Casa Uundu

Casa U’undu stands alone above the dune at Ventanilla, twenty-five minutes east of Puerto Escondido on one of the last undeveloped shores in Pacific Mexico. There is no resort next door and no neighbouring rooftop, only a garden that runs out into grey-gold sand and a Pacific that arrives loudly and without interruption. The house is let to one group at a time, so the beach in front of it belongs to whoever is staying, and most mornings nobody else walks on it. Three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and room for eleven guests make it a whole-house rental built for a family, a group of friends, or a week spent doing very little.

Inside, the villa opens as one generous volume beneath a series of hand-laid brick vaults left unplastered. A kitchen and a long dining table anchor the space, a living room sits under a great arched window, and a bar with a ladder climbs to a reading mezzanine above it. The three bedrooms are split between the two levels: a king room in the coolest, quietest corner, a family room with two double beds and a sofa bed, and a room lined with four single beds that becomes the children’s room, the cousins’ room or the surf crew’s room in turn. Each has a full bathroom and ceiling fans, and one shower is open to the sky. There is no air conditioning and guests do not miss it, because the vaults lift warm air out at the ridge, the shell holds the cool of the night into the afternoon and the sea breeze crosses the house all day. Two pools sit between the rooms and the dune, a small one for slipping into after lunch and a long one set above the surf, with a deck of loungers between them.

The house comes with its people, and their work is included in the nightly rate rather than billed as extras. A cook is in the kitchen every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, turning out Oaxacan market and coast cooking, mole and rice at the long table, ceviche when the boats come in, green corn soup and guacamole ground in the molcajete, and guests pay only for the groceries. Abigail runs the house and is the point of contact from the day of booking, arranging the boat, the surf instructor, the car from the airport and the shopping. Daily housekeeping and a house assistant complete the team, on site from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon.

Beyond the garden lies a coast still mostly wild. The Colotepec river meets the sea beside the house, herons and pelicans work the river mouth, and the lagoon a few minutes away lights up with bioluminescence on dark nights. Olive ridley turtles nest along this shore and hatchlings are released at dusk in season, while humpbacks pass offshore. Puerto Escondido’s celebrated surf breaks at Zicatela, La Punta and Carrizalillo, its fish restaurants and sunset boats sit under half an hour away, and Puerto Escondido International Airport is a twenty-five-minute drive from the gate.