US Airways - February 2013 - (Page 47)

Costa Careyes On my first morning at Careyes, I wake at dawn with the sky changing from deep lavender to pink over the Pacific. I drive down to the resort’s turtle sanctuary at the far end of a two-milelong beach. With the help of the sanctuary’s caretaker, I release dozens of sea turtles smaller than the palm of my hand. The soft hatchlings waddle boldly down the steep sand toward four-foot, beach-breaking waves. I wouldn’t dip my toe into that surf, but these little guys plunge headlong like children toward a slip-andslide. Most of them make it. The experience is an inspiring, unforgettable scene of raw survival, leaving me, of course, feeling lazy, timid, and extremely tall. So I go for a jog down the beach just as a team of polo horses is released to run bareback. I plod along as the glistening beasts thunder 50 yards from me on their routine run, a regimen to keep them in shape for the resort’s polo matches. I spend the rest of the morning lounging horizontally, first on the tiny crescent beach surrounded by rock walls and then floating on my back in the turquoise water of the protected bay. At lunch I meet Giorgio Brignone, the son of Gian Franco Brignone, the Turin-born artist and entrepreneur who created Costa Careyes in 1968. The elder Brignone discovered this stretch of rare coast from an airplane. He wanted to build an imaginative resort in a land of year-round perfect weather. The coast near the southern border of Jalisco state has a Mediterranean-like climate with a touch of Mexican heat. Gian Franco still lives on the property, in a castle-like home he built away from the rental villas and hotel. His son is more the face of Costa Careyes, and he looks the part: tan and lean in designer white jeans, the middle-aged Giorgio could be a model for a European polo shoot. He points over the water, toward the resort’s flagship home, Casa Mi Ojo, which is perched atop a hundred-foot cliff. A swinging rope bridge connects the home to a tiny tower of an island just off the coast. Mi Ojo epitomizes the Brignone aesthetic that has attracted fashion shoots, celebrities, and dignitaries to this remote enclave of high design and wild nature, a place where white stucco walls curve gracefully and everything seems to flow together. Gian Franco’s vision evolved into more villas that now dot the hillsides above the sweeping curves of the property’s private beaches. He was a usairwaysmag.com february 2013 47 http://www.usairwaysmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of US Airways - February 2013

US Airways - February 2013
Table of Contents
CEO Letter
From the Editor
Did You Know?
Making It Happen
Hot Spots: Best Literary Pilgrimages
Wine & Dine: Top Chefs on This Year's Trends
Wine & Dine: Comfort Food
Great Escapes: Secret Mexican Hideaways
Adventure: Best Hikes in the Valley of the Sun
Gear Up: Romantic Gestures
Destination 48: Phoenix
Travel Feature: La Magnifica Costa del Pacifico
US Airways Feature: Sky-High Sips
Best of Living: Scottsdale Saddles Up
Special Section: Chateau on Central
Best of Living: The Reef Residences at Atlantis
Williamsburg: Rediscovering the Revolutionary City
Arts Spotlight: Ovation
Special Section: Kentucky
Riding Lessons: Miller School of Albemarle
The Arts of Orange County
Must Read: Pandora's Lunchbox by Melanie Warner
Great Dates
Puzzles
Readers Resource Index
Your US Airways Guide
Video Entertainment
Audio Entertainment
U.S. and Caribbean Service Map
International Service Map
Airport Terminal Maps
US Airways Fleet/Customs & Immigration
Passenger Info/Contact US Airways
US Airways MarketPlace®
Giving: US Airways' Do Crew
Window or Aisle?

US Airways - February 2013