Hidden Treasure

Mexico’s most revered architect designs a remote family hideaway in Careyes.

text by: Nancy A. Ruhling

July 1, 2005

It was another Aldaco-designed home that first enchanted Triton’s owner, prompting him to build the two villas. “I was spending the weekend there on business with friends,” he says. “I saw the house, which had been designed by Aldaco, under a full moon, when it was raining. And I fell in love instantly.
 
I decided at that time that if I ever do something here, I would do it with Aldaco. He’s more artist than architect.”

The pair of houses, which are set in a protected wilderness area and are surrounded by a huge garden overflowing with more than 300 cacti and some 1,000 bougainvillea, are virtually cut off from the world; Careyes is the only notable locale between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo. The only other place in the vicinity that offers a semblance of civilization is a postage-stamp of a village called Zapata that is so tiny, you wouldn’t find it unless you were looking. (Click image to enlarge)
 
“It’s a great place to be quiet,” the owner says, adding that the residents, like the careyes (another word for turtle), can shut themselves up in their own shells if they so desire. “I’ve traveled a lot, and it’s one of the most impressive places on the sea that I know.  You’re out of the world. Once I’m there, I forget about everything else.”

Marco Aldaco
+52.33.3642.66.64
maldaco@cybercable.net.mx

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