Just a skip and a jump from miles of empty beach.
Casa Colibri is less than 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean.
The ocean at Punta el Custodio, where Casa Colibri is located, has many faces.
To the south of our point the ocean is indeed pacific. A few yards across an estuary lies Turtle Beach, 12 miles long and one of the most stunning beaches on the entire Riviera Nayarit. Turtle Beach is so named because rare olive Ridley turtles lay their eggs there. The eggs used to be stolen by poachers, and were sold at high prices as bar snacks and as a supposed aphrodisiac.
Low tide: looking south across turtle beach. Beyond the distant mountain range is puerto vallarta.
Newly-hatched ridley sea turtle: just 2-1/2 inches long.
The turtles are now protected: volunteers collect the eggs at night as soon as they are laid, pack them into sand-filled picnic coolers and leave them in incubation sheds until the day of hatching. The coolers are removed, the hatchlings are placed in a kiddie wading pool until sunset, and then are released into the ocean. Often as many as 1,500 hatchlings are released at one time and guests are allowed to help in the release.
The estuary deposits sand in a broad surf break, which makes our beach one of the finest surfing spots not just on the Riviera Nayarit, but on the entire Pacific coast of Mexico. Because of our isolation, there are rarely more than a dozen surfers on a given day, and sometimes only one or two. The beach along the surf break is gently sloped, ideal for boogie-boarding and safe even for small kids and infants: there is no undertow. But, of course, kids need to be watched at all times.
The north side of our Point is completely different: a sheer cliff down to a rocky shore, with waves crashing incessantly. Some locals go down to the lower rocks and fish, but this is not recommended for guests.
At the tip of our point stands the huge chalata (strangler fig) tree from which the Point gets its name: the Custodian Tree. It is said to be hundreds of years old, and, as it can be seen from many miles offshore, it served as a daytime navigational beacon as far back as Spanish colonial times.
You can sit beneath the great chalata at sunset, sipping your Margarita and watching the whales and dolphins playing offshore (in season, of course).
Nowhere so close to Puerto Vallarta will you find such an exclusive Riviera Nayarit luxury rental villa overlooking such a pristine vista. Dawn and dusk at Punta el Custodio can be stunningly spectacular. Almost every evening people gather at the tip of the Point with their margaritas to watch the sun vanish below the horizon — sometimes with the legendary “green flash.”
Early birds can catch the sunrise over the mountains east of the estuary. As darkness falls, the lights of the shrimp boats out at sea begin to twinkle. Whales and dolphins cavort right off the Point. Whale watching boat trips are available through the General Manager, Ismael Franco.
