If we talk about enjoying a good vacation, disconnecting and supplying ourselves with vitamins to get back on track, nothing like the colorful paradise of this corner of Mexico.
Sometimes we come up with crazy ideas like enjoying nice weather, exercising, eating well, and getting plenty of sunshine. Sometimes we even come up with the evil idea of diving into calm beaches or beautiful pools. And it is that, more than it weighs on us, enjoying our leisure hours is something as important as working.
Aware of this, at The Luxonomist we do not stop showing you wonderful places where you would surely spend a wonderful vacation. Today we show you a first-rate spiritual paradise. A place where you can enjoy all those crazy ideas and which also has an architecture worthy of admiration that penetrates our retinas for its striking colors, but also for its fantastic adaptation.
Costa Careyes, the paradise of Jalisco
This environment called Costa Careyes is located in the State of Jalisco, more specifically on its coast. Look towards the Pacific Ocean with a rugged and sensational geography, full of abundance and exoticism. Come on, what is commonly called paradise. And it is that it has it all, cliffs that take your breath away, deeply white sand beaches and, to make matters worse, a mild and pleasant climate most of the year.
But let’s not fool ourselves, there is no paradise for people if there is no architecture that makes it habitable and usable. There is no paradise without roofs that shelter us, such as the fantastic tile and thatch roofs, perfect for blending in with the environment, as well as allowing the protection of the interior and avoiding humidity.
Five architects participated in its construction in 1972
Since 1972 the management company has managed to maintain a mystical and spiritual balance with the environment. This link has a lot to do with the use of raw materials from the place for construction, such as stones, which form the paths, terraces and some walls, or wood that serves as carpentry, furniture and porches.
The «father» of the place is an Italian named Gian Franco Brignone, who arrived in Careyes through the dense jungle and envisioned what is today a first-class tourist and residential complex, but with its own marked style. And what great architects who have left their firm, Marco Aldaco, Alberto Mazzoni, Luis Barragán, Diego Villaseñor and Jean Claude Galibert, and many more would have gladly collaborated in the creation of such a unique space.
A complex with paradisiacal beaches and abundant vegetation
What is striking about Careyes’ architecture is its fabulous use of colours. The vibrant and energetic tones stand out from afar, but without damaging the retinas, au contrarie, as the classic would say, they encourage spiritual transit, lengthen the time we dedicate to joy and festivity and help to live moments of leisure.
Today the complex covers 14,000 hectares, with part of its space immersed in the Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve, with white beaches and abundant vegetation. The company offers accommodation ranging from one to four bedrooms, to small or huge villas, most of them on the cliffs. All of them with swimming pools of all types and conditions, many with infinity edges.
Costa Careyes has its own rules
Mysticism is reflected in the names of some of the villas: Sol de Occidente, Sol de Oriente, Casa Selva, Nido de Amor, Tigre del Mar or Mi Ojo, but also in the shapes of the buildings, with edged corners, plants in circular or star-shaped shapes, roofs imitating trees, wooden frames ideal for birds to perch on, or smooth textured areas that reflect the sun in different ways.
The Careyes buildings were built maximizing cross ventilation, so that less use of air conditioning is needed, reverting to an improvement in energy efficiency. Its restaurants and leisure areas are supplied with food from a biodynamic garden that they have set up. Environmental sensitivity joins mysticism, putting residents twelve requirements or obligations, which are not wasted:
- Have will, love and fantasy in your life.
- Knowing that we are all guests of the earth.
- Love for Mexican culture.
- Loving Careyes without knowing why.
- Having experienced life and death; having attended a birth or saying goodbye to a loved one.
- Appreciate the music of the sky, the earth and the sea, feel the silence of the spaces.
- Admire the sunrise and sunset.
- Having loved an animal.
- Knowing that one is born alone and dies alone.
- Having had unrequited love.
- Having cried for others and not just for oneself.
- Knowing how to appreciate happy moments and see the good side of life’s challenges.
A rest and wellness center in paradise
But wellness is an inalienable way of life, so users of the facilities are also offered yoga classes facing the sea, a Spa treatment in their villas or meditation sessions in El Careyes. The best, without a doubt, is a new space called Copa del Sol, a concave structure into which people can enter and which works as a portal for cosmic energies.
The impressive cup is located on a cliff and there are Sonotherapy or Sound Healing sessions, a truly charming space. Its construction ended in 2006, turning the reinforced concrete structure into an identity symbol of Careyes. Its diameter is 27 meters and the interior is accessed by stairs located in its center, and the upper box by a staircase with 27 steps. And yes, it also seems to me a space worth visiting and enjoying.
*Photos courtesy of Careyes