and festive tone. Entertaining comes easily at this tropical paradise. The many game and play areas found throughout the property enhance the fun atmosphere and include a bocce-ball court, a pool table, a billiards table, and a ping-pong table.

The perfect party setting, the property features a broad palapa, a gorgeous seaside pool, and a quirky multilevel layout, with outdoor rooms and lounges tucked into every level. Steps descend from level to level, eventually arriving outside at the private beach. All six resplendent bedrooms face the ocean and have air-conditioning, spacious bathrooms, and walk-in closets. The expansive master suite is a sublime retreat and offers dual showers and spectacular vistas.

Idyllically located between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo on the Pacific coast, the community of Costa Careyes was originally conceived in 1968 by Gian Franco Brignone of Torino, Italy. He envisioned a place that would combine European savoir vivre with the beauty, climate, and exuberant mood of Mexico. Several decades later, a thriving international community amid a lush, verdant landscape set against deep turquoise waters
affirms that vision.

The owners, a Hollywood producer and his wife, a sultry Italian actress, created their hide-away to live with vibrance; vivid orange, red, warm pinks with canary-yellow and turquoise paint, fabrics and flora to delight the senses and seduce any group to perhaps, a party.

Popular with the jet set, European polyglots, celebrities, artists, fashion designers, architects and captains of industry with joie de vivre, Careyes is legendary, as is Casa Dos Estrellas .

Poolside has unique privacy, where you can see most of Careyes, but they can’t see you. Under the broad palapa over multi level rooms and lounges tucked away views connected by winding steps, which lead all the way down to the private beach below.

A spacious master suite features his and hers showers and a further five air-conditionined bedroomsl face the ocean, have spacious bathrooms and walk-in closets. Three of the bedrooms have a Internet hook-up.

The house has a fully equipped gym, fax machine, ping pong table, three kayaks, bocce court, foosball table, billiard table, dart board, and media room with television and satellite hook up, a large library of books, DVDs, VCR cassettes, laser discs, and CDs.

The house is fully staffed with a chef, two maids, gardener, and driver. A local nanny is available at an additional charge and upon request. The driver is at guests’ disposal to take them within the immediate vicinity whenever they wish. And the cook, Irene, is considered one of the area’s best.

There is one of the most beautiful golf courses in the world 40 minutes away, and tennis courts are available at the Hotel Careyes, which is just down the road. A quaint, small restaurant sits on the beach near the hotel.

http://www.lapuntarealty.com/dosestrellas/

 It is important to keep in mind that there have been NO confirmed cases of swine flu in Jalisco.

The US Embassy in Mexico City has issued a new health alert for all US citizens traveling to or living in Mexico.

It advises citizens to stockpile two weeks of food and emergency supplies.

The complete message is below.

The US Consuate General in Guadalajara told the Guadalajara Reporter that no specific guidelines are being issued for the western part of the country including the tourist Meccas of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.  For a direct link to the article, click here. 

The consulate in Guadalajara is closed to the public for visas but is open to provide emergency assistance.  They are also processing passport and citizen applications, according to the Guadalajara Reporter.

For my most recent post on the risks of traveling to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, click here.

For more information, click here, for an article on the Jalisco governor’s press conferenece from the English language newspaper, the Guadalajara Reporter.   The cities of Puerto Vallarta and Guadaljara are in the Mexican State of Jalisco. 

 It is important to keep in mind that there have been NO confirmed cases of swine flu in Jalisco.

Click here for the latest advice from  the US Consulate in Guadalajara.

The fears over swine flu have turned the resort town of Puerto Vallarta into a virtual ghost town.  Bars and most restaurants have shut down.   A former Chicago TV reporter who know lives in Puerto Vallarta recently reported on the scene there.  For that story, click here.

For my previous post on Puerto Vallarta’s bars being shut down, click here.

For my earlier post on the risk of swine flu in the Mexican State of Jalisco which includes Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, click here.

 This information is current as of today, Wed Apr 29 21:59:20 2009.

Mexico – 2009-H1N1 Influenza

April 28, 2009

The Department of State alerts U.S. citizens of the health risks of travel to Mexico at this time due to an outbreak of 2009-H1N1 influenza (“swine flu).” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 27 issued a notice recommending that American citizens avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico at this time. CDC’s notice also suggests precautions that travelers and U.S. citizen residents in Mexico can take to reduce their risk of infection while in Mexico, provides recommendations for those who must travel to an area where cases of 2009-H1N1 influenza have been reported, and recommends measures travelers should take following their return from an area that has reported cases of 2009-H1N1 influenza. The complete CDC notice can be found at the following link:  http://www.cdc.gov/travel/. Please check this site frequently for updates. This Travel Alert replaces the Travel Alert dated April 27, 2009 and provides updated information on closings of schools and commercial venues in Mexico and U.S. consular operations throughout Mexico. This Travel Alert will be reviewed and updated as necessary, and is valid until further notice.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Alert and Response Network (GOARN), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent experts to Mexico to work with health authorities.

The Government of Mexico has announced that as a precautionary measure, all schools throughout Mexico from kindergarten through university level will remain closed until May 6. All government-sponsored events involving large crowds have also been canceled, and museums and most tourist attractions are closed. During an April 28 press conference, the Mayor of Mexico City announced that all establishments where large numbers of the public gather will be closed, including restaurants, bars, discos, night clubs, movie theaters, gyms, and convention centers. The Archdiocese of Mexico City has also closed Catholic churches for services.

Effective April 28, all nonimmigrant visa operations at all consular posts in Mexico will be suspended until May 6. American citizen services are restricted to passports and Consular Reports of Birth Abroad and emergency services. Please refer to Embassy Mexico’s web page at http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/main.html  for the latest information on closings and service reductions. Immigrant visa appointments in Ciudad Juarez will be cancelled for the week of May 4th. Further information on rescheduling visa appointments is available on Ciudad Juarez’s web page at  http://ciudadjuarez.usconsulate.gov/

The U.S. Embassy reminds U.S. citizens in Mexico that most cases of influenza are not 2009-H1N1 influenza. Any specific questions or concerns about flu or other illnesses should be directed to a medical professional. Mexico City medical authorities are urging people to avoid hospitals and clinics unless they have a medical emergency, since hospitals can be centers of infection; instead, those with health concerns are encouraged to stay home and call their physicians to avoid potential exposure. Although the U.S. Embassy cannot give medical advice or provide medical services to the public, a list of hospitals and doctors can be found on our website at the following links: http://mexico.usembassy.gov/sacs_medical_info.html  (Spanish)
http://mexico.usembassy.gov/eng/eacs_medical_info.html   (English)

For additional information, please consult the State Department’s website at www.travel.state.gov, the CDC website at www.cdc.gov , or the website of the World Health Organization at www.who.int . The U.S.-based call center for U.S. citizens can be reached at  1-888-407-4747  from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time, Monday through Friday, , or if calling from outside the U.S., at  (202)-501-4444  . The U.S. Embassy will post additional information as it becomes available at: www.usembassy-mexico.gov . American citizens traveling or residing overseas are encouraged to register with the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate on the State Department’s travel registration website at https://travelregistration.state.gov/ .

For any emergencies involving U.S. citizens in Mexico, please contact the closest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The U.S. Embassy is located in Mexico City at Paseo de la Reforma 305, Colonia Cuauhtemoc, telephone from the United States: 011-52-55-5080-2000; telephone within Mexico City: 5080-2000; telephone long distance within Mexico 01-55-5080-2000. You may also contact the Embassy by e-mail at: ccs@usembassy.net.mx . The Embassy’s internet address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/ .

Consulates:

Ciudad Juarez: Paseo de la Victoria 3650, tel.  (52)(656) 227-3000  . http://ciudadjuarez.usconsulate.gov
Guadalajara: Progreso 175, telephone (52)(333) 268-2100. http://guadalajara.usconsulate.gov
Hermosillo: Avenida Monterrey 141, telephone  (52)(662) 289-3500  . http://hermosillo.usconsulate.gov
Matamoros: Avenida Primera 2002, telephone  (52)(868) 812-4402  . http://matamoros.usconsulate.gov
Merida: Calle 60 no. 338 k, telephone  (52)(999) 942-5700  . http://merida.usconsulate.gov
Monterrey: Avenida Constitucion 411 Poniente, telephone (52)(818) 047-3100. http://monterrey.usconsulate.gov
Nogales: Calle San Jose, Nogales, Sonora, telephone  (52)(631) 311-8150  . http://nogales.usconsulate.gov
Nuevo Laredo: Calle Allende 3330, col. Jardin, telephone  (52)(867) 714-0512  . http://nuevolaredo.usconsulate.gov/
Tijuana: Tapachula 96, telephone  (52)(664) 622-7400  . http://tijuana.usconsulate.gov/service.html

Consular Agencies:

Acapulco: Hotel Continental Emporio, Costera Miguel Aleman 121 – local 14, telephone  (52)(744) 484-0300  or  (52)(744) 469-0556  .
Cabo San Lucas: Blvd. Marina local c-4, Plaza Nautica, col. Centro, telephone  (52)(624) 143-3566  .
Cancún: Plaza Caracol two, second level, no. 320-323, Boulevard Kukulcan, km. 8.5, Zona Hotelera, telephone  (52)(998) 883-0272  .
Ciudad Acuña: Ocampo # 305, col. Centro, telephone  (52)(877) 772-8661 
Cozumel: Plaza Villa Mar en el Centro, Plaza Principal, (Parque Juárez between Melgar and 5th ave.) 2nd floor, locales #8 and 9, telephone  (52)(987) 872-4574  .
Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo: Hotel Fontan, Blvd. Ixtapa, telephone  (52)(755) 553-2100  .
Mazatlán: Hotel Playa Mazatlán, Playa Gaviotas #202, Zona Dorada, telephone  (52)(669) 916-5889  .
Oaxaca: Macedonio Alcalá no. 407, interior 20, telephone  (52)(951) 514-3054   (52)(951) 516-2853  .
Piedras Negras: Abasolo #211, Zona Centro, Piedras Negras, Coah., Tel. (878) 782-5586.
Playa del Carmen: “The Palapa,” Calle 1 Sur, between Avenida 15 and Avenida 20, telephone  (52)(984) 873-0303  .
Puerto Vallarta: Paradise Plaza, Paseo de los Cocoteros #1, Local #4, Interior #17, Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, telephone  (52)(322) 222-0069  .
Reynosa: Calle Monterrey #390, Esq. Sinaloa, Colonia Rodríguez, telephone:  (52)(899) 923 - 9331 
San Luis Potosí: Edificio “Las Terrazas”, Avenida Venustiano Carranza 2076-41, Col. Polanco, telephone: (52)(444) 811-7802/7803.
San Miguel de Allende: Dr. Hernandez Macias #72, telephone  (52)(415) 152-2357  or  (52)(415) 152-0068 

 Source:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2026-SF-Gay-Travel-Examiner~y2009m4d29-Important-info-on-the-swine-flu-if-you-are-traveling-to-Puerto-Vallarta-or-Guadalajara

Monday, October 13, 2008

Mexican Pacific Coast Tourism Project to Outshine Cancún
By Barnard R. Thompson

The Mexican government has announced a major new tourism development that will stretch along the Pacific Ocean coast of southern Sinaloa – a project that will ultimately be twice the size of Cancún. A master planned tourist area to rival not just Cancún, but too the Riviera Maya that runs along the shores of the Mexican Caribbean. 

President Felipe Calderón, with officials from the Mexican government’s National Trust Fund for Tourism Development (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, or Fonatur), made the announcement at the September 29 opening of the Fonatur sponsored Mexican Real Estate and Tourism Investment Expo, in Mexico City.

Provisionally called the Pacific Coast Integrally Planned Center, infrastructure work is scheduled to begin during the first half of 2009, with the final stage of the phased developments to be completed by 2025. This in much the same way that other Fonatur master planned seaside resorts, such as Cancún, Los Cabos, Ixtapa, Loreto and the Bays of Huatulco, have been done.

The 5,884 acre [9.2 square miles] Pacific Coast CIP will be in the midst of the Sinaloa National Wetlands, in part on the near 5,000 acre Rancho Las Cabras, owned by former Sinaloa governor Antonio Toledo Corro. The area is 80 miles south of Mazatlán and west of the Mexico Highway 15 town of Escuinapa, in the municipality of the same name. On land between the Pacific Ocean and lagoons and marshes known as the Laguna Agua Grande, the area will include 7.5 miles of beaches between the villages of Isla del Bosque and Teacapán to the south on the State of Nayarit border.

The coastal area is well known locally for its beauty and tranquility. Slightly inland from the coast, the estuaries, lagoons and mangrove stands are surrounded by palm and tropical flora filled valleys, with a notable abundance of birds and migratory waterfowl. Deer, mountain lions and peccary, among other animals, are found in the area.

And fishing is big in the region, commercial fishing (and shrimp farming), and of course sportfishing. Several species of protected sea turtles come to area beaches, and at sea among the many species found are billfish, humpback whales and white sharks.

Of historical significance, there are large oyster shell mounds near Teacapán that experts say were harvested by indigenous peoples living in the area as long as 4,000 years ago.

The investment by the Mexican government is to be around MX$5 billion pesos [US$465 million as of September 29], according to President Calderón (who made the announcement before the current worldwide financial crises came to a head, and the anticipated cutbacks). Calderón added that the aforementioned Mexican public sector investment should spark another US$6.638 billion in private national and international investments.

First stage construction costs will be some MX$1.5 billion [US$139 million as of 9/29], according to a Fonatur executive, that will be applied to 988 acres. That first phase is scheduled for completion in 2012.

The President went on to say that the mega-development will ultimately create 78,000 direct and indirect jobs. He also said estimates are that the Pacific Coast CIP will attract nearly 3 million tourists by the year 2025, and US$2.8 billion in foreign exchange.

Once completed the overall complex is to include four golf courses; two marinas for a total of 1,000 vessels; 44,200 hotel rooms (hotels, condominiums, etc.); a five mile beachfront walk; and a light railway. Plus the possibility of a new airport is in the offing (or the small airport at Teacapán could be expanded).

Based on what has been learned from other CIPs, such as Cancún, hotels will not be allowed right on the beach. The required buffer zone will be 300 meters. Hotels will also have a maximum height limit of four stories.

Urban zones and shopping areas will integrate open space shielded by law against construction, as will cultural centers and convention facilities.

Emphasis will be placed on nature and the environment, with 25 percent of the total 5,884 acres dedicated as natural protected areas, acreage that must be devoid of development. Furthermore, 109 acres of the surrounding wetland environs will be kept intact. Regarding the lagoon and marsh areas, visitors will be able to enjoy ecotourism activities via a series of canals and pathways.

As well, Pacific Coast CIP developments will have to meet marine and land area environmental standards and requisites that are included in the 2006 Marine Ecological Ordinance of the Gulf of California Program.

For workers, at least 5,000 homes will be built, along with schools, hospitals and facilities for needed community services.

Water will be provided through three separate systems, wastewater treatment plants will be built, and each hotel will have to install not only rainwater catchment receptacles, but too separate systems for rain and wastewater drainage and control.

On an interconnected regional basis, highway improvements are planned for the stretch of Highway 15 from Mazatlán south to Tepic, Nayarit (and on to Tequila and Guadalajara; or southwest to the Bahía de Banderas-Compostela Tourist Corridor and Puerto Vallarta). Too, the road inland from Mazatlán to Durango is to be improved, all arteries that will give area visitors, among others, easier access to tourist and cultural sites, neighboring cities, mountain regions, archeological zones, and indigenous communities.

And finally, for ocean going visitors, the Pacific Coast CIP is to be in harmony with Fonatur’s Sea of Cortez Plan, the system of Transient Marinas, and the so-called Nautical Staircase.

Barnard Thompson, editor of MexiData.info, has spent 50 years in Mexico and Latin America, providing multinational clients with actionable intelligence; country and political risk reporting and analysis; and business, lobbying, and problem resolution services.

http://www.mexidata.info/id2013.html

Goffredo Marcaccini at his estate in Jalisco, Mexico, where he lives with his wife, Alix Goldsmith. They are opposed to a development project involving two of Mexico’s most powerful families.

RON STODGHILL
The New York Times 

COSTA Alegre, Mexico

CRUISING along the swerving, mountainous roads of Mexico’s western coast, past trees and vines, blue lagoons and scattered wildflowers, Goffredo Marcaccini stops his Jeep and thrusts his head out the window. “Ahhh,” he croons, inhaling the morning air. “The smell of the earth! Nice, like the scent of a woman!”

His reverie is short-lived. Farther along, he encounters roadside debris, including a bright blue Pepsi can. “Modern man,” he says, wincing, “is the cancer of the earth. We are only here to destroy.”

Mr. Marcaccini is a self-described romantic, a naturalist who waxes poetic about mangroves, giant sea turtles and the beauty of parakeets. He is also an heir to the late British corporate raider James Goldsmith, who once lorded over this richly virginal expanse of nature as though it were his own empire.

Since Mr. Goldsmith’s death in 1997, Mr. Marcaccini and his wife, Alix, the daughter of Mr. Goldsmith, have managed the late patriarch’s most prized asset: Cuixmala, a 2,000-acre private estate with several villas on the Pacific that at various times housed Mr. Goldsmith’s three families, mistresses and high-powered visitors including Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

These days, though, there’s trouble brewing on Cuixmala, which is nestled inside the 32,473-acre Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, a rolling expanse of federally protected coastal land.

In an effort to expand tourism beyond destinations like Cancún and Puerto Vallarta, Mexican officials recently authorized the development of two resorts in the area. The most controversial project, called Marina Careyes — also referred to as Careyitos — is backed by Roberto Hernández, the powerful Mexican banker and developer who sold his financial services firm to Citigroup six years ago for $12.5 billion. Mr. Hernández’s minority partners are Gian Franco Brignone and his son Giorgio, Italian real estate magnates who relocated to Mexico and built a series of sumptuous properties in the state of Jalisco that made it a magnet for the super-rich.

The result is a pitched battle over land rights between Mr. Goldsmith’s heirs and two of the country’s most powerful families — a clash that sheds light on the fault lines between traditional luxury resort developers who favor golf courses, swimming pools and spas, and a newer breed of conservationist-entrepreneurs who champion eco-resorts where guests hike and canoe for recreation. The standoff smacks of a blood feud with roots going back decades to early land squabbles involving the Goldsmiths and the Brignones.

Political analysts in Mexico say the rift is also one of the first tests of President Felipe Calderón’s commitment to the environment. Elected last November, Mr. Calderón has earned some kudos from environmental groups for recently enacting a wildlife protection law, which prohibits activities that may damage Mexico’s coastal mangroves. At the same time, analysts say he is certain to face pressure from Mexico’s powerful tourism industry, which generates billions of dollars in revenue for the country but has also caused once-scenic coastlines to become clotted with megaresorts.

“We still need time to see how committed he his,” said Cecilia Navarro, a spokeswoman for Greenpeace Mexico, an environmental advocacy group. “He needs to keep firm, because we know that a businessman like Mr. Hernández has a lot of power.”

However the conflict at Cuixmala plays out, all of the parties involved are well aware of the influence they have — or don’t have — on the outcome. “Daddy would have had so much leverage in this,” Alix Goldsmith says. “He would have had prominent people in politics, environmental groups, scientists, artists signing a petition to the Mexican president asking for the law to be followed. But that’s why we have to be careful; here in Mexico, compared to a guy like Roberto Hernández, we’re nothing. Nobody knows Goffredo Marcaccini or Alix Goldsmith.”

Mr. Marcaccini’s assessment is more cynical. “This is the classic case of a civil society up against a manipulating government,” he asserts. “Anyone who tries to speak out here in Mexico is crushed like a mosquito.”

Mr. Hernández’s partners say that they are ecologically sensitive developers and that the first family of Cuixmala simply doesn’t want outsiders to encroach on its private enclave. Others, too, have said that Mr. Marcaccini and Ms. Goldsmith might be concerned about something other than their mangroves.

“The ecological policies in Mexico are being manipulated by private family interests,” said Octavio González Reyes, a columnist who covers tourism for the area’s newspaper, El Occidental, in Guadalajara. “This fight is all about economic interests, not the environment. What the Goldsmiths are interested in protecting is their own private emporium.”

ITS name inspired by the small former port town of Chamela and the powerful Cuixmala River snaking through the region, the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is one of the most studied tropical dry forests in the world. During the transition from the dry to the rainy season, its lowland forest morphs from a muted gray to a lush green, and it attracts scientists who study its special flora and fauna. With the exception of federally owned lagoons and coasts, land within the reserve is mostly in private hands.

Members of the Brignone family own about 2,500 acres, but the reserve’s most influential owner has been the Cuixmala Ecological Foundation, which Mr. Goldsmith created in 1988 to preserve the area surrounding his estate. Mr. Goldsmith’s family owns about 25,000 acres in and around the reserve, Mr. Marcaccini said.

Marina Careyes would be about one mile from the biosphere, a location that Mr. Marcaccini, Ms. Goldsmith and their allies say raises the risk of destroying the fragile ecosystem that supports the area’s tropical dry forest. The resort’s opponents also say that it would violate governmental restrictions protecting the area’s environment.

Mr. Marcaccini spreads his accusations more broadly, contending that officials in former President Vicente Fox’s administration clandestinely authorized development in the waning days of his administration to avoid public scrutiny. Such approvals typify the culture of corruption and political patronage plaguing Mexico’s government and businesses, Mr. Marcaccini says, and he contends that Marina Careyes is another example of the problem.

Mauricio Limón Aguirre, a deputy director at Semarnat, the environmental regulatory arm of the Mexican government, says the approval process for Marina Careyes was fair and transparent. “In order for us to know whether these allegations are true or not, they have to prove that the authorizations were made illegally,” says Mr. Aguirre, whose staff also reviewed the development plans during the Fox administration. “Otherwise we presume that the act of authority is legal.”

The developers of Marina Careyes have argued that their plans are modest. They say the 215-room hotel, 40 villas and nearly 200 homes will have a minor impact on the environment. They also say the project will bring jobs to an area sorely in need of them. For their part, the Brignones say that they are only minority partners in the Marina Careyes project and that they have more significant holdings elsewhere. But they say they will support only environmentally responsible resort development.

“Nowadays, when you talk about marinas and golf courses, you look like a monster,” Giorgio Brignone says. “But in order to keep this country alive, we need to create tourism.”

José Bosoms, the son-in-law of Mr. Hernández, and general manager of the proposed resort, agrees: “This is an area of Mexico that still has a future. What we plan to build is not like in Cancún, which is full of high-density projects — we are doing something extremely conservative in development.”

IN Roberto Hernández, the Brignones have one of Mexico’s wealthiest and most influential businessmen as a partner. After becoming a dominant figure in Mexico’s securities markets in the 1980s, Mr. Hernández, now 65, became a leading bidder for state-owned banks that Mexico was privatizing.

In 1991, he and a group of fellow investors bought a controlling stake in Banamex, the country’s biggest bank. Ten years later, Citigroup bought the Banacci financial group, a holding company that controlled Banamex, for $12.5 billion. Mexican financial analysts said at the time that Mr. Hernández and his family owned at least half of Banacci’s shares.

Marina Careyes is among several resorts that Mr. Hernández has helped to develop. In the mid-1990s, Banamex became an investor in a highflying tourism company, Situr, which opened a chain of glitzy hotels, beach resorts, time shares, marinas and golf courses throughout Latin America and the Caribbean that later encountered financial troubles. Among its properties was one in Puerto Vallarta: the 549-acre Marina Vallarta resort, which has a marina flanked by international hotels.

Mr. Hernández declined to be interviewed, but his firm says that Marina Careyes is a minor development for him. His officials say it will be just a small, boutique hotel, aimed at upscale travelers, that will have a marina for boats, beach clubs and infrastructure for roads and water, drainage and sewage systems.

Still, in recent weeks, a nonprofit environmental organization that Mr. Marcaccini leads, Consejo Para la Defensa de la Costa del Pacífico, has started an aggressive grass-roots campaign against the resort. The group, founded by the Goldsmith family in 1993, says the resort will spoil an area that it says is home to 1,200 species of plants, 270 species of birds and a rich variety of mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

“You cut one ring in the chain and the whole thing goes,” Mr. Marcaccini says. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand this.”

Cuixmala, which is on a rolling landscape of forested cliffs three hours south of Puerto Vallarta, its pastel-hued villas overlooking the white beaches and high surf of the Pacific, was built to impress. It took Mr. Goldsmith several years to amass enough land to create his paradise, which includes La Loma, his blue-and-gold domed retreat inspired by a maharaja’s palace, as well as the estate’s other villas and casitas that family and friends used.

Manned by armed security guards and employing a staff of 250 workers that cook, clean, and tend to an organic farm that produces meals for the estate, Cuixmala functions with medieval pomp and efficiency. A few years ago, the Goldsmiths began renting some of Cuixmala’s villas for $9,000 to $15,000 a night. Bill Gates, Madonna, Mick Jagger and other luminaries have vacationed there, Mr. Marcaccini says.

While gazing at palm trees and brush where zebras, gazelles and wild boars roam, Alix Goldsmith recalls an earlier time when there were no power lines and sewage systems around her home and when recreation meant polo matches, horseback riding and partying by bonfires with other families along the beach.

“It wasn’t about technology back then, or Prada handbags and high heels, and that’s what was so great about this area,” says Mrs. Goldsmith, 43, the daughter of Mr. Goldsmith’s second wife, Ginette Lery. “Daddy used to drive 45 minutes to make his business calls. The first time I heard a ringing telephone here, I was terrified.”

DURING the 1970s, Mr. Goldsmith was among a group of European business moguls and royalty who followed the lead of the well-connected Italian developer Gian Franco Brignone and began vacationing along the secluded beaches of Careyes. Nearly a decade earlier, Mr. Brignone, along with a group of Mexican and European partners, bought several thousand acres. In 1972, he sold a tract of land to Club Med, and later built a small luxury hotel and several lavish homes that would become a tropical backdrop for Christie Brinkley photo shoots and Calvin Klein advertisements.

Among Mr. Brignone’s most famous properties was Mi Ojo, which, according to the book about the history of the area, “The Magic of Careyes,” published by the Brignone family’s foundation, boasted “huge guano-palm palapas without walls or windows, supported by guayabillo wood columns and trunks of the tallest trees in the jungle.”

“The main bedroom is shaped like a ship’s prow,” the book says. “The house also features a 70-meter swinging bridge that crosses high above the ocean to the summit of a rocky island surrounded by cliffs, teeming with plant life and with a palm-tree temple in the middle.”

The book also says that “Careyes was then what it remains today, a place inhabited by famous people (representing 42 different nationalities) and dominated by a patriarch.”

Among those patriarchs — and one with whom Mr. Brignone would eventually clash — was Mr. Goldsmith, who built a fortune acquiring and breaking up companies and gained a reputation as a buccaneer. By the 1980s, he was using his wealth to help pioneer what became known as greenmailing — the practice of accumulating large stakes in troubled companies and selling the stock back to the company at a premium, a strategy practiced by other notable raiders of the day. Mr. Goldsmith’s controversial raid of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in 1986 spawned Congressional hearings about hostile takeovers. Mr. Goldsmith later ventured into British politics and made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the House of Commons; he died in 1997.

His sybaritic side is most evident in Careyes, which not only became the bully pulpit for his work as a conservationist during the twilight of his career, but also was the backdrop of a colorful private life. Through marriages and affairs, he had eight children in families living in his British, French and Mexican homes. “When you marry your lover, a new vacancy is immediately created,” he liked to say.

Mr. Marcaccini says that his father-in-law “was a larger-than-life character,” adding: “Even after his marriage ended, he would still keep the woman around him. His feeling was: ‘Even though you are my ex, you are still the mother of my children.’ ”

Mr. Goldsmith’s first wife, the daughter of a Bolivian tin magnate, died when she was seven months pregnant. Doctors managed to save the Goldsmiths’ baby, Isabel, before her mother died. Isabel’s inheritances from her grandfather included Las Alamandas, a stretch of land north of Careyes. Later, Mr. Goldsmith built Cuixmala nearby.

“My father-in-law had a clear idea of what he wanted, which was to find a place with clean water, clear air and good soil to build a house for his family and friends,” Mr. Marcaccini says. “Then he realized the importance of the area ecologically and he started to buy more and more land for conservation purposes.”

Although Mr. Goldsmith and Mr. Brignone were once friends, the two began feuding shortly after Mr. Goldsmith built Cuixmala. The rift started in the late 1980s, when Mr. Brignone began building an elaborate home along the beach with three towers of alternating heights that flanked a fan-shaped swimming pool and a living room. Mr. Goldsmith lived on the same beach and complained that the towers blocked his sight line.

“Our house was like five miles away,” Giorgio Brignone recalls. “When your house faces every direction, of course you’re going to see something in your view.”

According to both families, the patriarchs did not speak for several years, and relations between their families became strained. The situation worsened in 1992, when Mr. Goldsmith became a vocal proponent of environmental issues. Some questioned whether this was a matter of convenience, offering him a way to ensure the privacy and exclusivity of his Mexican estate; others say his brother, a conservationist who publishes an environmental magazine, prompted Mr. Goldsmith’s conversion.

Whatever the reason, Mr. Goldsmith won government approval in the mid-1990s to designate the majority of the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere as protected land, a move that prevented further development near his estate.

As part of the pact, Mr. Goldsmith created the Cuixmala Ecological Foundation, a nonprofit group, which, along with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, promotes conservation of tropical ecosystems on the Jalisco coast. As the original developers of the area and friends of the Goldsmiths, the Brignones viewed the move as a betrayal because it froze any further development of lands inside the reserve.

“The process of the creation of the Reserve Chamela-Cuixmala was very painful for the Costa Careyes original and actual developers as it affected large parts of our assets — very valuable coastal land — with no compensation or recognition,” Giorgio Brignone says. “But we do recognize that having a natural reserve in its vicinity is a very important part of Careyes’s future, and we value that just as we always have.”

Mr. Brignone’s view of the dispute with opponents is less forgiving. “The common feeling is that there are more urgent matters to defend around the existing coastal developments of Mexico and in the area where no positive presence has been felt in more than 16 years when the last resort was developed,” he says. “This area needs to evolve.”

IN a high-rise in Mexico City, officials at Semarnat, the Mexican environmental regulatory agency, unfurl a large map of the Jalisco coast and spread it across a desk. Mr. Aguirre, the agency official, places a finger on the proposed site of Marina Careyes.

“As you can see, this project is not inside the area of the biosphere reserve, which is a very important point,” he says. “There is more than a mile between the reserve and the project.”

Mr. Aguirre said that despite protests by Mr. Marcaccini, Ms. Goldsmith and other opponents of the Hernández project, the proposed development meets regulatory standards. Under the law, tourism is allowed within the reserve in what is known as the transition area (where the Goldsmith estate is located), but not in the reserve’s so-called nucleus zone.

“We as Semarnat cannot evaluate whether this is good for Mexico, or for the economy of Mexico, but only whether this project will disrupt the environment in an acceptable way,” Mr. Aguirre says.

If Marina Careyes opens it doors, it will be the latest addition to one of Mexico’s most lucrative industries. According to the country’s department of tourism, Mexico hauled in more than $12 billion last year from 21 million visitors.

Part of the problem, says Georgio Brignone, is that few of those dollars flowed into the secluded and sparsely populated Chamela-Cuixmala region.

“Not one single village has a paved road, potable water or treatment plant,” he says. “This kind of stand-still situation cannot be justified anymore.”

But some conservationists contend that Jalisco coast could attract low-impact, environmentally friendly tourism by building so-called eco-resorts like the Ecolodge in Costa Rica. The Ecolodge is situated in a 1,000-acre private nature reserve in a lowland tropical rain forest; guests sleep in bungalows, and recreation — centered around the rain forest and the nearby ocean — includes hiking, bird watching and kayaking.

Similar lodges, increasingly popular among families, can be found in Panama, Ecuador, Chile and Peru, said Héctor Ceballos-Lascuráin, an eco-tourism consultant and environmental architect in Mexico City.

“Foreign tourists are spending $250 to $300 per night at these places, and they are located in or on the border of protected areas,” he says. “But Mexico is promoting the same mass beach tourism. These public servants here don’t understand what eco-tourism is about. I have given up on talking to them.”

Mr. Marcaccini says he believes that the Hernández project will allow other resorts to be built near the biosphere reserve, tipping the ecological balance there. He notes that in 1992, the developers succeeded in building the El Tamarindo Golf Resort, a swank oceanside facility 40 minutes south of the reserve with a 2,000-acre golf course and several villas with private swimming pools and Jacuzzis.

Indeed, Semarnat recently authorized a group of other developers to build another golf resort, La Tambora, just north of the Hernández project. La Tambora will spread across 1,684 acres and will feature an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, a 100-room boutique hotel, three beach clubs, a wedding facility, a new airplane hangar, a helicopter pad and horse stables.

Mr. Marcaccini has the same withering view of La Tambora that he has of Marina Careyes: “It will be like a vampire sucking up all the resources.” And he says he believes that Marina Careyes is opening a door to development run amok in the biosphere. “This world will become one giant garbage can one day,” he says.

Ms. Goldsmith, sitting by her pool, slices into a mound of fresh mozzarella cheese from her estate’s organic farm, and opines on La Tambora and Marina Careyes.

“It’s greed, greed and more greed,” she says. “This, at a time when everybody knows what’s going in the world with climate change and how important it is to keep the trees. I mean, what’s more important to us, the environment or some stupid golf?”

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/yourmoney/20resort.html

A sunset cocktail party at Costa Careyes, a laid-back luxury getaway in Mexico favored by many celebrities.

By JULIA CHAPLIN
Published: September 24, 2006

THE sun was setting above Costa Careyes, a luxury development on the Pacific coast of Mexico, and as it lowered into the foam-capped sea, its light was refracted through a massive, puzzling structure on the dunes that looked like Freddy Kruger’s knifelike finger nails.

Among the accommodations are colorful casitas. The out-there creation — actually the beginnings of a giant sculpture of an upturned hand — was that of Gian Franco Brignone, the eccentric Italian-born financier and artist who founded this exclusive beach community in the late 1960’s. He had invited two dozen or so guests, who now stood obediently with their margaritas on his terrace, to watch the quasi-spiritual spectacle.

“Say goodbye!” ordered Mr. Brignone, 80, waving a carved tree branch and wearing a long caftan. “Say goodbye to the sun.”

Such was a typical early evening cocktail hour in Careyes, well known among jet-set internationals and fashion-world inhabitants but hardly, it seems, by anyone else. Which, of course, is the point for frequenters like Giorgio Armani, Francis Ford Coppola, Uma Thurman and Heidi Klum and Seal, who own a villa here.

A laid-back, word-of-mouth alternative to hard-charging party spots like St.-Tropez or Punta del Este, Careyes is small (there are only 42 villas, 40 casitas and one hotel — El Careyes Beach Resort) and conspicuous consumption is considered déclassé. There is no marina for yacht envy, nor an airstrip, and not only are there no designer boutiques and glitzy nightclubs, there’s not even a town.

The crowd here tends to be young, or young at heart, wealthy and on the make. During the Christmas-to-Easter polo season — yes, there’s an up-to-date polo facility, a big draw for European and South American playboy types — lavish dinner and cocktail parties unfold in the villas, which rent for up to $6,000 a night for their infinity pools, sprawling thatched roofs and open-air living areas with steep cliff-side views instead of doors or windows.

The parties often stretch into the wee hours, with well-dressed revelers plunging into the pools, hot tubs or the silk-textured ocean. (The mysterious invitations to these late-night gatherings arrive via the house managers who do double duty as blue-chip social connectors.) As at a surrealist country club, after several nights of these boozy fetes you still have no idea what these people do in the real world, and it’s considered bad form, after all, to make such direct inquiries. Which was why when I visited last January, I kept racing to the computer at my hotel’s business center to Google my new best friends. If only the Internet had existed during Gatsby’s time!

View from the roof of Casa Dos Estrellas - Overlooking the cove featuring the Careyes Hotel, Casitas de las Flores, Jardines del Mar and Casa Mi Ojo in the Distance

“Careyes draws a very affluent international crowd, but they are more attuned to aesthetics then status,” said Tim Parsa, a businessman and writer in his 30’s who lives in Mexico City and Manhattan and goes to Careyes for the polo. He was perched in a shaded corner of the beach typing a screenplay on a laptop one recent morning. “Here people aren’t overwrought with that aggressive pursuit of a good time,” he added.

Mr. Brignone developed Careyes as a leisure-class utopia where social standing would be measured by eccentricity and caftans, not big yachts and golf courses. He discovered the eight-mile stretch of land on a tip from a friend, Antenor Patino, the Bolivian tin baron who developed Las Hadas, the luxury resort featured in the movie “10.” Mr. Brignone commissioned architects like Marco Aldaco and Diego Villasenor to build a handful of brightly painted, whimsical Mexican-Mediterranean-style bungalows. One villa, Casa Mi Ojo, in homage to Mr. Brignone’s missing left eye, has a hanging bridge suspended 90 feet above the ocean that leads to a little island and a huge eye carved into the side wall with a pupil that doubles as a peephole window.

Mr. Brignone’s well-heeled European friends, including the Fiat scion Gianni Agnelli, Egon Von Furstenberg and the billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith came to visit, and soon the word spread.

(Sir James bought land down the coast in the mid-1980’s and set up his own private Xanadu called Cuixmala for his extended clan and guests, who included Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan. He died in 1997, and Cuixmala is now run by his daughter, Alix Marcaccini, as a 32,473-acre biosphere reserve and an exclusive estate-and-breakfast, where guests like Madonna and Mick Jagger rent out the apocalypse-proof Indian-themed palace, La Loma, for $9,000 to $15,000 a night.)

A few more villas have been added at Careyes over the years, but you still rarely see another car or person on the cobblestone streets that laze past the lushly planted mansionesque villas with names like Parasol and Candelabro. Strolling on the beach one warm starlit night, my traveling companion and I happened upon a dinner given by Ms. Marcaccini. A long table for 40 lighted by torches and sprinkled with bougainvillea and copa de oro had been set up on the main beach by the charming pink and thatched Italian restaurant that’s the nexus of the social scene. Both beach and restaurant are named
Playa Rosa

The guests, a whirl of slender shoulders draped in shawls, clinked glasses of red wine and margaritas in a scene that could easily have been airlifted in from a fashion show afterparty in New York or London. They included the model Jacquetta Wheeler, the English fashion designer Alice Temperly, the actress Minnie Driver and the actor Danny Huston.

“Celebrities like it here because it’s private, and there’s no paparazzi,” said Viviana Dean, who manages several of the villas. “People looking for a glitzy, loud vacation tend not to want to come here anyway. ”

During the day the best eye candy is at the Playa Rosa beach, which plays out like a jet-set version of “Gilligan’s Island.” Just-rolled-out-of-bed guests begin to show up around noon and lounge on the straw mats strewn about on a lush green lawn shaded by big stately palms. Sun chairs, umbrellas and jet skis are not allowed by Mr. Brignone. I didn’t see a single pair of designer sunglasses or logo beach totes. Instead the statement tended toward a label-free array of exotic muumuus and wraps that looked like they were from far-flung medinas and bazaars.

At lunchtime, groups slipping into and out of English, French, Spanish and Italian pulled up to tables under a shaded patio at the restaurant and ordered delicate salads, ceviche and half portions of risotto. The very rich often don’t carry cash so the restaurant’s manager, Augusto, is always forgiving bottles of Pellegrino and margaritas, especially for bikinied women.

There are several little rocky islands that are close enough to the beach to swim to. We were told that one had a human nest built by the Sky Cries Mary singer-turned-sculptor Roderick Romero, who fashions elaborate tree houses for clients who have included Donna Karan and Sting. We decided to swim out, but as we made our way through the clear warm water, we were intercepted midway by some handsome men in a Zodiac outboard who invited us for drinks and backgammon aboard their boat followed by a helicopter ride over the area.

After a few days, we had stopped being surprised by such idyllic social encounters. It was just another day as usual in Careyes.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/travel/24next.html