-----Costa Custodio takes its name from the point of land, Punta El Custodio, or Guardian Point, which reaches out into the Pacific and into the broad shallow bay which stretches from Punta Mita, just North of Puerto Vallarta, north to San Blas, a historical port in the state of Nayarit.
-----At a latitude of 20 degrees N., same as Hawaii, and with the same backdrop of Volcanic mountains dropping into the Pacific, Costa Custodio would have long ago been developed into a tourist mecca had it not been protected by topograpy and inaccessibility. Until 1993, with the completion of the Puerto Vallarta - San Blas highway, its remoteness was its protection.
-----We were fortunate to find the area before it was taken over by speculators and ramshackle developers, with failed investments leaving abandoned constructions, filled estuaries, beach destroying breakwaters, and compound walls jutting out into the surf.. We were fortunate to get the ear of an environmental bureaucracy willing to take a different approach - plan first, develop later. We were fortunate to find responsible developers who were willing to invest in a land use study, the
Ordinamiento Ecologico , which would develop enforcable zoning and ecological restrictions.
-----Working with biologists funded through the World Bank and administered by the state environmental agency, we solicited donations to improve the working environment of the Turtle Protection Camp, building a new kitchen and sanitary facilities, providing beach transportation, and bringing in the first tourists. It was common knowledge that the funding of the World Bank was only temporary and that the sustainability of the Turtle Protection and Crocodile Restoration programs would depend on some type of tourist involvement.
-----Now in 1999/2000, Costa Custodio is ready to receive guests and transfer part of the income to the operation of the Turtle Camp. Built within the guidelines of the the
Ordinamiento Ecologico , the first eight rental vacation villas are ready for occupancy during the upcoming turtle nesting season. None too soon, as the funding has dried up as expected, and the paid biologists have turned into volunteers, hoping for financial assistance.