Slumming it in Zihuatanejo

Part of my goal with this site, is to feature real people I find compelling.  Whether on video, or through the written word.  I met Ricardo when we stayed at his hotel, the Amuleto, and pitched a few travel outlets this story…

It started as a casual conversation between a husband and his wife on the sandy shores the Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where local merchants offer hammocks and jewelry to tourists, a roving market long on supply but short on demand. During a relaxing stroll along the Playa La Ropa, Ricardo Teitelroit and his wife spotted an area well above the bay in the dense brush of the hills.

“It looked like a nice place for a little vacation home,” says Teitelroit.

Ten years (and several plunge pools) later, the idea for a one-bedroom house has evolved into a sublime getaway called the Amuleto, an intimate enclave nestled far from the overwrought, trendy hotspots in Cancun or the high-rise resorts in neighboring Ixtapa.

“When we started designing it, the one thing I knew I wanted was to position the beds so you can see the water without getting up,” says Teitelroit.

When the construction started, there wasn’t a paved road to the site, a problem resolved by the development boom of the early 2000s. The Amuleto has since been rated the number one destination choice on the popular travel web site Tripadvisor.

But for Teitelroit, the goal was never site rankings or even turning a profit. It was always about meeting new people and relishing in the adventure of it all.

“The economics were there and we were buying at the right time,” he explains. “So it was really more about making this big decision to change your life.”

Transitioning from the corporate world to a personal, hands-on project gave Teitelroit ownership (literally and figuratively) in a way he had never had before. Born in Porto Allegra, Brazil, he moved to Southern California to attend Claremont Graduate University for his Ph.D. in civil engineering. He ended up forgoing his thesis, and worked in systems management for Trader Joe’s in Monrovia.

These days, as he stares out into the Pacific, Teitelroit recalls the daily grind of those work weeks without much affection.

“You might work long days here, but you have control,” he says.  “I think we’ve had one business meeting in 10 years.”

Teitelroit’s engineering and construction background gave him a leg up during the building phase of the Amuleto, and his native Portuguese paved the way for his conversational Spanish.

“I made myself understood,” he says with a smile.

Teitelroit implemented billing and information systems for his new venture, and his IT experience came in handy when launching the web site. But it was an intimate knowledge of team-building that perhaps proved the most useful.

“One of the reasons Mexico is such a special place is because people can do a lot of things themselves,” he says. “There are no real job descriptions and our staff does multiple things, which means we can adjust for the guests.”

Right now, his restaurant cook is in helping to build a wall. And it’s exactly the kind of multi-tasking and ingenuity that Teitelroit hopes to continue to use to navigate the current economic challenges facing the Mexican tourism industry.

He also chides the media as well for what he sees as sensational coverage of the drug violence.

“There’s a lot of bad press scaring people,” he says. “They don’t say to avoid Houston, or Chicago, or South Central.”

When asked about local politics level, and if he’s had to incur any extra expenses from government officials, Teitelroit is more cryptic.

“I don’t get involved, and I don’t take sides with politicians,” he says. “I like them all.”

Teitelroit plans to head back to Los Angeles (Alaska Airlines has the only direct flights from Zihuatanejo to Los Angeles) but says he hopes to return before the first rain. He still struggles to find that perfect life balance between his time in Los Angeles and Mexico, between work and relaxation, between his teaching in Pasadena and the management of the Amuleto.

But the trade-off seems worth it for someone who decided to take a big risk.

“I commute less flying back and forth than I would if I lived fulltime in LA,” he says.