In my case this meant Tita and Pedro, whose tenure began when the place was strictly a guesthouse for Goldsmith soirees. Perhaps the best part of a stay here, though, is being tended to by the staff. But the house is stunning, decorated in vivid color schemes such as fuchsia and orange (a local combo that is more attractive than it sounds) with intricate handmade local ceramics and silver pieces similar to those in La Loma. Its only drawback: You have to drive to one of the estate's three beaches instead of having direct access, a quibble indicative of how coddled you feel here. I took up residence in Casa Alborada, a Moorish-style four-bedroom house on the hill behind La Loma overlooking the coconut plantation and the Cuixmala River. The other houses have it, but it's a near impossibility here given the epic size of the rooms.) (The only missing element is air-conditioning. The outdoor spaces are equally beautiful and large: a circular palapa overlooking the Pacific, and a checkerboard-motif swimming pool just off the beach, a long staircase climb down from the house. The decor in these vaulted, whitewashed rooms is soothing and beautiful, including large, brightly colored settees covered in silk inset with antique Indian saris, Mexican ceramic lamps, bronze sculptures and intricate Indian mirrors. Given this first impression, you expect the interior to be oversized, overdone and vulgar.but it's not.Įverything is on a grand scale, to be sure, including Goldsmith's 1,700-square-foot master bedroom, the largest of four (there are also the cottages if you need extra bedroom space), and an entertainment room with a 70-inch flat-screen TV. La Loma has an entrance worthy of its flamboyant founder: a five-mile driveway that meanders through a coconut plantation, a savanna serving as home to imported zebras and gazelles, over a bridge traversing a stream filled with crocodiles and then up a steep hill where the 37,000-square-foot concrete fortress looms with such drama you expect to hear a crash of cymbals when it appears. (How you know you've arrived: the private-police SUVs that lead you down the miles of roads once you're identified as a guest.) If you drive, you'll probably also miss the entrance, as I did-a pink hacienda with no sign of any kind. But then you'd miss the drive from Puerto Vallarta down Highway 200, a dusty road that snakes through hills and villages marked by open-air cafés grilling meats, rusting cars and giant statues of beer cans. You may choose to enter the property as Sir Jimmy did, bringing guests such as Henry Kissinger and Nancy Reagan (that's her porcelain White House gift bowl in the study at La Loma) via the estate's private airstrip. Now in the care of Goldsmith's daughter Alix, it is available for rent, either house-by-house or all together. Besides being more attuned to its setting than Brignone's hot-spot property, it was also, until recently, reserved strictly for family. Goldsmith's Cuixmala, built in the late-1980s, is-leaving aside La Loma's passing resemblance to Florence's Duomo-relatively restrained, even politically correct: It is a collection of four houses (La Loma being the star), nine relatively modest casitas and 2,000 acres devoted to organic farming and the protection of nature within a 25,000-acre preserve.
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