Royal Lineage, a Divorce, a Bolivian Mining Fortune and the CostAlegre Jane Custer - Travel Pulse
go to original August 10, 2015

Photo by Greg Custer

Walking through Guadalajara’s open-air antiques market “El Trocadero” on a recent Sunday, I happened across a 1990 issue of Architectural Digest. The cover photo of smooth pastel stucco and tropical foliage featured Las Alamandas, a tony resort associated with two families that have shaped a giant swath of Mexico’s Pacific region.

I took the magazine as a sign. My husband and I had just driven from Puerto Vallarta south to Manzanillo, passing Las Alamandas and through the elusive and shrouded CostAlegre. I decided to do some research about this stretch of Mexican shore. What I found reveals a region shaped by the caprices of European Royalty, an epic divorce, a Bolivian mining fortune, and zeal to protect a tropical wilderness few have experienced.

Exiting Banderas Bay en route to Manzanillo, the CostAlegre (or Happy Coast), comprises a 280-kilometer (174 mile) stretch of mountains, valleys and rivers. Civilization’s handprint is mostly restricted to mango, papaya, banana and coconut plantations. Numerous side roads meander west to reveal beaches, bays, lagoons, and tiny fishing villages. For the few fortunate to hold a room reservation, there’s access to some of Mexico’s most opulent homes and boutique resorts.

With all this beauty so close to Puerto Vallarta, it begs the question, “why is there so little development?” Here’s where the whims and family travails of the rich and (not so) famous give Mexico one of the hemisphere’s most unique regions of luxury and protected wilderness.

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