December 18, 2007
Hola from the Land of Sunshine and Smiles – Beautiful Costa Rica !!
We have just completed a very busy three weeks and are trying to get into the Christmas Spirit! Hard to do when it is like summer everyday! We kind of miss the change in seasons and cooler weather – that is until we watch television from Denver, Colorado and see the icy roads, snow and accidents – the missing weather feeling passes quickly! This perpetual summer is not hard to take and now we are moving from the green season to the dry season. The green season was wetter than usual but that is good as the year previous it was a lot dryer. This past wet season has replenished much needed water sources for this dry tropical forest – one of nature’s wonders! Now we have four months without rain to look forward to, a little hot at times, but the humidity is not too bad in Guanacaste.
The last three weeks were very busy as our “kids” visited us and we had a great time showing them this area of Costa Rica. Our daughter Jessica and her husband Ryan (expecting their first baby in March) were here for two weeks. They flew into San Jose, so we picked them up and drove back via the very scenic route from San Ramon which goes by Arenal Volcano. Unfortunately, the volcano was hidden by clouds and they did not get to see it. But to make up for this loss we did stop at Lake Arenal and Ryan got in some wind surfing at this world renowned wind surfing area. We enjoyed watching him wind surf as well watching the other guys kite surfing!
The night before we introduced Ryan to “casados” and now he is hooked on this Costa Rica dish which is a “marriage of food” (that is what casado means – usually served in a small roadside restaurant called a Soda). The dish is made up of rice, beans, salad, plantain, and a meat choice of chicken, fish, beef or pork. An excellent meal for about $5 or less including a fresh fruit drink – even better with an ice cold Imperial! Who says Costa Rica food is bland!
Jessica and Ryan were here for about a week when our daughter-in-law Nicole arrived with our precious little granddaughter, Sadie, who will be 2 on December 30. This really put a little fire in the family as Sadie is quite a character with a remarkable vocabulary for her age. She kept us busy, busy! Trips to the beach immediately increased as did the use of our back yard pool. And her favorite toy – the two step ladder we use for reaching dishes and food in the upper cupboards! Sadie used this to help Grandma as she would push it around, climb up and be at “helping” height. Jessica and Ryan left after 12 days, then our son Craig arrived but unfortunately he was here for only a week. We did manage to cram in a lot during that time. Craig is taking his Masters in Wildlife Biology at Oregon State and he was absolutely blown away by the bird life in Costa Rica and the diversity of the region – dry tropical forest to rain forest in a matter of an hour or two! He was continually spotting different birds on each and every walk, hike, drive, scooter ride – what ever! Costa Rica is heaven for nature lovers! We just hope they can preserve it given the huge pressure for development. Sometimes it is very difficult to be in the Real Estate Business. We are caught between a rock and a hard place as we want to sell to make a living but then again we do not want to sell too much and see this Eden become another overdeveloped Disneyland! Heck - we don’t mind the rough roads and little glitches like power outages. It reminds us of growing up in small town Saskatchewan in the 1950’s except without the blizzards!
We will be in Calgary at the Home Expo January 11 to 13, 2008. We will be in the Investment Properties Section (Booth #19) and hope to see lots of our friends and acquaintances. Please drop by to say hi and talk about Costa Rica!
We were sure sad to see the kids go and the house is sure quiet these days. But we know they will be back and soon! Costa Rica has that affect on people.
Just recently Costa Rica was ranked among the 10 most important environmental destinies in the world due to the work the country does to safeguard the environment. Costa Rica was also in the top 10 in places to live which takes into account – stability of government, climate, peace, tranquility, security. Costa Rica was the only country in Latin America considered within the rankings. Quite an accomplishment! Let’s hope the Government continues and does not cave in to external pressures from larger more belligerent countries and their bullying governments.
Feliz Navidad and Feliz Anos Neuevo from the Land of Sun and Surf! We hope 2008 will bring you health, wealth and happiness and possibly to this great little part of the world.
Until next time - PURA VIDA!
Herb & Donna
PS: Be sure to visit our NEW website www.costaricadiscovered.com (and sign our
Guest Book!)
Email: hgdemars@discovercostarica.com
Visit our blog site: www.costaricasecrets.blogspot.com
For Vacation Rentals visit: www.beachfront-cr.com. Tim Ellis can help you locate the perfect home to rent for a great winter holiday!
If you would like to book a Real Estate Costa Rica Tour please send us an email at herb@discovercostarica.com. We would be pleased to help you out - we can arrange for good discounts on rental car sand accommodations, plus we will show you some of the real Costa Rica during the tour! If you do end up purchasing property using our services, you will receive $1,000 that can be used to offset your travel expenses!
PS: If you do not want to receive our updates please send us a quick email and we will take you off our email list! Conversely, let us know if anyone wants to be added to our list or just forward to friends or relatives. We will try to send these updates once per month.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
South of the Border, The Market's Still Hot
Americans Find Second-Home Boom Endures; Wildlife in the Neighborhood
By JUNE FLETCHER
December 14, 2007; Page W12
The housing slump has sent many Americans shopping south of the border.
Existing-home prices in the U.S. dropped 4.5% in the third quarter from a year ago, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. But they are still climbing in much of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Buyers are being enticed by the kind of double-digit appreciation that has all but disappeared in the States. In addition, a growing number of new developments are targeting Americans looking for good deals and a lower cost of living.
Since 2003, annual home-price appreciation has been running at 20% in the Dominican Republic, and could reach 50% in the near future, according to Boomerang Unlimited, a Napa, Calif., real-estate investment advisory firm. In San Pedro, Belize, the average price of a 2,200-square-foot home was $697,500 in September, up 18.6% from a year ago, according to a study by Coldwell Banker; the price of a similar property in San Jose, Costa Rica, was up 20.7%, to $389,900, the study said.
Prices remain low compared with those in the U.S., particularly for waterfront properties. Because Americans generally buy and sell properties throughout the region in dollars, not the local currency, home prices don't fluctuate with the various exchange rates, as is the case in Europe. What's more, the dollar generally buys much more house in these countries than it does in the U.S., because labor and land are less expensive.
LIKE FLORIDA IN THE '50s
Still, the rapid appreciation is drawing growing numbers of bargain hunters, making good deals scarcer and causing some customers to look beyond the usual vacation hot spots. In the Dominican Republic, Century 21 broker Dean Brown says that 80% of his buyers this year have been Americans, compared with half last year. Softec, a real-estate consulting firm, says in the past three years, investments in vacation homes in Mexico, primarily by buyers from the U.S. and Canada, have shot up by 60%.
Americans' appetite for investment opportunities is helping to spur a building boom in some areas. In Panama, 170 residential-building projects are under way, mostly marketed to Americans, and 100 more are in the pipeline, according to Panama Legal, a law firm based in Panama City. Among them, a 1,500-acre resort and marina by Naples, Fla.-based developer Todd Gates. The project, on Isla del Rey, one of the Pearl Islands near Panama City, is slated to open in 2009 and will have condos, villas and single-family homes ranging from $275,000 to $1.4 million. "It's like Florida was in the '50s," Mr. Gates says.
Some buyers are buying sight unseen. Shams Deitrick, a Walnut Creek, Calif., financial adviser, recently bought a furnished, two-bedroom "ocean view villa" for $375,000 in Canto del Mar, a new 35-unit development in the southern Costa Rica town of Dominica; the project has already sold out. "All I saw was the Web site, which showed a sloth 30 feet from the unit, and monkeys everywhere," Mr. Deitrick says.
He snapped up the home on the advice of a gym buddy, who said his own Costa Rican properties have quadrupled in value over the past four years. Although Mr. Deitrick isn't looking forward to the daylong flight to Dominica when he visits for the first time in February, he says he's glad he bought the property: "It just doesn't make sense to buy in the U.S. right now."
BARGAINS, WITH TRADE-OFFS
Preston Thompson, a retired Clearwater, Fla., hospital administrator, hopes to make some money in the Dominican Republic as a "serial renovator," moving into homes, fixing them up, and selling them. In July, he bought a 2,100-square-foot house for $265,000 on the beach in Cabarete, quickly added $50,000 worth of improvements, and put it back on the market for $489,000. If the property sells, he and his wife plan to repeat the process.
Getting the house ready to sell hasn't been as easy as he anticipated, however. Subcontractors were hard to find -- only one firm in Cabarete (population about 15,000) could do granite countertops, for example -- and the quality of their workmanship was "hit or miss," Mr. Thompson says. Worse, neither he nor his wife speaks Spanish, which made communicating with the workers difficult. He's also concerned that Americans may be turned off by local health-care facilities, which he says are very modest. For all of its current popularity, he says, the Dominican Republic is essentially still a developing country. "You have to put up with inconveniences," he says.
Earlier this year, Geoff Folsom, a Thousand Oaks, Calif., businessman, bought a 4,500-square-foot oceanfront penthouse, with its own private swimming pool, in Trump's Ocean Resort in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, a 30-minute drive from San Diego, Calif. He paid $3 million for the property, about half the cost of similar resort units he looked at in the States. Property taxes and maintenance costs are lower than in the U.S., too.
There are trade-offs, he says. The mostly undeveloped area outside the development's gates has few restaurants and hotels, and Mr. Thompson is concerned about recent news reports of armed robberies on nearby roads. Still, he anticipates that, as the area develops, appreciation rates will exceed anything he could get in the U.S. "You get so much better value south of the border," he says.
There are additional downsides to buying in this part of the world. The weather can be violent and unpredictable: Last month Hurricane Noel slammed the Caribbean, causing floods and mudslides, and leaving 147 dead. And insurance to protect against natural disasters, including earthquakes, may be impossible to obtain.
In addition, many foreign real-estate brokers are unlicensed and don't necessarily adhere to the business standards that Americans expect. Some, for example, encourage sellers to raise their asking price after American buyers have made a full-priced offer, even if no other bidders are involved.
Plus, not every place is a boom town. Seasoned real-estate brokers say that to be successful, developments need at least some amenities and should be within an hour's drive of an international airport.
Cuxlin Ha, an 80-unit riverfront retirement community in Punta Gorda, Belize, near the Guatemalan border, is about 300 miles from the closest international airport, although a small "air taxi" airport is eight miles away. On the development's Web site, house hunters are warned that "this is not an area that promotes exciting night life and wild times (unless you're a jaguar or a howler monkey)." Buyers apparently have taken the hint: Although a three-bedroom, fully-furnished 1,350-square-foot home sells for only $100,000, only two buyers have stepped up since the project opened two years ago. "People want a more touristy area," says Bob Prehall, the Roseburg, Ore., broker who's selling the project.
But if a place does draw tourists, Americans are willing to travel long distances to buy there. Shaun de Jesus, a San Francisco derivatives sales manager, bought a three-bedroom condo in Punta del Este, Uruguay, three years ago for $120,000, then got a distress-sale deal on a two-bedroom condo in the same town for $90,000 six months later. On the southeast coast of Uruguay, about 90 miles east of Montevideo, the beach town -- which has its own international airport -- has a year-round population of 7,300 that swells with vacationers in the hot months of December and January.
Since he bought the properties, Mr. de Jesus received an offer of $150,000 on the first unit, and $170,000 on the second. But he's not selling. Even though he gets down to visit only two times a year, he says he is pleased with the units' low maintenance costs and the high rents they pull in when he's not around. In fact, he's now looking for another good deal. "If something comes up, I'll jump on it," he says.
By JUNE FLETCHER
December 14, 2007; Page W12
The housing slump has sent many Americans shopping south of the border.
Existing-home prices in the U.S. dropped 4.5% in the third quarter from a year ago, according to S&P/Case-Shiller. But they are still climbing in much of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Buyers are being enticed by the kind of double-digit appreciation that has all but disappeared in the States. In addition, a growing number of new developments are targeting Americans looking for good deals and a lower cost of living.
Since 2003, annual home-price appreciation has been running at 20% in the Dominican Republic, and could reach 50% in the near future, according to Boomerang Unlimited, a Napa, Calif., real-estate investment advisory firm. In San Pedro, Belize, the average price of a 2,200-square-foot home was $697,500 in September, up 18.6% from a year ago, according to a study by Coldwell Banker; the price of a similar property in San Jose, Costa Rica, was up 20.7%, to $389,900, the study said.
Prices remain low compared with those in the U.S., particularly for waterfront properties. Because Americans generally buy and sell properties throughout the region in dollars, not the local currency, home prices don't fluctuate with the various exchange rates, as is the case in Europe. What's more, the dollar generally buys much more house in these countries than it does in the U.S., because labor and land are less expensive.
LIKE FLORIDA IN THE '50s
Still, the rapid appreciation is drawing growing numbers of bargain hunters, making good deals scarcer and causing some customers to look beyond the usual vacation hot spots. In the Dominican Republic, Century 21 broker Dean Brown says that 80% of his buyers this year have been Americans, compared with half last year. Softec, a real-estate consulting firm, says in the past three years, investments in vacation homes in Mexico, primarily by buyers from the U.S. and Canada, have shot up by 60%.
Americans' appetite for investment opportunities is helping to spur a building boom in some areas. In Panama, 170 residential-building projects are under way, mostly marketed to Americans, and 100 more are in the pipeline, according to Panama Legal, a law firm based in Panama City. Among them, a 1,500-acre resort and marina by Naples, Fla.-based developer Todd Gates. The project, on Isla del Rey, one of the Pearl Islands near Panama City, is slated to open in 2009 and will have condos, villas and single-family homes ranging from $275,000 to $1.4 million. "It's like Florida was in the '50s," Mr. Gates says.
Some buyers are buying sight unseen. Shams Deitrick, a Walnut Creek, Calif., financial adviser, recently bought a furnished, two-bedroom "ocean view villa" for $375,000 in Canto del Mar, a new 35-unit development in the southern Costa Rica town of Dominica; the project has already sold out. "All I saw was the Web site, which showed a sloth 30 feet from the unit, and monkeys everywhere," Mr. Deitrick says.
He snapped up the home on the advice of a gym buddy, who said his own Costa Rican properties have quadrupled in value over the past four years. Although Mr. Deitrick isn't looking forward to the daylong flight to Dominica when he visits for the first time in February, he says he's glad he bought the property: "It just doesn't make sense to buy in the U.S. right now."
BARGAINS, WITH TRADE-OFFS
Preston Thompson, a retired Clearwater, Fla., hospital administrator, hopes to make some money in the Dominican Republic as a "serial renovator," moving into homes, fixing them up, and selling them. In July, he bought a 2,100-square-foot house for $265,000 on the beach in Cabarete, quickly added $50,000 worth of improvements, and put it back on the market for $489,000. If the property sells, he and his wife plan to repeat the process.
Getting the house ready to sell hasn't been as easy as he anticipated, however. Subcontractors were hard to find -- only one firm in Cabarete (population about 15,000) could do granite countertops, for example -- and the quality of their workmanship was "hit or miss," Mr. Thompson says. Worse, neither he nor his wife speaks Spanish, which made communicating with the workers difficult. He's also concerned that Americans may be turned off by local health-care facilities, which he says are very modest. For all of its current popularity, he says, the Dominican Republic is essentially still a developing country. "You have to put up with inconveniences," he says.
Earlier this year, Geoff Folsom, a Thousand Oaks, Calif., businessman, bought a 4,500-square-foot oceanfront penthouse, with its own private swimming pool, in Trump's Ocean Resort in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, a 30-minute drive from San Diego, Calif. He paid $3 million for the property, about half the cost of similar resort units he looked at in the States. Property taxes and maintenance costs are lower than in the U.S., too.
There are trade-offs, he says. The mostly undeveloped area outside the development's gates has few restaurants and hotels, and Mr. Thompson is concerned about recent news reports of armed robberies on nearby roads. Still, he anticipates that, as the area develops, appreciation rates will exceed anything he could get in the U.S. "You get so much better value south of the border," he says.
There are additional downsides to buying in this part of the world. The weather can be violent and unpredictable: Last month Hurricane Noel slammed the Caribbean, causing floods and mudslides, and leaving 147 dead. And insurance to protect against natural disasters, including earthquakes, may be impossible to obtain.
In addition, many foreign real-estate brokers are unlicensed and don't necessarily adhere to the business standards that Americans expect. Some, for example, encourage sellers to raise their asking price after American buyers have made a full-priced offer, even if no other bidders are involved.
Plus, not every place is a boom town. Seasoned real-estate brokers say that to be successful, developments need at least some amenities and should be within an hour's drive of an international airport.
Cuxlin Ha, an 80-unit riverfront retirement community in Punta Gorda, Belize, near the Guatemalan border, is about 300 miles from the closest international airport, although a small "air taxi" airport is eight miles away. On the development's Web site, house hunters are warned that "this is not an area that promotes exciting night life and wild times (unless you're a jaguar or a howler monkey)." Buyers apparently have taken the hint: Although a three-bedroom, fully-furnished 1,350-square-foot home sells for only $100,000, only two buyers have stepped up since the project opened two years ago. "People want a more touristy area," says Bob Prehall, the Roseburg, Ore., broker who's selling the project.
But if a place does draw tourists, Americans are willing to travel long distances to buy there. Shaun de Jesus, a San Francisco derivatives sales manager, bought a three-bedroom condo in Punta del Este, Uruguay, three years ago for $120,000, then got a distress-sale deal on a two-bedroom condo in the same town for $90,000 six months later. On the southeast coast of Uruguay, about 90 miles east of Montevideo, the beach town -- which has its own international airport -- has a year-round population of 7,300 that swells with vacationers in the hot months of December and January.
Since he bought the properties, Mr. de Jesus received an offer of $150,000 on the first unit, and $170,000 on the second. But he's not selling. Even though he gets down to visit only two times a year, he says he is pleased with the units' low maintenance costs and the high rents they pull in when he's not around. In fact, he's now looking for another good deal. "If something comes up, I'll jump on it," he says.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Costa Rica October Newsletter 2007
October 23, 2007
Hola Everyone!
The Rainy (Green) Season draws to a close! This has been an unusually wet green season in the Guanacaste area. Last year the green season saw lower than usual amounts of rainfall, but this year has been the opposite. We started off the season with a lot of rain and we are ending with a lot of rain. We had over 20 inches of rain in the last 10 days alone! Emptying the rain gauge became a regular occurrence as the rains continued for days. The only saving grace was at least it was warm rain! Some type of tropical depression formed over Costa Rica while a cold front over Mexico held the rain in place. It just seemed to circle over us and continually drop rain. Flooding was extensive with roads washed out and people displaced from their homes. As we write this today, the sun is out and it is looking like we are heading toward the Dry Season. Once we are in the dry season, we will not get any rain for six months (till May). Below is a picture of the Tempisque River as it nearly overflowed the major bridge that provides access to the beach areas where we live. Usually the river is at least 35 feet below! I could not believe the water could come this high till I saw it with my own eyes!
The Mountains!
The beach is a great place but when we really want to get away from the heat and the busyness of the beach, we love to travel to the mountains. In fact we have purchased some land up near Rincon de La Vieja National Park, where land is still relatively inexpensive. The weather is crisper and cooler even during the dry season, although the Papagayo Winds that are prevalent during the Dry Season can really get going. We plan to build a “cabina” or two up here and maybe eventually have a vacation lodge. It’s a great place to get away to enjoy nature as the wildlife up here is incredible. We have terrific views of Volcan Rincon de la Vieja and Volcan Miravalles as well as out toward the Tempisque River valley. And on a clear day you can even see the coastline and ocean. Quite a beautiful spot - we get excited each time we drive up! The property is only 19 kilometers from Liberia but the road is an adventure either dry or wet! It is called the “Ruta Blanca” and is actually carved through volcanic ash which gives it the white color. It takes an hour to drive the 19 kilometers of the Ruta Blanca so, combined with the 30 minutes from Coco to Liberia, the entire drive is 1 ½ hours.
What’s New!
The real estate business has been quiet during the Green Season as the tourism slows. Markets in the US are facing issues as well and this may or may not impact our business. The opportunity is still now to own a “piece of paradise”! We are planning an advertising blitz for the Calgary market in November/December and hopefully will be a major part of a Costa Rica Feature Article in the Calgary Herald in November. Plans also include a large ad and advertorial in the Recreation and Investment Properties Magazine in December. Then we will be manning a booth at the Recreation Investment Properties Show in Calgary January 11-13, 2008. Drop by and visit! We will have lots of great information on Costa Rica and all it has to offer!
Just to give you an idea of what you can buy for a lot less than a house in Calgary. below is Casa La Mariposa which is next door to our home.
This is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2300 sq ft home with single car garage, high ceilings and many upgrades. Construction is first quality. It is located in a very quiet neighborhood about 5 minutes by car to the beach. Priced at $349,000!
Until next time, hasta luego!
Herb and Donna
Visit our blog site: www.costaricasecrets.blogspot.com
For Vacation Rentals visit: www.beachfront-cr.com. Tim Ellis can help you locate the perfect home to rent for a great winter holiday!
If you would like to book a Real Estate Costa Rica Tour please send us an email at herb@discovercostarica.com. We would be pleased to help you out - we can arrange for good discounts on rental car and accommodations, plus we will show you some of the real Costa Rica during the tour! If you do end up purchasing property using our services, you will receive $1,000 that can be used to offset your travel expenses!
Keep an eye on our new website: www.costaricadiscovered.com
PS: If you do not want to receive our updates please send us a quick email and we will take you off our email list! Conversely, let us know if anyone wants to be added to our list or just forward to friends or relatives. We will try to send these updates once per month.
Hola Everyone!
The Rainy (Green) Season draws to a close! This has been an unusually wet green season in the Guanacaste area. Last year the green season saw lower than usual amounts of rainfall, but this year has been the opposite. We started off the season with a lot of rain and we are ending with a lot of rain. We had over 20 inches of rain in the last 10 days alone! Emptying the rain gauge became a regular occurrence as the rains continued for days. The only saving grace was at least it was warm rain! Some type of tropical depression formed over Costa Rica while a cold front over Mexico held the rain in place. It just seemed to circle over us and continually drop rain. Flooding was extensive with roads washed out and people displaced from their homes. As we write this today, the sun is out and it is looking like we are heading toward the Dry Season. Once we are in the dry season, we will not get any rain for six months (till May). Below is a picture of the Tempisque River as it nearly overflowed the major bridge that provides access to the beach areas where we live. Usually the river is at least 35 feet below! I could not believe the water could come this high till I saw it with my own eyes!
The Mountains!
The beach is a great place but when we really want to get away from the heat and the busyness of the beach, we love to travel to the mountains. In fact we have purchased some land up near Rincon de La Vieja National Park, where land is still relatively inexpensive. The weather is crisper and cooler even during the dry season, although the Papagayo Winds that are prevalent during the Dry Season can really get going. We plan to build a “cabina” or two up here and maybe eventually have a vacation lodge. It’s a great place to get away to enjoy nature as the wildlife up here is incredible. We have terrific views of Volcan Rincon de la Vieja and Volcan Miravalles as well as out toward the Tempisque River valley. And on a clear day you can even see the coastline and ocean. Quite a beautiful spot - we get excited each time we drive up! The property is only 19 kilometers from Liberia but the road is an adventure either dry or wet! It is called the “Ruta Blanca” and is actually carved through volcanic ash which gives it the white color. It takes an hour to drive the 19 kilometers of the Ruta Blanca so, combined with the 30 minutes from Coco to Liberia, the entire drive is 1 ½ hours.
What’s New!
The real estate business has been quiet during the Green Season as the tourism slows. Markets in the US are facing issues as well and this may or may not impact our business. The opportunity is still now to own a “piece of paradise”! We are planning an advertising blitz for the Calgary market in November/December and hopefully will be a major part of a Costa Rica Feature Article in the Calgary Herald in November. Plans also include a large ad and advertorial in the Recreation and Investment Properties Magazine in December. Then we will be manning a booth at the Recreation Investment Properties Show in Calgary January 11-13, 2008. Drop by and visit! We will have lots of great information on Costa Rica and all it has to offer!
Just to give you an idea of what you can buy for a lot less than a house in Calgary. below is Casa La Mariposa which is next door to our home.
This is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2300 sq ft home with single car garage, high ceilings and many upgrades. Construction is first quality. It is located in a very quiet neighborhood about 5 minutes by car to the beach. Priced at $349,000!
Until next time, hasta luego!
Herb and Donna
Visit our blog site: www.costaricasecrets.blogspot.com
For Vacation Rentals visit: www.beachfront-cr.com. Tim Ellis can help you locate the perfect home to rent for a great winter holiday!
If you would like to book a Real Estate Costa Rica Tour please send us an email at herb@discovercostarica.com. We would be pleased to help you out - we can arrange for good discounts on rental car and accommodations, plus we will show you some of the real Costa Rica during the tour! If you do end up purchasing property using our services, you will receive $1,000 that can be used to offset your travel expenses!
Keep an eye on our new website: www.costaricadiscovered.com
PS: If you do not want to receive our updates please send us a quick email and we will take you off our email list! Conversely, let us know if anyone wants to be added to our list or just forward to friends or relatives. We will try to send these updates once per month.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Costa Rica Resort - "It will be the best resort in the world" says Steve Case.
Steve Case, an American businessman aged 48 famous for being co-founder of America On line (AOL), officially announced that, with an investment of $800 millions, the American company called Revolution Places LLC plans to build a tourist complex that will be an example of integration between community and protection of nature in Punta Cacique.
Punta Cacique is located northern Guanacaste, in Sardinal de Carrillo, between Playa Hermosa and El Coco beaches. The project will generate 2,000 direct jobs.
Steve Case, an American businessman, age 48, knew that the Internet would be a part of the daily life when that idea generated more skepticism than enthusiasm. Nowadays, after 25 years and millions of dollars later, Case has another vision for his new group of companies called Revolution. The industry is Tourism.
He spent 10 years working on the success of American On Line, and he will spend 10 more years working in what he assures will be the best resort in the world, in Costa Rica.
Case knows by experience that his talent is to build a successful business, and not to administrate it.
Some years ago he was driving around Costa Rica and he fell in love with it because it reminded him of Hawaii, where he was born and grew up. 'It looked like Hawaii 50 years ago', he said. He saw the opportunity right away.
Case commented that Costa Rica feels closer to the States than Hawaii, it is exotic, authentic, beautiful and secure too. 'It is exactly the scenery we want.'
Steve Case wants to create a new resort concept. He wants to integrate the communities to the resort, and make the guests part of it. Usually, people travel, live in a hotel for some days, go to the pool, take a tour, but they do not know the place as such.
Revolution is creating a new kind of resort, more like a 21st century project, according to the needs of the market, in harmony with nature and in alliance with the community. Case is going to spend ten years of his life in Costa Rica trying to create what he hopes will be the best resort in the world and the model of what is going to be a resort in the 21st century.
They are creating a new little town. The local people will have the chance to open businesses and integrate themselves in the economy. In that way the tourists will be motivated to go out and give some support to these local businesses. Entertainment is important and new options are being studied.
Case said that they are announcing the investment of $1 million in order to microfinance the local businesses to stimulate their capital. They are also going to plant one million trees. They want a new forest that will help to solve the problem of water in Guanacaste.
Tourism sector in Hawaii is managed by local people who have developed the abilities. There is a particular interest here. 'This project should make Costa Rican's feel proud. It is their community, their peninsula and not ours', said Case.
Case also promised that his investment will remain in the country regarding the referendum results about the Tratado de Libre Comercio (Cental American Free Trade Agreement) with USA, coming on the 7th of October 2007.
The original design of the property has been changed. It was too dense; it had permissions to build 2,000 units and 7 hotels. Revolution has changed it dramatically. Now there are 2 hotels, 300 villas, restaurants and boutiques. Therefore, 80% of the land will not be developed.
Something that bothered Steve Case was that it was going to be one of those closed worlds, with a huge wall that looked like a jail or a fort, and signs that make the locals feel that 'we are building something here and you are going to be left out'. The wall has been torn down already.
The local people have to be prepared to be part of the development. One can see when people like what they do, or they simply do their job, because it is the only thing they could find. It is called in Hawaii 'aloha' spirit. It is an attitude, more than a service job.
It has to be a balance between environment and culture. If the country permits to build 500 hotels on the beach, all looking the same, it will not be very visionary. They have to build with a taste and a feeling for local culture, there is no doubt about that.
In twenty years the vacation system will be reorganized around the consumers; therefore, Revolution wants to build something that gives people the feeling that they are in Costa Rica, not in a hotel that looks like it has been made with a cookie cutter, identical to all the others.
Steve Case thinks that it is difficult to make a projection about the success of Revolution right now. It was a journey of 20 years with AOL, the second 10 years was the time when he took off and, fame and fortune arrived, he liked the first 10 better. He is still learning and he thinks that he is best at building and innovating. He plans to concentrate on that.
He has invested more than $500 million in Revolution, and he is still investing, it does not bother him. He invested for 10 years before AOL was profitable.
Punta Cacique is located northern Guanacaste, in Sardinal de Carrillo, between Playa Hermosa and El Coco beaches. The project will generate 2,000 direct jobs.
Steve Case, an American businessman, age 48, knew that the Internet would be a part of the daily life when that idea generated more skepticism than enthusiasm. Nowadays, after 25 years and millions of dollars later, Case has another vision for his new group of companies called Revolution. The industry is Tourism.
He spent 10 years working on the success of American On Line, and he will spend 10 more years working in what he assures will be the best resort in the world, in Costa Rica.
Case knows by experience that his talent is to build a successful business, and not to administrate it.
Some years ago he was driving around Costa Rica and he fell in love with it because it reminded him of Hawaii, where he was born and grew up. 'It looked like Hawaii 50 years ago', he said. He saw the opportunity right away.
Case commented that Costa Rica feels closer to the States than Hawaii, it is exotic, authentic, beautiful and secure too. 'It is exactly the scenery we want.'
Steve Case wants to create a new resort concept. He wants to integrate the communities to the resort, and make the guests part of it. Usually, people travel, live in a hotel for some days, go to the pool, take a tour, but they do not know the place as such.
Revolution is creating a new kind of resort, more like a 21st century project, according to the needs of the market, in harmony with nature and in alliance with the community. Case is going to spend ten years of his life in Costa Rica trying to create what he hopes will be the best resort in the world and the model of what is going to be a resort in the 21st century.
They are creating a new little town. The local people will have the chance to open businesses and integrate themselves in the economy. In that way the tourists will be motivated to go out and give some support to these local businesses. Entertainment is important and new options are being studied.
Case said that they are announcing the investment of $1 million in order to microfinance the local businesses to stimulate their capital. They are also going to plant one million trees. They want a new forest that will help to solve the problem of water in Guanacaste.
Tourism sector in Hawaii is managed by local people who have developed the abilities. There is a particular interest here. 'This project should make Costa Rican's feel proud. It is their community, their peninsula and not ours', said Case.
Case also promised that his investment will remain in the country regarding the referendum results about the Tratado de Libre Comercio (Cental American Free Trade Agreement) with USA, coming on the 7th of October 2007.
The original design of the property has been changed. It was too dense; it had permissions to build 2,000 units and 7 hotels. Revolution has changed it dramatically. Now there are 2 hotels, 300 villas, restaurants and boutiques. Therefore, 80% of the land will not be developed.
Something that bothered Steve Case was that it was going to be one of those closed worlds, with a huge wall that looked like a jail or a fort, and signs that make the locals feel that 'we are building something here and you are going to be left out'. The wall has been torn down already.
The local people have to be prepared to be part of the development. One can see when people like what they do, or they simply do their job, because it is the only thing they could find. It is called in Hawaii 'aloha' spirit. It is an attitude, more than a service job.
It has to be a balance between environment and culture. If the country permits to build 500 hotels on the beach, all looking the same, it will not be very visionary. They have to build with a taste and a feeling for local culture, there is no doubt about that.
In twenty years the vacation system will be reorganized around the consumers; therefore, Revolution wants to build something that gives people the feeling that they are in Costa Rica, not in a hotel that looks like it has been made with a cookie cutter, identical to all the others.
Steve Case thinks that it is difficult to make a projection about the success of Revolution right now. It was a journey of 20 years with AOL, the second 10 years was the time when he took off and, fame and fortune arrived, he liked the first 10 better. He is still learning and he thinks that he is best at building and innovating. He plans to concentrate on that.
He has invested more than $500 million in Revolution, and he is still investing, it does not bother him. He invested for 10 years before AOL was profitable.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Where we live! Playas del Coco
Playas Del Coco
Not all roads are endless. One long road ends in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province where the town of Playas Del Coco sits like a pearl on the end of a silver chain. The road from San Jose through Liberia is long, but the gem at the end is worth the trip.
Walking from the Luperon Supermarket along the main street of Playas Del Coco, I ask myself, “What is it about this little town that draws me and keeps me here?” What I see doesn’t give me the answer, because what I see is not Las Vegas-style glitter or the usual tourist ballyhoo. Instead, I see a single two lane road stretching lazily ahead of me through a quiet town center. There is activity, but it is not hurried. I see some bicycles, pedestrians and a few cars and motorcycles. I see the modern, low-key facade of the Coco Verde hotel and casino, more or less at the town center. I see the water of Papagayo Bay shimmering in the distance, about a half-mile ahead.
People on foot parade in and out of the small restaurants, shops, vendor stands and other small businesses set back from the blacktop (this road, known as El Centro, is one of two paved roads in Coco—as the town is called by everyone within 50 miles). Coco doesn’t have sidewalks, but no one seems to mind. There is something upbeat, something different, about this place. Coco gives off a unique flavor of optimistic cheer. I decide that what I like about the place is defined by what it is not.
Playas Del Coco is not a “bustling tourist destination.” Tourists come here, but Coco doesn’t bustle (during the day at least), it sort of emits a low level hum. The activity is slow-paced and pleasant.
It is not a place where eating places have names like Starbucks, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s. There is not a golden arch to be seen. There is a Jimmy Burger, however, which puts out a truly fine hamburger. There are some huts, but none of them are Pizza Huts. A very attractive entryway graces the Paradise Pizza, a pizza place that offers many varieties of that excellent Italian pie. I pass the midtown Papagayo Seafood restaurant, which boasts an enclosed upstairs dining area for those who think they need air conditioning.
Ambling along, I stay to the right as the road forks and the vista of a broad beach and moored fishing boats opens to me. I see small shops and outdoor stalls displaying souvenirs and the other things that tourists seem to like. I follow the road around to the left. I make another left, completing a loop, and I’m heading back the way I came. I pass the Bohio Bar, where local people congregate every evening at Happy Hour. Across the street from Bohio, I see an open air coffee shop outfitted with five or six stools, a counter and a kitchen that takes up all the space behind the counter. Instead of a flashy menu advertising overpriced coffee combinations and pastries, I see a hand-lettered menu with a wide range of breakfast choices, all reasonably priced. The coffee choices here are not latte or Cappuccino; the choices here are small or large. It’s Costa Rican coffee, and it’s always excellent.
Beginning at 8 PM or so, music (turned up full blast) and other sounds of serious partying fill the air. People throng the sides of the road. The flow of people in and out of the restaurants and bars is constant. A smile is on every face. That’s what I like about Coco.
Not all roads are endless. One long road ends in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province where the town of Playas Del Coco sits like a pearl on the end of a silver chain. The road from San Jose through Liberia is long, but the gem at the end is worth the trip.
Walking from the Luperon Supermarket along the main street of Playas Del Coco, I ask myself, “What is it about this little town that draws me and keeps me here?” What I see doesn’t give me the answer, because what I see is not Las Vegas-style glitter or the usual tourist ballyhoo. Instead, I see a single two lane road stretching lazily ahead of me through a quiet town center. There is activity, but it is not hurried. I see some bicycles, pedestrians and a few cars and motorcycles. I see the modern, low-key facade of the Coco Verde hotel and casino, more or less at the town center. I see the water of Papagayo Bay shimmering in the distance, about a half-mile ahead.
People on foot parade in and out of the small restaurants, shops, vendor stands and other small businesses set back from the blacktop (this road, known as El Centro, is one of two paved roads in Coco—as the town is called by everyone within 50 miles). Coco doesn’t have sidewalks, but no one seems to mind. There is something upbeat, something different, about this place. Coco gives off a unique flavor of optimistic cheer. I decide that what I like about the place is defined by what it is not.
Playas Del Coco is not a “bustling tourist destination.” Tourists come here, but Coco doesn’t bustle (during the day at least), it sort of emits a low level hum. The activity is slow-paced and pleasant.
It is not a place where eating places have names like Starbucks, Pizza Hut or McDonald’s. There is not a golden arch to be seen. There is a Jimmy Burger, however, which puts out a truly fine hamburger. There are some huts, but none of them are Pizza Huts. A very attractive entryway graces the Paradise Pizza, a pizza place that offers many varieties of that excellent Italian pie. I pass the midtown Papagayo Seafood restaurant, which boasts an enclosed upstairs dining area for those who think they need air conditioning.
Ambling along, I stay to the right as the road forks and the vista of a broad beach and moored fishing boats opens to me. I see small shops and outdoor stalls displaying souvenirs and the other things that tourists seem to like. I follow the road around to the left. I make another left, completing a loop, and I’m heading back the way I came. I pass the Bohio Bar, where local people congregate every evening at Happy Hour. Across the street from Bohio, I see an open air coffee shop outfitted with five or six stools, a counter and a kitchen that takes up all the space behind the counter. Instead of a flashy menu advertising overpriced coffee combinations and pastries, I see a hand-lettered menu with a wide range of breakfast choices, all reasonably priced. The coffee choices here are not latte or Cappuccino; the choices here are small or large. It’s Costa Rican coffee, and it’s always excellent.
Beginning at 8 PM or so, music (turned up full blast) and other sounds of serious partying fill the air. People throng the sides of the road. The flow of people in and out of the restaurants and bars is constant. A smile is on every face. That’s what I like about Coco.
GUANACASTE NATIONAL PARKS
Costa Rica’s main attraction is the incredible bio-diversity found within its borders. The exceptional park system represents 13% of the national territory and reflects a strong commitment to preservation. Everyone visiting Costa Rica will help shape the future of conservation.
GUANACASTE
The Guanacaste region stretches from the western edge of Lake Arenal out to the Pacific Coast, encompassing the Nicoya Peninsula, all the way north to the Nicaraguan border. This region tends to be a little drier than other areas of Costa Rica, with a wide variety of flora and fauna in its many national parks. In the north, the mega-parks of Santa Rosa and Guanacaste protect delicate forest systems and provide a migration corridor for highland animals moving on to greener pastures in the wet season. In the south, prehistoric limestone foundations make for an interesting landscape, and at Barra Honda, some breathtaking cave formations sought by spelunkers from around the globe.
THE PARKS
Palo Verde National Park
Palo Verde is very important to ornithologists because over 300 species of birds have been recorded here. Enormous numbers of herons and storks make their home in the park, as well as the rare Jabiru Stork, known to nest only in Palo Verde.
One of Palo Verde’s unusual characteristics is its wide range of habitats, due to both elevation changes and seasonal changes. In the wet season, large areas of the forest are flooded, while in the dry season the opposite is true; so animals that normally live in the marsh have adapted to living in other areas until the rains re-irrigate the wet season marshlands.
Many tour operators organize boat rides on the Corrobici or the Bebedero Rivers to see a multitude of birds, monkeys, crocodiles etc.
Rincon de la Vieja National Park
This is quite a unique park, packed with immense diversity in both animal and plant species and in its geologic formations. Wildlife here ranges from the famous Resplendent Quetzal you find in more centrally located forests to woodpeckers found in dry forests. Of course, you still find motmots, tapirs, peccaries and coatimundis living side by side with armadillos, monkeys and toucans.
Now about that volcano …. Rincon has several cones, lagoons and craters, which have given it the nickname, “The Yellowstone of Costa Rica”. It has erupted at least 12 times since 1860. Although it’s still very active, scientists believe that the abundance of fumaroles, boiling mud pots, springs and sulphuric steam vents help it to let off enough pressure to prevent a big explosion. There are lots of trails through these wondrous sights, so you’ll have no problem getting photos of the rainbow-hued landscape, coloured by minerals the volcano emits through steam vents.
ARENAL VOLCANO
In July of 1968, the people of Arenal Hill were suddenly made to realize that what they always thought was a harmless hill was actually a violent, resting volcano. This volcano came to life, in a fury of rocks, lava and ash. It devastated the west flank and caused 78 deaths. Intermittent rumbling, explosions and nocturnal fire-spitting are the mesmerizing features that draw visitors to its base by day and night. Clouds often obscure the summit, but when lava flows cascade, incandescent rocks fly and Arenal roars, few forget it. Its flanks have been declared a national park but the nocturnal light show can be witnessed equally well from outside the boundary.
SANTA ROSA
This remarkably hot park preserves more than 120,000 acres of tropical dry forest and overgrazed pastures hugging the coastline of the peninsula, Santa Elena, where its purpose is to protect turtle nesting grounds. Easy to access and well structured, Santa Rosa was the site of three historic battles to preserve Costa Rica’s independence. The first and most dramatic in 1856, is well illustrated by the exhibits at the small museum of La Casona.
There are many trails for hiking through the tropical dry forest out to the beaches, where it is possible to camp overnight with a permit.
LAS BAULAS NATIONAL MARINE PARK
Playa Grande plays host to the giant Leatherback (baulas) turtles. This giant of the turtle world measures up to eight feet and weighs around 1,500 pounds. Unlike other turtles, it does not have a hard shell but a thick, black, leathery skin; nor does it show strong fidelity to a particular nesting site. Solitary female leatherbacks, come ashore on the Pacific coast usually between October and February to dig their huge nests where they lay about 100 eggs in a laborious nocturnal operation, before covering them with sand and wading back to sea.
Sources: ICT, Fodor’s and several web sites on Costa Rica.
GUANACASTE
The Guanacaste region stretches from the western edge of Lake Arenal out to the Pacific Coast, encompassing the Nicoya Peninsula, all the way north to the Nicaraguan border. This region tends to be a little drier than other areas of Costa Rica, with a wide variety of flora and fauna in its many national parks. In the north, the mega-parks of Santa Rosa and Guanacaste protect delicate forest systems and provide a migration corridor for highland animals moving on to greener pastures in the wet season. In the south, prehistoric limestone foundations make for an interesting landscape, and at Barra Honda, some breathtaking cave formations sought by spelunkers from around the globe.
THE PARKS
Palo Verde National Park
Palo Verde is very important to ornithologists because over 300 species of birds have been recorded here. Enormous numbers of herons and storks make their home in the park, as well as the rare Jabiru Stork, known to nest only in Palo Verde.
One of Palo Verde’s unusual characteristics is its wide range of habitats, due to both elevation changes and seasonal changes. In the wet season, large areas of the forest are flooded, while in the dry season the opposite is true; so animals that normally live in the marsh have adapted to living in other areas until the rains re-irrigate the wet season marshlands.
Many tour operators organize boat rides on the Corrobici or the Bebedero Rivers to see a multitude of birds, monkeys, crocodiles etc.
Rincon de la Vieja National Park
This is quite a unique park, packed with immense diversity in both animal and plant species and in its geologic formations. Wildlife here ranges from the famous Resplendent Quetzal you find in more centrally located forests to woodpeckers found in dry forests. Of course, you still find motmots, tapirs, peccaries and coatimundis living side by side with armadillos, monkeys and toucans.
Now about that volcano …. Rincon has several cones, lagoons and craters, which have given it the nickname, “The Yellowstone of Costa Rica”. It has erupted at least 12 times since 1860. Although it’s still very active, scientists believe that the abundance of fumaroles, boiling mud pots, springs and sulphuric steam vents help it to let off enough pressure to prevent a big explosion. There are lots of trails through these wondrous sights, so you’ll have no problem getting photos of the rainbow-hued landscape, coloured by minerals the volcano emits through steam vents.
ARENAL VOLCANO
In July of 1968, the people of Arenal Hill were suddenly made to realize that what they always thought was a harmless hill was actually a violent, resting volcano. This volcano came to life, in a fury of rocks, lava and ash. It devastated the west flank and caused 78 deaths. Intermittent rumbling, explosions and nocturnal fire-spitting are the mesmerizing features that draw visitors to its base by day and night. Clouds often obscure the summit, but when lava flows cascade, incandescent rocks fly and Arenal roars, few forget it. Its flanks have been declared a national park but the nocturnal light show can be witnessed equally well from outside the boundary.
SANTA ROSA
This remarkably hot park preserves more than 120,000 acres of tropical dry forest and overgrazed pastures hugging the coastline of the peninsula, Santa Elena, where its purpose is to protect turtle nesting grounds. Easy to access and well structured, Santa Rosa was the site of three historic battles to preserve Costa Rica’s independence. The first and most dramatic in 1856, is well illustrated by the exhibits at the small museum of La Casona.
There are many trails for hiking through the tropical dry forest out to the beaches, where it is possible to camp overnight with a permit.
LAS BAULAS NATIONAL MARINE PARK
Playa Grande plays host to the giant Leatherback (baulas) turtles. This giant of the turtle world measures up to eight feet and weighs around 1,500 pounds. Unlike other turtles, it does not have a hard shell but a thick, black, leathery skin; nor does it show strong fidelity to a particular nesting site. Solitary female leatherbacks, come ashore on the Pacific coast usually between October and February to dig their huge nests where they lay about 100 eggs in a laborious nocturnal operation, before covering them with sand and wading back to sea.
Sources: ICT, Fodor’s and several web sites on Costa Rica.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Costa Rica Whales - A Cross-Species Costa Ballena Encounter That's NOT to be Missed
Lois M. Smith - September 28, 2007
The boat is quietly rocking in the gentle swells. We have come close to a place not too far offshore where our guide had spotted a blow, an eight-foot geyser of spray like a salty feather adorning a dark lump in the glassy green of the sea. We had all caught a glimpse of a tail, and nearby, a bit of fin, and then nothing. So we sit, silently drifting in the coastal current.
There is something quite unnerving about knowing that somewhere down in the depths below your suddenly small-seeming boat an intelligent and fully adapted creature the length of a ranch house is torpedoing through the coolness, chugging schools of small herring and not-quite-so-small mackerel like a college pledge on a spring-break bender.
Shadowy intimations of ancient Pinocchio-prompted terrors creep out of deep storage. Tick... tock... Then someone shouts and points, and we turn our heads just as a 100 yards away, this gloriously slick black and white-bellied creature in a staggering feat of strength, propels twenty-five tons of itself completely free of all marine clutches, and hangs, horizontally suspended, for a split second of time standing still, before the clock restarts with the jolting slap-swoosh of the mother of all belly flops.
Every human jaw is slack and open, every heart is pounding: it is an epiphanic moment. "That," shouts the guide, "was one heck of a humpback breach!" "Funny," I think, "it looked like Yahweh to me."
Whale watching is one of those thrills that help clarify your place in the universe; it is a heartening and humbling experience that's not to be missed. Fortunately, there are few places in the world that rival Costa Rica's southern Pacific zone as a prime spot for close cetacean encounters - cetacea being the name for the order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The jungle-lined shores that stretch south of Dominical have even come to be known as the Ballena Coast, with ballena the Spanish word for whale.
Sierra Goodman of the Vida Marina Foundation (Fundación Vida Marina) explains that there is a very good reason that this area draws so many whales.
It is called the Costa Rican Thermal Convection Dome, a rich ecological zone that results from a layer of warm water that perches atop cold, low-oxygen depths. This convergence of habitats brings together a great diversity of ocean life. Costa Rica's is the only constant thermal convection dome in the world.
Sierra knows a lot about what goes on in the waters off the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast because she has spent the past ten years studying this fabulously rich marine laboratory and, in particular, documenting its cetacean population.
The Vida Marina Foundation, which she founded, seeks first and foremost to protect and preserve the marine habitat, promoting research and public education as key components of that goal.
One of the most immediate and effective ways of educating the public is through whale-watching excursions. And guess who runs some of the best and most respectful whale- and dolphin-watching trips in Costa Rica? That's right, Sierra Goodman through the Vida Marina Whale and Dolphin Research Tours located in Drake Bay.
"Costa Rica has the longest humpback whale season in the world, because whales from both the northern and the southern hemispheres come to winter here," says Sierra. If seeing a humpback is your dream, the prospects are good now through March, beginning again in July. And it looks like 2007 is a banner year. "There are just so many humpbacks out there, it's amazing!" she exclaims.
However humpbacks are not the only mammals to be spotted on the Vida Marina trips in Drake Bay and beyond. Also routinely seen are orcas, pilot whales, Sei whales, Brydes whales, beaked whales, and pseudo orcas. And that's just the whales.
Sierra points out that there are huge and diverse populations of dolphins, including common, bottlenose - one resident bottlenose pod numbers more than 1000 - pantropical spotted dolphins, rough-tooth dolphins, and Costa Rica's very own sub-species of spinner dolphins. Not infrequently, Sierra and her crew come upon injured and scarred mammals during their excursions. While many potential dangers exist, perhaps the greatest threat to Costa Rica's cetacea population is commercial fishing, particularly domestic and foreign long-line fishing boats and shrimpers who injure and kill countless whales and dolphins each year.
Humpback whales by the beach in Costa Rica
Sierra is optimistic that the Vida Marina Foundation working in alliance with national and international organizations such as the Mar Viva Foundation and the Nature Conservancy will eventually convince the Costa Rican government to protect the waters surrounding the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast.
Sierra acknowledges that an important aspect of achieving a partial or complete fishing ban is to provide alternate employment to the fishermen who now make their living off these waters. "We just can't say, 'Well that's done, tough luck, guys!'"
Some fishermen, however, are already leaving their dangerous and demanding profession, lured into safer and more lucrative employment by the influx of international tourism that is drawn to the area in no small part by whale-watching opportunities. Some former fisherman have even joined the ranks of whale-watching providers.
There is little doubt that the slow recovery of the humpback whale population, as well as that of other cetacea species, is due to international efforts to curb whale hunting.
The growing educational and economic value of whale watching in Costa Rica has played a part in the resurgence of national interest in the issue at the government level, as became evident earlier this year. Costa Rica has been a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC,) since 1981, but until this year had not sent a representative to the annual meetings for some twenty-three years.
The degree of renewed Costa Rican interest in whale-related matters was reflected in the fact that the nation sent none other than its own Minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles Mora, as delegate to the 2007 IWC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
Uninfluenced by recent acts of Japanese generosity in Costa Rica, Mr. Mora proceeded to vote against Japanese attempts to suspend the hunting ban and to justify its own hunting for "research" purposes. By the end of the meeting, Costa Rica had emerged as an influential and important member of the critical Latin American IWC contingent.
This is seen as a very positive step by Sierra Goodman, who notes that the Costa Rican Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE) has been very helpful and supportive of the Vida Marina Foundation's efforts to protect the waters off Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast.
"Costa Rica is world-famous for its rainforest, and rightly so," Sierra notes. "But what people don't realize is that Costa Rica's marine zones are equally astounding, they're an unbelievable natural treasure just offshore."
Sir Francis Drake might have found little action to his liking in the area, but you're sure to be far luckier. If you happen to be headed that way, be sure to let Sierra show you just what she's talking about!
The boat is quietly rocking in the gentle swells. We have come close to a place not too far offshore where our guide had spotted a blow, an eight-foot geyser of spray like a salty feather adorning a dark lump in the glassy green of the sea. We had all caught a glimpse of a tail, and nearby, a bit of fin, and then nothing. So we sit, silently drifting in the coastal current.
There is something quite unnerving about knowing that somewhere down in the depths below your suddenly small-seeming boat an intelligent and fully adapted creature the length of a ranch house is torpedoing through the coolness, chugging schools of small herring and not-quite-so-small mackerel like a college pledge on a spring-break bender.
Shadowy intimations of ancient Pinocchio-prompted terrors creep out of deep storage. Tick... tock... Then someone shouts and points, and we turn our heads just as a 100 yards away, this gloriously slick black and white-bellied creature in a staggering feat of strength, propels twenty-five tons of itself completely free of all marine clutches, and hangs, horizontally suspended, for a split second of time standing still, before the clock restarts with the jolting slap-swoosh of the mother of all belly flops.
Every human jaw is slack and open, every heart is pounding: it is an epiphanic moment. "That," shouts the guide, "was one heck of a humpback breach!" "Funny," I think, "it looked like Yahweh to me."
Whale watching is one of those thrills that help clarify your place in the universe; it is a heartening and humbling experience that's not to be missed. Fortunately, there are few places in the world that rival Costa Rica's southern Pacific zone as a prime spot for close cetacean encounters - cetacea being the name for the order that includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The jungle-lined shores that stretch south of Dominical have even come to be known as the Ballena Coast, with ballena the Spanish word for whale.
Sierra Goodman of the Vida Marina Foundation (Fundación Vida Marina) explains that there is a very good reason that this area draws so many whales.
It is called the Costa Rican Thermal Convection Dome, a rich ecological zone that results from a layer of warm water that perches atop cold, low-oxygen depths. This convergence of habitats brings together a great diversity of ocean life. Costa Rica's is the only constant thermal convection dome in the world.
Sierra knows a lot about what goes on in the waters off the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast because she has spent the past ten years studying this fabulously rich marine laboratory and, in particular, documenting its cetacean population.
The Vida Marina Foundation, which she founded, seeks first and foremost to protect and preserve the marine habitat, promoting research and public education as key components of that goal.
One of the most immediate and effective ways of educating the public is through whale-watching excursions. And guess who runs some of the best and most respectful whale- and dolphin-watching trips in Costa Rica? That's right, Sierra Goodman through the Vida Marina Whale and Dolphin Research Tours located in Drake Bay.
"Costa Rica has the longest humpback whale season in the world, because whales from both the northern and the southern hemispheres come to winter here," says Sierra. If seeing a humpback is your dream, the prospects are good now through March, beginning again in July. And it looks like 2007 is a banner year. "There are just so many humpbacks out there, it's amazing!" she exclaims.
However humpbacks are not the only mammals to be spotted on the Vida Marina trips in Drake Bay and beyond. Also routinely seen are orcas, pilot whales, Sei whales, Brydes whales, beaked whales, and pseudo orcas. And that's just the whales.
Sierra points out that there are huge and diverse populations of dolphins, including common, bottlenose - one resident bottlenose pod numbers more than 1000 - pantropical spotted dolphins, rough-tooth dolphins, and Costa Rica's very own sub-species of spinner dolphins. Not infrequently, Sierra and her crew come upon injured and scarred mammals during their excursions. While many potential dangers exist, perhaps the greatest threat to Costa Rica's cetacea population is commercial fishing, particularly domestic and foreign long-line fishing boats and shrimpers who injure and kill countless whales and dolphins each year.
Humpback whales by the beach in Costa Rica
Sierra is optimistic that the Vida Marina Foundation working in alliance with national and international organizations such as the Mar Viva Foundation and the Nature Conservancy will eventually convince the Costa Rican government to protect the waters surrounding the Osa Peninsula and Ballena Coast.
Sierra acknowledges that an important aspect of achieving a partial or complete fishing ban is to provide alternate employment to the fishermen who now make their living off these waters. "We just can't say, 'Well that's done, tough luck, guys!'"
Some fishermen, however, are already leaving their dangerous and demanding profession, lured into safer and more lucrative employment by the influx of international tourism that is drawn to the area in no small part by whale-watching opportunities. Some former fisherman have even joined the ranks of whale-watching providers.
There is little doubt that the slow recovery of the humpback whale population, as well as that of other cetacea species, is due to international efforts to curb whale hunting.
The growing educational and economic value of whale watching in Costa Rica has played a part in the resurgence of national interest in the issue at the government level, as became evident earlier this year. Costa Rica has been a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC,) since 1981, but until this year had not sent a representative to the annual meetings for some twenty-three years.
The degree of renewed Costa Rican interest in whale-related matters was reflected in the fact that the nation sent none other than its own Minister of the Environment, Roberto Dobles Mora, as delegate to the 2007 IWC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
Uninfluenced by recent acts of Japanese generosity in Costa Rica, Mr. Mora proceeded to vote against Japanese attempts to suspend the hunting ban and to justify its own hunting for "research" purposes. By the end of the meeting, Costa Rica had emerged as an influential and important member of the critical Latin American IWC contingent.
This is seen as a very positive step by Sierra Goodman, who notes that the Costa Rican Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE) has been very helpful and supportive of the Vida Marina Foundation's efforts to protect the waters off Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast.
"Costa Rica is world-famous for its rainforest, and rightly so," Sierra notes. "But what people don't realize is that Costa Rica's marine zones are equally astounding, they're an unbelievable natural treasure just offshore."
Sir Francis Drake might have found little action to his liking in the area, but you're sure to be far luckier. If you happen to be headed that way, be sure to let Sierra show you just what she's talking about!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Costa Rica Hurricanes - Fact or Fiction?
Manuel Pinto - Costa Rica
On Saturday 29th October 2005 Hurricane Beta turned into a strong Category 3 storm and was about to hit the coast of Nicaragua.
Here in Puerto Viejo, the town is empty of tourists and the San José weekend Ticos. In San José, the advice to anyone even considering coming to the Costa Rican Southern Caribbean Coast (Caribe Sur) this week is this: Are you crazy?
They explain that there is a strong hurricane nearby and conditions are horrible. The roads may be closed, flooding and very high winds. Stay away at all costs.
Our friends, our attorney, clients and tourists - everyone has been calling or writing us with deep sincere concern. Be careful! Get out! You are going to get hit by the hurricane!
But it's a myth!
So, here we find ourselves on Saturday morning - hours before Hurricane Wassername does lash out it's fury on the Nicaraguan Coast and we pray for those that will be affected.
In the meantime, here in Caribe Sur (Puerto Viejo, Cahuita & Manzanillo), the ocean is calm, the sky is blue, there is a slight breeze in the air and the birds and monkeys are singing. In about an hour, we'll be going snorkeling where the water visibility is 10+ meters.
At lunch time, we have a BBQ planned in the yard with friends that felt adventurous enough to come down for the weekend despite all the advice they received in San José.
In the afternoon, we'll take a hike along one of the beautiful pristine virgin beaches, where the water is Caribbean Blue and the concept of paradise seems to have been found.
I've seen plenty of articles warning tourists and residents about being careful with the Caribbean Coast, as it is supposedly vulnerable to hurricanes. This is not correct!
Hurricanes in the southern Costa Rica region are a myth!
Another in a long list of myths about the Southern Caribbean region. In fact, by definition, it is impossible to have hurricanes here.
We are located at the 9.6th latitude, below the 10th parallel. Except in extreme exceptions, hurricanes can NOT go below the 10th parallel! In other words, it is almost impossible for us to ever get hit by a hurricane.
I have not been ble to find any mention of our region ever coming close to getting directly hit by a hurricane, neither is it particularly vulnerable to other hurricanes - out there.
We are one of the very few locations of the entire Caribbean Basin that are actually immune from hurricanes. In extreme cases, we may the feel secondary effects such as some sub tropical force winds or an increase in rain, but even this time with such a big storm visiting our northern neighbor the sun is shining and the seas are tranquilo! Puravida!
On Saturday 29th October 2005 Hurricane Beta turned into a strong Category 3 storm and was about to hit the coast of Nicaragua.
Here in Puerto Viejo, the town is empty of tourists and the San José weekend Ticos. In San José, the advice to anyone even considering coming to the Costa Rican Southern Caribbean Coast (Caribe Sur) this week is this: Are you crazy?
They explain that there is a strong hurricane nearby and conditions are horrible. The roads may be closed, flooding and very high winds. Stay away at all costs.
Our friends, our attorney, clients and tourists - everyone has been calling or writing us with deep sincere concern. Be careful! Get out! You are going to get hit by the hurricane!
But it's a myth!
So, here we find ourselves on Saturday morning - hours before Hurricane Wassername does lash out it's fury on the Nicaraguan Coast and we pray for those that will be affected.
In the meantime, here in Caribe Sur (Puerto Viejo, Cahuita & Manzanillo), the ocean is calm, the sky is blue, there is a slight breeze in the air and the birds and monkeys are singing. In about an hour, we'll be going snorkeling where the water visibility is 10+ meters.
At lunch time, we have a BBQ planned in the yard with friends that felt adventurous enough to come down for the weekend despite all the advice they received in San José.
In the afternoon, we'll take a hike along one of the beautiful pristine virgin beaches, where the water is Caribbean Blue and the concept of paradise seems to have been found.
I've seen plenty of articles warning tourists and residents about being careful with the Caribbean Coast, as it is supposedly vulnerable to hurricanes. This is not correct!
Hurricanes in the southern Costa Rica region are a myth!
Another in a long list of myths about the Southern Caribbean region. In fact, by definition, it is impossible to have hurricanes here.
We are located at the 9.6th latitude, below the 10th parallel. Except in extreme exceptions, hurricanes can NOT go below the 10th parallel! In other words, it is almost impossible for us to ever get hit by a hurricane.
I have not been ble to find any mention of our region ever coming close to getting directly hit by a hurricane, neither is it particularly vulnerable to other hurricanes - out there.
We are one of the very few locations of the entire Caribbean Basin that are actually immune from hurricanes. In extreme cases, we may the feel secondary effects such as some sub tropical force winds or an increase in rain, but even this time with such a big storm visiting our northern neighbor the sun is shining and the seas are tranquilo! Puravida!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Costa Rica Wildlife - A Jaguar's Kiss
Dale Morris
I have been alone here for six long months. But never mind the lack of human company - I am truly happy with my beach, my paradise, my own forest, my own cliffs, my own sun and moon.
Costa Rica, so full of people, tourists, busy beaches and overbooked hotels, but not here, not at Nancite. Nobody lives in this place except myself. Sixty kilometers from the nearest settlement, it is a tiny dot on a map, set aside for its importance to the world of animals.
Permits are issued to those who want to come and see its wonders, but they seldom do - its too much effort to walk the demanding miles of muddy trails that one must traverse on foot to get here. I am allowed though, this is my research site, my beach, my paradise, my forest, my cliffs, my day and night and my own private natural marvels.
The very last hues of Tangerine and saffron fade into a deep textured Indigo like that of plush velvet drapes, streaked by a radial fan of hazy red fingers. The darkening sky, a star-studded blackness, advances slowly but surely, like treacle, over the fading colors. Inky black silently envelops the earth below and signifies the end of another hot balmy day. I peer out to sea and wait for them to come- it wont be long now.
Santa Rosa National park lies on the Central American Pacific coast and is one of the major breeding grounds for the Olive Ridley Sea turtle. I am here in order to study these huge 45kg animals as they lumber out of the sea to lay their eggs under the warm tropical sand. I have no electricity, no telephone, no outside contact what so ever- a stark change from London my hometown.
On one night, every month during the summer, they arrive in their thousands, filling up the beach so that there is no space to walk. It is one of the true spectacles of the natural world.
The first night.
By eleven forty five this one kilometer stretch of sand has become congested with shelled reptiles, in places, stacked two or three high in the headlong scramble to find a viable nesting spot.
I am knocked off my feet (literally as well as metaphorically) whilst making my way as best I can up and down the beach. This is only the beginning of four nights falling down deep holes previously abandoned by digging turtles. My ankles and shins are bruised and swollen from the repeated butting and scraping of turtles totally oblivious to my presence. They have but one goal, to dig, to lay, to return to the sea.
With up to twenty thousand miniature tanks trundling their way towards me, beach space is at a premium.
The third night.
I am suffering from severe sleep deprivation. Coffee supplies have long since run out and I have begun to hallucinate. In the darkness I imagine the elongated shapes of nonexistent crocodiles lurking between the turtles while human shadows flick in and out of the edges of my vision.
The fourth night.
At three in the morning the turtle numbers start to wind down. Eventually there are less than a hundred of them on the beach, a great opportunity to catch a quick nap before I declare the riot officially over.
I pull my white sheet out of my backpack and make myself comfortable above the high tide mark and within seconds I have fallen into a deep sleep.
It seems only moments later that I awake with the sensation that something warm and wet has just touched my face. In my groggy state I can just make out the silhouette of an animal standing over my outstretched feet. It is not a turtle!
In the near complete darkness I arrive at the conclusion that a rather bold coyote has discovered me and has come to take a closer look. I sit bolt upright, fully expecting the coyote to realize it's mistake, turn tail and flee, but still the dark shape does not move.
When I finally get my flashlight to work and point it at the offending shape I get the shock of my life. Standing not two meters away from me, illuminated in the yellow light of the torch beam is a full-grown male jaguar.
"Whoosh" an instant hit of adrenalin, time slows down, my senses snap to focus with a clarity I am unfamiliar with.
For some strange reason, my initial reaction is to bombard this huge cat with a string of foul language at the top of my voice. This has no effect; he just stands there, motionless with his beautiful amber eyes staring into my own. I then remember my sheet and the golden rule of look bigger, look bigger, when facing a predator. So begins a frantic sheet waving session. I flap it over and around my head and flick it out towards his motionless figure but he is not impressed!
Seeing as this does not terrify him into making a speedy retreat, I hurl the sheet directly at him. It covers the front of his body completely, but then he shakes that enormous head of his and the sheet falls to the ground and rests crumpled at his forepaws.
Time for plan C! Crouching down I begin to throw handfuls of sand at him, the only available material on the beach, but the wind prevents any of my badly aimed missiles from hitting home, I succeeded only in getting a mouth full of sand and half blinding myself.
Then I remembered the big steel calipers I use for measuring turtles. They are on the ground behind me. I grab them and start to beat the sand at the jaguar's feet. This goes on for some moments, but eventually he turns and trots back towards the forest. He stops again, about ten meters away from me and turns his head to look one more time with piercing eyes. Then with a flick of his mottled tail, he is gone.
The following morning.
I return to the scene of the encounter. In the sand, the imprint of my sleeping form is clearly discernible, and next to it the prints of the jaguar are placed either side of where my head had been.
Everyone comes to Costa Rica with the hope of catching a glimpse of the world's most magnificent cat. Virtually none of these people will realize this dream, this animal is almost extinct due to human persecution.
I feel privileged and honoured to have had this experience, and I only need close my eyes to see his eyes, amber within amber, and feel the warmth of his kiss upon my face
Dale Morris and his wife Sasha left Great Britain 11 years ago and he has written numerous articles about wild animals in Costa Rica since 1997. Dale works as a freelance nature writer and photographer and his work has been published in BBC Wildlife, Geographical and Global Adventure and regularly contributes to 'Costa Rica Outdoor' Magazine and Asahi weekly in Japan.
Together, Dale and his wife have worked in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Costa Rica and Scotland and have been attacked by mosquitoes, killer ants, monkeys, chimpanzees, jaguars, fish with sharp teeth, scorpions, bees, bears, giraffe, elephants and drunken Scotsmen during that time.
I have been alone here for six long months. But never mind the lack of human company - I am truly happy with my beach, my paradise, my own forest, my own cliffs, my own sun and moon.
Costa Rica, so full of people, tourists, busy beaches and overbooked hotels, but not here, not at Nancite. Nobody lives in this place except myself. Sixty kilometers from the nearest settlement, it is a tiny dot on a map, set aside for its importance to the world of animals.
Permits are issued to those who want to come and see its wonders, but they seldom do - its too much effort to walk the demanding miles of muddy trails that one must traverse on foot to get here. I am allowed though, this is my research site, my beach, my paradise, my forest, my cliffs, my day and night and my own private natural marvels.
The very last hues of Tangerine and saffron fade into a deep textured Indigo like that of plush velvet drapes, streaked by a radial fan of hazy red fingers. The darkening sky, a star-studded blackness, advances slowly but surely, like treacle, over the fading colors. Inky black silently envelops the earth below and signifies the end of another hot balmy day. I peer out to sea and wait for them to come- it wont be long now.
Santa Rosa National park lies on the Central American Pacific coast and is one of the major breeding grounds for the Olive Ridley Sea turtle. I am here in order to study these huge 45kg animals as they lumber out of the sea to lay their eggs under the warm tropical sand. I have no electricity, no telephone, no outside contact what so ever- a stark change from London my hometown.
On one night, every month during the summer, they arrive in their thousands, filling up the beach so that there is no space to walk. It is one of the true spectacles of the natural world.
The first night.
By eleven forty five this one kilometer stretch of sand has become congested with shelled reptiles, in places, stacked two or three high in the headlong scramble to find a viable nesting spot.
I am knocked off my feet (literally as well as metaphorically) whilst making my way as best I can up and down the beach. This is only the beginning of four nights falling down deep holes previously abandoned by digging turtles. My ankles and shins are bruised and swollen from the repeated butting and scraping of turtles totally oblivious to my presence. They have but one goal, to dig, to lay, to return to the sea.
With up to twenty thousand miniature tanks trundling their way towards me, beach space is at a premium.
The third night.
I am suffering from severe sleep deprivation. Coffee supplies have long since run out and I have begun to hallucinate. In the darkness I imagine the elongated shapes of nonexistent crocodiles lurking between the turtles while human shadows flick in and out of the edges of my vision.
The fourth night.
At three in the morning the turtle numbers start to wind down. Eventually there are less than a hundred of them on the beach, a great opportunity to catch a quick nap before I declare the riot officially over.
I pull my white sheet out of my backpack and make myself comfortable above the high tide mark and within seconds I have fallen into a deep sleep.
It seems only moments later that I awake with the sensation that something warm and wet has just touched my face. In my groggy state I can just make out the silhouette of an animal standing over my outstretched feet. It is not a turtle!
In the near complete darkness I arrive at the conclusion that a rather bold coyote has discovered me and has come to take a closer look. I sit bolt upright, fully expecting the coyote to realize it's mistake, turn tail and flee, but still the dark shape does not move.
When I finally get my flashlight to work and point it at the offending shape I get the shock of my life. Standing not two meters away from me, illuminated in the yellow light of the torch beam is a full-grown male jaguar.
"Whoosh" an instant hit of adrenalin, time slows down, my senses snap to focus with a clarity I am unfamiliar with.
For some strange reason, my initial reaction is to bombard this huge cat with a string of foul language at the top of my voice. This has no effect; he just stands there, motionless with his beautiful amber eyes staring into my own. I then remember my sheet and the golden rule of look bigger, look bigger, when facing a predator. So begins a frantic sheet waving session. I flap it over and around my head and flick it out towards his motionless figure but he is not impressed!
Seeing as this does not terrify him into making a speedy retreat, I hurl the sheet directly at him. It covers the front of his body completely, but then he shakes that enormous head of his and the sheet falls to the ground and rests crumpled at his forepaws.
Time for plan C! Crouching down I begin to throw handfuls of sand at him, the only available material on the beach, but the wind prevents any of my badly aimed missiles from hitting home, I succeeded only in getting a mouth full of sand and half blinding myself.
Then I remembered the big steel calipers I use for measuring turtles. They are on the ground behind me. I grab them and start to beat the sand at the jaguar's feet. This goes on for some moments, but eventually he turns and trots back towards the forest. He stops again, about ten meters away from me and turns his head to look one more time with piercing eyes. Then with a flick of his mottled tail, he is gone.
The following morning.
I return to the scene of the encounter. In the sand, the imprint of my sleeping form is clearly discernible, and next to it the prints of the jaguar are placed either side of where my head had been.
Everyone comes to Costa Rica with the hope of catching a glimpse of the world's most magnificent cat. Virtually none of these people will realize this dream, this animal is almost extinct due to human persecution.
I feel privileged and honoured to have had this experience, and I only need close my eyes to see his eyes, amber within amber, and feel the warmth of his kiss upon my face
Dale Morris and his wife Sasha left Great Britain 11 years ago and he has written numerous articles about wild animals in Costa Rica since 1997. Dale works as a freelance nature writer and photographer and his work has been published in BBC Wildlife, Geographical and Global Adventure and regularly contributes to 'Costa Rica Outdoor' Magazine and Asahi weekly in Japan.
Together, Dale and his wife have worked in Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Costa Rica and Scotland and have been attacked by mosquitoes, killer ants, monkeys, chimpanzees, jaguars, fish with sharp teeth, scorpions, bees, bears, giraffe, elephants and drunken Scotsmen during that time.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Billion Dollar Tourism Project For Guanacaste
Friday, August 31, 2007
By Ralph Nicholson
Two Hotels, Marina, Golf Course and 800 Home Sites
US developers on Wednesday announced plans for a 15-year, billion-dollar tourism project, to start construction in November on two beach-front properties in Guanacaste’s north.
The project, known simply as Guacamaya after one of the beaches, will include a Ritz Carlton hotel, a smaller, as-yet-unnamed boutique hotel, an 18-hole golf course, a 200-slip marina, an equestrian center and up to 800 single family homes.
For the first time, the project will include a desalinization plant that will turn sea water into drinking water and ease pressure on Guanacaste’s fragile water supplies.
“This further consolidates the area as a destination for the upscale tourist market,” said the Minister for Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, at a party to launch the project.
“To be chosen for the site of such an upscale or high end project, well, it is not every country that can do this,” he told about 120 invited guests from local and national government and the tourism industry.
Mr Benavides was speaking after officially opening the offices of Plantación Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, which will market and sell the residential arm of the project.
The development, to be built on about 800 hectares (2000 acres), is a partnership between Union Box Company of Baltimore in Maryland and Greenfield Partners, a privately-held real estate investment firm in South Norwalk, Connecticut.
The property, which was purchased in two chunks over three years, covers three, white-sand beaches --- Playas Guacamaya and Zapotal, plus the smaller Playa Celeste --- all about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Tamarindo.
A $100 million, 110-room Ritz Carlton hotel will be built across Zapotal beach, beginning construction late next year. Larry Silverstein, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Box Company, said he expected the hotel to be completed by the end of 2010.
“We talked to a number of hotels --- we approached some and others approached us --- but it was clear the Ritz was a very good fit for us,” Mr Silverstein said.
“That whole area is somewhat unknown,” he added. “For most people the world stops after Playa Potrero and starts again, further north, at Playa Ocotal. The Ritz is a distinct brand that can bring immediate recognition, as opposed to there being just another hotel.”
It is understood the developers will build the hotel, while the Ritz will lend its name to the structure, taking a management fee and a percentage of room sales, as has become customary with hotel projects.
Work on an 18-hole golf course, designed by architect Rees Jones, will start at the same time as the hotel. Mr Jones, who has designed more than 100 golf courses, mainly in the US, will lay out the course in the Zapotal Valley, which stretches about four kilometers back from the coast. There will be no residential sites within the valley.
A 200 slip marina, capable of docking so-called mega-yachts of up to 92 meters long (300 feet) will be sited at the southern end of the development, between Zapotal and Celeste beaches.
A boutique hotel, yet to be named, and of somewhere between 50 and 100 rooms, will be built to service the marina.
However, phase one, including more than 100 residential homes, will begin construction within three months, giving developers cash flow while they build the hotel, marina and golf course.
“We will release 140 lots to start with in what will be known as the Beach Village,” said Molly Harris, President of Plantación Properties.
“There will be architectural guidelines upon what people can build but at the same time our clients don’t want to deal with a cookie-cutter mentality,” Ms Harris said.
She confirmed house prices were likely to start around $800,000.
In phase two, luxury home lots --- about 100 of them --- will be released. Architects from both the United States and Costa Rica, will then build a variety of model homes. The houses will sell for between $5 and $10 million each.
There will be an equestrian center and horse trails throughout the property. Developers will also include a mountain-bike trail. Both are likely to spill over into neighboring properties as developers seek to share amenities.
In fact two other developments --- the Rosewood Hotel to the north and the project known as Las Catalinas to the south --- have already pledged to share such infrastructure as roadwork and possibly power.
It is also likely Guacamaya’s neighbors will want to share water infrastructure as well.
“The problem is not the existence of water but the infrastructure to distribute it,” Tourism Minister, Benevavides, said in response to questions. “And I have no doubt these projects are going to help us solve the problem.”
Mr Benavides confirmed the developers had formally asked for government assistance in setting up a desalinization plant.
“This is a brand new concept. We will be able to explain the project to the other institutions in the country and help them get through the red tape,” Mr Benavides said.
Mr Silverstein said the biggest challenges they faced were the same as for every developer along the coast --- a lack of infrastructure, finding a suitably skilled work-force and a backlog in supply of building materials.
“No there is not enough water,” he said. “We are not the only ones tapping that water reserve. We believe we have sufficient water to maintain the residential component, which is why we are building the desalinization plant.
“A desalinization plant is a new idea here, but the fact is that most of the resorts across the Caribbean are all operating on desalinized water.
“It is something we must do. I think what will bring buyers is the level of assurance we can give them. They want to be safe, they want water when they arrive here, and they want a constant supply of electricity.”
There have been a rash of developers announcing luxury hotel projects in the past 10 months.
The El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, has already broken ground on a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on the property known as Hacienda Pinilla, south of Tamarindo.
The US-based, Global Financial Group has also announced plans for a $300 million 320-room Hyatt resort in Brasilito, and late last year two Minnesota developers announced they would build a $120 million, 150-room Regent Hotel on Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula.
Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans last month to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels.
Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín.
By Ralph Nicholson
Two Hotels, Marina, Golf Course and 800 Home Sites
US developers on Wednesday announced plans for a 15-year, billion-dollar tourism project, to start construction in November on two beach-front properties in Guanacaste’s north.
The project, known simply as Guacamaya after one of the beaches, will include a Ritz Carlton hotel, a smaller, as-yet-unnamed boutique hotel, an 18-hole golf course, a 200-slip marina, an equestrian center and up to 800 single family homes.
For the first time, the project will include a desalinization plant that will turn sea water into drinking water and ease pressure on Guanacaste’s fragile water supplies.
“This further consolidates the area as a destination for the upscale tourist market,” said the Minister for Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, at a party to launch the project.
“To be chosen for the site of such an upscale or high end project, well, it is not every country that can do this,” he told about 120 invited guests from local and national government and the tourism industry.
Mr Benavides was speaking after officially opening the offices of Plantación Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, which will market and sell the residential arm of the project.
The development, to be built on about 800 hectares (2000 acres), is a partnership between Union Box Company of Baltimore in Maryland and Greenfield Partners, a privately-held real estate investment firm in South Norwalk, Connecticut.
The property, which was purchased in two chunks over three years, covers three, white-sand beaches --- Playas Guacamaya and Zapotal, plus the smaller Playa Celeste --- all about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Tamarindo.
A $100 million, 110-room Ritz Carlton hotel will be built across Zapotal beach, beginning construction late next year. Larry Silverstein, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Box Company, said he expected the hotel to be completed by the end of 2010.
“We talked to a number of hotels --- we approached some and others approached us --- but it was clear the Ritz was a very good fit for us,” Mr Silverstein said.
“That whole area is somewhat unknown,” he added. “For most people the world stops after Playa Potrero and starts again, further north, at Playa Ocotal. The Ritz is a distinct brand that can bring immediate recognition, as opposed to there being just another hotel.”
It is understood the developers will build the hotel, while the Ritz will lend its name to the structure, taking a management fee and a percentage of room sales, as has become customary with hotel projects.
Work on an 18-hole golf course, designed by architect Rees Jones, will start at the same time as the hotel. Mr Jones, who has designed more than 100 golf courses, mainly in the US, will lay out the course in the Zapotal Valley, which stretches about four kilometers back from the coast. There will be no residential sites within the valley.
A 200 slip marina, capable of docking so-called mega-yachts of up to 92 meters long (300 feet) will be sited at the southern end of the development, between Zapotal and Celeste beaches.
A boutique hotel, yet to be named, and of somewhere between 50 and 100 rooms, will be built to service the marina.
However, phase one, including more than 100 residential homes, will begin construction within three months, giving developers cash flow while they build the hotel, marina and golf course.
“We will release 140 lots to start with in what will be known as the Beach Village,” said Molly Harris, President of Plantación Properties.
“There will be architectural guidelines upon what people can build but at the same time our clients don’t want to deal with a cookie-cutter mentality,” Ms Harris said.
She confirmed house prices were likely to start around $800,000.
In phase two, luxury home lots --- about 100 of them --- will be released. Architects from both the United States and Costa Rica, will then build a variety of model homes. The houses will sell for between $5 and $10 million each.
There will be an equestrian center and horse trails throughout the property. Developers will also include a mountain-bike trail. Both are likely to spill over into neighboring properties as developers seek to share amenities.
In fact two other developments --- the Rosewood Hotel to the north and the project known as Las Catalinas to the south --- have already pledged to share such infrastructure as roadwork and possibly power.
It is also likely Guacamaya’s neighbors will want to share water infrastructure as well.
“The problem is not the existence of water but the infrastructure to distribute it,” Tourism Minister, Benevavides, said in response to questions. “And I have no doubt these projects are going to help us solve the problem.”
Mr Benavides confirmed the developers had formally asked for government assistance in setting up a desalinization plant.
“This is a brand new concept. We will be able to explain the project to the other institutions in the country and help them get through the red tape,” Mr Benavides said.
Mr Silverstein said the biggest challenges they faced were the same as for every developer along the coast --- a lack of infrastructure, finding a suitably skilled work-force and a backlog in supply of building materials.
“No there is not enough water,” he said. “We are not the only ones tapping that water reserve. We believe we have sufficient water to maintain the residential component, which is why we are building the desalinization plant.
“A desalinization plant is a new idea here, but the fact is that most of the resorts across the Caribbean are all operating on desalinized water.
“It is something we must do. I think what will bring buyers is the level of assurance we can give them. They want to be safe, they want water when they arrive here, and they want a constant supply of electricity.”
There have been a rash of developers announcing luxury hotel projects in the past 10 months.
The El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, has already broken ground on a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on the property known as Hacienda Pinilla, south of Tamarindo.
The US-based, Global Financial Group has also announced plans for a $300 million 320-room Hyatt resort in Brasilito, and late last year two Minnesota developers announced they would build a $120 million, 150-room Regent Hotel on Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula.
Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans last month to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels.
Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Punto Cacique - Major Development August 5, 2007
AOL founder planning $800 million project in Guanacaste
By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Another major project has been announced for northwest Costa Rica, and this one, at Punto Cacique, has some big names at the helm.
The first is Steve Case, the chairman, who was here Friday presenting the project before President Óscar Arias Sánchez. Vice chairman of the parent firm is Philippe Bourguignon, former president of Club Med and president and chief executive officer of Euro Disney.
The president of the parent firm, Revolution Places, is Donn Davis, who with Case helped build America Online, the Internet firm. The company has Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famous undersea explorer, as an environmental adviser.
The project is being presented as an integrated luxury resort. The first phase, due to open in 2010, is on 263 hectares, about 650 acres. The estimated investment is $800 million, said the company. The project seeks to bring in One & Only Resorts, which will build 120 detached casitas. Also planned is an 18-hole golf course and a tennis center. Exclusive Reports was listed to build 30 residences. Miraval Cacique is contracted to build 60 villas and 120 luxury rooms.
The location is just north of Playas del Coco.
Although Case and his associates do not have extensive experience in real estate development here, the president of Revolution Places Costa Rica is Darren Linnartz, who worked for 15 years with Marriott/Ritz Carlton.
As expected Casa Presidencial praised the plan and said that the project would provide jobs for 2,500 direct and indirect employees.
The project also would generate $20 million in taxes.
A.M. Costa Rica/José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
Steve Case walks with Óscar Arias at Casa Presidencial.
The company promised to donate a million trees for a conservation group to plant nearby and $1 million for organizations that develop initiatives to protect the Costa Rican environment.
The Pacific coast of Guanacaste is facing serious infrastructure problems, not the least of which is the availability of good water. Another major project, involving an estimated $600 million investment, was announced for Esparza earlier this year.
The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo said that more than $2 billion in projects have been announced for Costa Rica this year. Those in the real estate industry estimate that only about 30 percent may actually be built.
By José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Another major project has been announced for northwest Costa Rica, and this one, at Punto Cacique, has some big names at the helm.
The first is Steve Case, the chairman, who was here Friday presenting the project before President Óscar Arias Sánchez. Vice chairman of the parent firm is Philippe Bourguignon, former president of Club Med and president and chief executive officer of Euro Disney.
The president of the parent firm, Revolution Places, is Donn Davis, who with Case helped build America Online, the Internet firm. The company has Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the famous undersea explorer, as an environmental adviser.
The project is being presented as an integrated luxury resort. The first phase, due to open in 2010, is on 263 hectares, about 650 acres. The estimated investment is $800 million, said the company. The project seeks to bring in One & Only Resorts, which will build 120 detached casitas. Also planned is an 18-hole golf course and a tennis center. Exclusive Reports was listed to build 30 residences. Miraval Cacique is contracted to build 60 villas and 120 luxury rooms.
The location is just north of Playas del Coco.
Although Case and his associates do not have extensive experience in real estate development here, the president of Revolution Places Costa Rica is Darren Linnartz, who worked for 15 years with Marriott/Ritz Carlton.
As expected Casa Presidencial praised the plan and said that the project would provide jobs for 2,500 direct and indirect employees.
The project also would generate $20 million in taxes.
A.M. Costa Rica/José Pablo Ramírez Vindas
Steve Case walks with Óscar Arias at Casa Presidencial.
The company promised to donate a million trees for a conservation group to plant nearby and $1 million for organizations that develop initiatives to protect the Costa Rican environment.
The Pacific coast of Guanacaste is facing serious infrastructure problems, not the least of which is the availability of good water. Another major project, involving an estimated $600 million investment, was announced for Esparza earlier this year.
The Instituto Costarricense de Turismo said that more than $2 billion in projects have been announced for Costa Rica this year. Those in the real estate industry estimate that only about 30 percent may actually be built.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Costa Rica - The Ultimate Guide
Costa Rica: The Ultimate Guide
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Next >
With 4 percent of the earth's wildlife species, vast tropical rain forests, and live volcanoes, it's no wonder this former backpacker's haven in Central America has been discovered by the world.
By Heidi Sherman Mitchell, Travel + Leisure
Related Articles
• Brazil's Hidden Beaches
• The Next Wine Country: Chile
A dozen years ago, I spent a summer backpacking through South and Central America. Having lost my glasses somewhere along a four-day hike to Machu Picchu, I arrived in Costa Rica to find a wilderness where green landscapes blurred into turquoise horizons, red volcanic flames bled into the black night, and rainbow-tinted birds streaked across the sky. At that time, basic $20-a-night lodges were the only places to stay, and I moved around by public bus over bumpy roads in search of tiny surfing villages and cloud forests 6,000 feet up.
Nearly everyone I met was an American on a budget, there to catch the waves, study the turtles, and scope out the country's 10,000 species of plants and more than 230 kinds of mammals before the rest of the world discovered this Eden for themselves.
Even with my fuzzy perspective, I shared their urge to guard the fragile ecosystem of this "rich coast"--as Christopher Columbus named the country in 1502--from the onslaught of mass tourism. Once home, I complained about how developed it was (a lie) and how human intervention was destroying natural habitats (not an untruth: the golden toad, now believed to be extinct, was last seen in 1989). When I returned to Costa Rica a couple of years later--contact lenses, this time--the hues still blended like watercolors and the light breaking through the clouds above the Nicoya Peninsula was just as milky. What had changed was the country's newfound respect for its precious resources.
In the mid nineties, the government instituted the most progressive reforestation program in the Americas and began an international campaign to market the nation, wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, as an "ecologically friendly" destination. As a result, environmentally conscious backpackers like me were no longer the only ones heading to Costa Rica. Educated visitors with cash to burn flocked to see one of the most biologically varied places on the planet--the Switzerland-sized country is home to 4 percent of the earth's species of wildlife--and an ecotourism movement was born. Hotels built according to self-imposed conservationist standards couldn't be put up fast enough. Meanwhile, acres of clear-cut land began to grow back into secondary forests. Much of the guilt associated with being a tourist--contributing to erosion and over construction--was alleviated. Gradually, this secret natural world opened up.
This year, Costa Rica is expected to lure 1.2 million visitors, up 20 percent over last year. Following the opening of a Four Seasons resort in January, three major airlines increased direct service from Houston, Miami, and Atlanta into the country's second-largest airport, Liberia International (40 minutes from the hotel). Farther down the Pacific coast, dozens of equally luxurious boutique hotels have been built, and in the vast tropical reserves that cover 28 percent of the country, a handful of $500-a-night ecolodges have sprung up.
Though an affluent crowd has invaded this painted land, much of Costa Rica--its roads, its glacial pace--continues to try one's patience. A surfer I met on my first visit gave me some sage advice: Slow down, share the love. His voice has echoed in my head on return trips, and I've learned to adopt the mentality of the ticos (as locals are fondly called). I still want to protect the riches, but I no longer feel compelled to distort the facts about overdevelopment (there really isn't much) or to moan about the disappearing rain forests, which over the past 10 years have begun to reappear. I've even learned to laugh about the treacherous roads, which I now navigate with bilingual naturalist drivers in private vans rather than by public bus. There's just one aspect I take issue with: there's simply too much to do.
Lay of the Land
Choose your adventure wisely. Costa Rica isn't one of those places that you master on your first visit, or one that allows you to slip into a well-trodden circuit. The most developed country in Central America, Costa Rica has roads that are so poorly maintained, they would have been better left unpaved; pristine forests that are accessible only by lightplane, followed by taxi, then boat and, sometimes, foot; and a rainy season that can make moving from one place to the next unimaginable. Split down the middle by two mountain ranges, its 20,000 square miles include more than 750 miles of coastline along the Caribbean and the Pacific, with 12 tropical life zones in between. From west to east, Costa Rica is only 100 miles at its widest--but by car, that can mean a death-defying 12-hour journey. To make your trip easier, think of the country as five essential regions and pick two to visit (optimum time frames are provided below). Unless you've got a month, don't even attempt to hit all five.
Five Ways to Do Costa Rica
San Jose and the Central Valley
Time: One to two days. Home to almost one-third of the population, San José is surrounded by two volcanic mountain ranges. If the main airport weren't here, though, it would be tempting to skip the city and its suburbs altogether. Little more than a commercial hub, the area lacks the centuries-old cathedrals found in other Latin American cities. But it is an efficient place from which to begin an adventure.
From San José, you can visit a steaming volcano, Poás, or a fire-spewing one, Arenal; hike in a cloud forest; and tackle Class IV rapids--all in one day. Ticos argue over whether the Reventazón or the Pacuare is better for rafting, but the rivers have rapids ranging from Class II to Class IV and are the winter training grounds for a few Olympic kayaking teams. Costa Rica Sun Tours arranges expeditions down both of them.
Anyone wanting to stay in the heart of downtown books into Hotel Grano de Oro, a 100-year-old mansion whose 35 rooms are filled with antiques and contemporary furniture. The patio restaurant is always buzzing with local expense-account lunchers--the sea bass with macadamia nuts and orange glacé is deliciously sweet and salty. Hotel Alta, overlooking the central valley from Escazú, the expat neighborhood southwest of the city center, is close to San José's action (what there is of it, anyway). The 23-room hacienda-style inn has terra-cotta balconies and an Italian-tiled pool. Its tiered lobby doubles as a gallery, where, once every month, area artists host wine-and-cheese receptions.
Near the country's main airport, in Heredia, is the Gaudíesque Finca Rosa Blanca, surrounded by coffee plantations. The seven rooms and two villas of Teri and Glenn Jampol's bed-and-breakfast have arched windows, undulating wood-beamed ceilings, and access to a sunken lounge area that becomes a communal dining room at mealtimes. When I stayed there, Teri handed my infant son to the kitchen staff and joined my table for dinner. She'll also arrange any day trip you can cook up.
Traditionally, Costa Rica hasn't been a place known for fine cuisine. With the April opening of the Inn at Coyote Mountain, a 90-minute drive west of San José in San Ramón, the country's reputation as a food purgatory was transformed. On a remote hilltop, Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret, the chef-owners of Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia, have created an intimate retreat where aspiring chefs can join one- to three-day classes on "Caribbean-Creole" cooking (think tropical jambalaya). Built in the Mudejar style of architecture from Spain, the five-room inn has circular windows and glass-tile tubs, custom-made wrought-iron sconces and four-poster beds, and a spectacular Observatory Suite with its own spiral staircase.
Alajuela and Northern Guanacaste
Time: Four to five days. Inland from the white sands of the Pacific is one of the last intact dry tropical forests of Central America. These pristine stretches, alternating with clear-cut areas marked by lone umbrella-shaped conacaste trees shading humpbacked Brahman cows, rise up a volcanic mountain range to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in Puntarenas, an essential stop on any nature-lover's itinerary. Getting there requires a four-hour drive from San José or Liberia.
When I first came to Monteverde in the early nineties, I took a standing-room-only bus and stayed in a cabin with a shared bath. Not much has changed: most of the drive is up a precipitous, unpaved track (the area is too jagged for planes, too windy for helicopters), and properties marketed as luxury lodges are often quite disappointing. But it's worth the bother to see mist-shrouded trees draped in epiphytes, 450 species of birds, and views all the way west to the Nicoya Peninsula.
Settled by Alabama Quakers looking for a utopian escape from the Korean War draft, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and its closest town, Santa Elena, retain the tranquil, anti-establishment aura conferred on them by these immigrants. Hippie kids run the butterfly farm in nearby Cerro Plano, and you can get great thin-crust pepperoni slices at nearby pizzeria Johnny. The reserve allows only 160 visitors at a time on its brick paths. A handful of decent hotels line the road to the park; two stand out from the pack. Monteverde Lodge & Gardens has 27 rooms in an Arts and Crafts-style building, with a 12-person Jacuzzi that is in an acrylic-domed room apparently inspired by I. M. Pei's Louvre entrance. Fonda Vela, owned by two brothers, is half the price and just as nice, and its eight bungalows are within walking distance of the cloud forest's entrance.
Once you've completed the tough stuff--long hikes in the cloud forest, hours spent searching for a quetzal's nest--schedule some R&R at the beachfront Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo. Before the resort opened its 153 rooms and suites in January, getting to the Pacific coast of northern Guanacaste required chartering a plane or navigating bone-rattling potholed roads. Now major airlines fly direct to the nearby airport from the United States. Local architect Ronald Zürcher drew inspiration from butterfly wings and the backs of armadillos in his design for the resort's buildings, which are set on a steep hillside between two beaches. Arnold Palmer created the sprawling golf course. At the restaurant, chef James Cassidy (poached from Hawaii's Four Seasons Hualalai) makes Latin fusion dishes, such as the teetering tower of crab-and-avocado salad with red pepper sauce. Six other resorts are planned for the once-remote Papagayo Peninsula. What a difference a Four Seasons makes.
Nicoya Peninsula and Quepos
Time: Three to six days. Populated by American pensioners, international surfers, and tico farmers, this coastal corridor claims some of the country's finest hotels, all of them built with a conservationist's eye. You'd be mad to spend all your time lazing by the Costa Rican shore, but the region's dozens of beaches do come in handy for convalescing after a week spent trekking, tracking birds, and, let's be honest, driving. A ferry that crosses the Gulf of Nicoya connects the peninsula to the mainland at Puntarenas, near Manuel Antonio National Park, home to the country's most popular beach, which attracts swarms of backpackers and locals on holiday.
The nicest places to stay on the Nicoya Peninsula are the beachfront hotels that run south from Guanacaste all the way to the tip of the peninsula, at Montezuma. Hotel Punta Islita, owned by Harold Zürcher and designed by his brother, Ronald (creator of the Four Seasons at Papagayo), has occupied its own crescent-shaped black-sand beach and hillside for 10 years. Today its 43 thatched-roof rooms, suites, and casitas make up one of the most sophisticated addresses in the country. Guest quarters come with hand-hewn teak beds and hammocks angled to view the sun as it drops into the Pacific. Chef Pablo de la Torre prepares fresh ceviche and native fish dishes at Borrancho Beach Club (or on the sand with a bonfire, at no extra cost). An art gallery showcases local artisans' handicrafts. And a European-style spa opened in December.
Punta Islita is an extravagant refuge, but getting out of the resort is a nightmare: there are tide tables posted in both of the hotel's restaurants so that guests can escape before water floods the driveway. On my first visit, tempting fate, I left with only 15 minutes to spare and barely managed to cross the two rivers filling up with seawater that separated me from the main road. Harold Zürcher had not been so lucky: he'd lost his ATV the day before. Braving the tides--and the potholes--is par for the course on the Nicoya, which is why most guests fly into one of the charter airstrips scattered across the peninsula.
Florblanca, the newest addition to the luxury accommodations in Costa Rica, is just down the road from Punta Islita--but don't let that fool you. The quickest way to this resort, with its outdoor bathrooms, stucco porches, and gorgeous canopy beds, is to drive along the beach, which is subject to flooding at high tide. Regardless, Florblanca's 10 villas and its open-air restaurant (built from clear-cut wood that American owners Susan Money and Greg Mullins bought from farmers and saved for some 15 years) are always crowded--with surfers, honeymooners, and the occasional society-page regular.
When both Punta Islita and Florblanca are full, the nearby Hotel Milarepa offers consolation: its four bungalows stand beside the beach and a French chef prepares classic dishes with Caribbean ingredients.
For millionaires, there's Hacienda Cabo Velas, a 1,700-acre working ranch that goes for $65,000 a week and sleeps up to 12 people--who generally bypass the roads of Guanacaste and instead arrive by private plane on the property's own airstrip. From there, it's a short walk to a Spanish-colonial hacienda surrounded by four smaller thatched-roof ranchos, or to any of the five beaches on-site. Guests get it all: an Italian cook, a naturalist guide, a boat captain for tours of the mangroves, even a cowboy to lead horseback rides in the jungle.
Across the Gulf of Nicoya on the mainland, near Manuel Antonio National Park, adventurers can kick in their endorphins in countless ways: Equus Stables takes riders galloping and cantering along the sprawling white sands; Iguana Tours leads kayakers through mangrove swamps and estuaries to some of the park's emerald islets; the experienced guides of Blue Fin Sport Fishing let anglers pose for snapshots with their prize marlin, tuna, or sailfish before detaching the hook and setting their catch free.
Dozens of hotels around Manuel Antonio cater to every type of traveler (European, gay, vegetarian) on every type of budget, but the top spots are those with secluded suites on the ridge above the beach. The adults-only Makanda by the Sea, a collection of 11 freestanding villas, is encircled by a rain forest. Apart from the private cove and Japanese-inspired accommodations--notice the rock garden?--Makanda has that other luxury rarely found in Costa Rica: good food (fresh-fish tacos, blackened shrimp). Breakfast is presented on your private veranda; during lunch at the Sunspot Restaurant, you can spy toucans, two- and three-toed sloths, and spider monkeys.
Nearby, the spare wood-and-stucco cabanas at Tulemar, also on the ridge, are furnished with teak armoires, fully equipped kitchens, and jungle or ocean views from all sides of the octagonal structures. The seven just-opened deluxe bungalows emphasize space--1,400 square feet inside, 400 outside--and each has two bedrooms, a rainfall shower, a private garden or balcony, and panoramic vistas.
Osa Peninsula
Time: Five days. In southern Costa Rica, the remote Osa Peninsula is one of the most biologically dense tropical regions on earth. Scarlet macaws do flybys past the lodges, howler monkeys swing from the forest canopy, and whales migrate along the coast. Basically, if it lives and breathes in Costa Rica--caiman, iguana, sloth, jaguar--it probably resides in the nature preserves, public and private, that blanket this peninsula. Some of the world's first ecolodges were built in the undeveloped jungles of Drake Bay, Golfito, and Corcovado National Park; they are still models of sustainable tourism today.
When they opened Lapa Rios in 1993, Americans Karen and John Lewis pioneered the practice of ecotourism in Costa Rica. The 16-room hardwood-and-thatch resort on 1,000 protected acres of jungle and Pacific oceanfront continues to win conservation awards. Visitors often plan their Costa Rican vacations around availability at Lapa Rios, whose friendly service and surprisingly creative meals--not to mention alfresco showers, private decks, and abundant wildlife right outside your screen door--make up for the rickety prop plane (and the airsickness) that gets you there. Just be sure to take a low-numbered room: the higher they get, the farther the trek up and down the steep incline on which the villas are built.
The nearby Bosque del Cabo gets less attention but deserves equally high praise. Set at the end of a mile-long drive in another 500-acre preserve, its 13 bungalows have rustic cane beds, garden showers, and private sunbathing decks with hammocks. The expert forest guides on staff can take groups hiking, horseback riding, or flying over the trees on the hotel's zip lines
The newest biosensitive resort on the peninsula is the Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in 100,000-acre Corcovado National Park, across the Golfo Dulce from Golfito. Everything here is recycled: the four cabins and a four-bedroom house are made from farmed trees; covering the roofs are tiles made from bags that once used to protect banana stalks; and solar energy provides the electricity. Accessible only by boat, the hotel keeps guests busy with kayaking, fishing, snorkeling, windsurfing, and, of course, naturalist-guided hikes.
The only other place to stay inside the park is Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp. Guests fly into Drake Bay by prop plane, drive two hours to the shore, and then walk along the beach for 45 minutes to reach 20 steel-framed tents that guarantee utter privacy (from humans, anyway). A little pleading with the guides (and a lot of Valium for yourself) gets you and your partner harnessed into a bed built into a platform 100 feet above the jungle floor, where the two of you can spend a night under the stars.
Tortuguero
Time: Three to four days. If no one told you otherwise, you could easily mistake Tortuguero National Park, on Costa Rica's east coast, for the Amazon. This dense forest was carved out by a series of rivers and canals dug to ease the transport of timber before the area became protected in 1970. Easier to reach (and cheaper to stay in) than that other basin in South America, Tortuguero has turbulent Caribbean beaches that give safe haven to four turtle species, including the Atlantic green, during the summer nesting season. It's also the stamping ground of tapirs, caimans, anteaters, coatis, and the electric-blue morpho butterfly.
The hotels along Tortuguero's lagoon specialize in guided cruises down the area's waterways by canoe or small motorboat. You can get a free nature tour if you approach the hotels by water: your craft will be greeted with the squawks and screeches of countless species of birds and monkeys. Pachira Lodge, a rustic resort with almond-wood cabins and a pool shaped like a turtle, attracts a mostly European clientele, which gives it a relaxed, rather festive vibe. Tortuga Lodge, whose 24 rooms are distributed among five bungalows, has a lovely river-rock pool and excellent service: the general manager calls guests by name, and the chef can prepare basic dishes that aren't on the simple set menu. Both Pachira and Tortuga have plenty of kayaks and motorboats for canal cruising and are absolutely silent at night, save for the rhythmic rush of the Caribbean across the peninsula on the other side of the lagoon.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Next >
With 4 percent of the earth's wildlife species, vast tropical rain forests, and live volcanoes, it's no wonder this former backpacker's haven in Central America has been discovered by the world.
By Heidi Sherman Mitchell, Travel + Leisure
Related Articles
• Brazil's Hidden Beaches
• The Next Wine Country: Chile
A dozen years ago, I spent a summer backpacking through South and Central America. Having lost my glasses somewhere along a four-day hike to Machu Picchu, I arrived in Costa Rica to find a wilderness where green landscapes blurred into turquoise horizons, red volcanic flames bled into the black night, and rainbow-tinted birds streaked across the sky. At that time, basic $20-a-night lodges were the only places to stay, and I moved around by public bus over bumpy roads in search of tiny surfing villages and cloud forests 6,000 feet up.
Nearly everyone I met was an American on a budget, there to catch the waves, study the turtles, and scope out the country's 10,000 species of plants and more than 230 kinds of mammals before the rest of the world discovered this Eden for themselves.
Even with my fuzzy perspective, I shared their urge to guard the fragile ecosystem of this "rich coast"--as Christopher Columbus named the country in 1502--from the onslaught of mass tourism. Once home, I complained about how developed it was (a lie) and how human intervention was destroying natural habitats (not an untruth: the golden toad, now believed to be extinct, was last seen in 1989). When I returned to Costa Rica a couple of years later--contact lenses, this time--the hues still blended like watercolors and the light breaking through the clouds above the Nicoya Peninsula was just as milky. What had changed was the country's newfound respect for its precious resources.
In the mid nineties, the government instituted the most progressive reforestation program in the Americas and began an international campaign to market the nation, wedged between Nicaragua and Panama, as an "ecologically friendly" destination. As a result, environmentally conscious backpackers like me were no longer the only ones heading to Costa Rica. Educated visitors with cash to burn flocked to see one of the most biologically varied places on the planet--the Switzerland-sized country is home to 4 percent of the earth's species of wildlife--and an ecotourism movement was born. Hotels built according to self-imposed conservationist standards couldn't be put up fast enough. Meanwhile, acres of clear-cut land began to grow back into secondary forests. Much of the guilt associated with being a tourist--contributing to erosion and over construction--was alleviated. Gradually, this secret natural world opened up.
This year, Costa Rica is expected to lure 1.2 million visitors, up 20 percent over last year. Following the opening of a Four Seasons resort in January, three major airlines increased direct service from Houston, Miami, and Atlanta into the country's second-largest airport, Liberia International (40 minutes from the hotel). Farther down the Pacific coast, dozens of equally luxurious boutique hotels have been built, and in the vast tropical reserves that cover 28 percent of the country, a handful of $500-a-night ecolodges have sprung up.
Though an affluent crowd has invaded this painted land, much of Costa Rica--its roads, its glacial pace--continues to try one's patience. A surfer I met on my first visit gave me some sage advice: Slow down, share the love. His voice has echoed in my head on return trips, and I've learned to adopt the mentality of the ticos (as locals are fondly called). I still want to protect the riches, but I no longer feel compelled to distort the facts about overdevelopment (there really isn't much) or to moan about the disappearing rain forests, which over the past 10 years have begun to reappear. I've even learned to laugh about the treacherous roads, which I now navigate with bilingual naturalist drivers in private vans rather than by public bus. There's just one aspect I take issue with: there's simply too much to do.
Lay of the Land
Choose your adventure wisely. Costa Rica isn't one of those places that you master on your first visit, or one that allows you to slip into a well-trodden circuit. The most developed country in Central America, Costa Rica has roads that are so poorly maintained, they would have been better left unpaved; pristine forests that are accessible only by lightplane, followed by taxi, then boat and, sometimes, foot; and a rainy season that can make moving from one place to the next unimaginable. Split down the middle by two mountain ranges, its 20,000 square miles include more than 750 miles of coastline along the Caribbean and the Pacific, with 12 tropical life zones in between. From west to east, Costa Rica is only 100 miles at its widest--but by car, that can mean a death-defying 12-hour journey. To make your trip easier, think of the country as five essential regions and pick two to visit (optimum time frames are provided below). Unless you've got a month, don't even attempt to hit all five.
Five Ways to Do Costa Rica
San Jose and the Central Valley
Time: One to two days. Home to almost one-third of the population, San José is surrounded by two volcanic mountain ranges. If the main airport weren't here, though, it would be tempting to skip the city and its suburbs altogether. Little more than a commercial hub, the area lacks the centuries-old cathedrals found in other Latin American cities. But it is an efficient place from which to begin an adventure.
From San José, you can visit a steaming volcano, Poás, or a fire-spewing one, Arenal; hike in a cloud forest; and tackle Class IV rapids--all in one day. Ticos argue over whether the Reventazón or the Pacuare is better for rafting, but the rivers have rapids ranging from Class II to Class IV and are the winter training grounds for a few Olympic kayaking teams. Costa Rica Sun Tours arranges expeditions down both of them.
Anyone wanting to stay in the heart of downtown books into Hotel Grano de Oro, a 100-year-old mansion whose 35 rooms are filled with antiques and contemporary furniture. The patio restaurant is always buzzing with local expense-account lunchers--the sea bass with macadamia nuts and orange glacé is deliciously sweet and salty. Hotel Alta, overlooking the central valley from Escazú, the expat neighborhood southwest of the city center, is close to San José's action (what there is of it, anyway). The 23-room hacienda-style inn has terra-cotta balconies and an Italian-tiled pool. Its tiered lobby doubles as a gallery, where, once every month, area artists host wine-and-cheese receptions.
Near the country's main airport, in Heredia, is the Gaudíesque Finca Rosa Blanca, surrounded by coffee plantations. The seven rooms and two villas of Teri and Glenn Jampol's bed-and-breakfast have arched windows, undulating wood-beamed ceilings, and access to a sunken lounge area that becomes a communal dining room at mealtimes. When I stayed there, Teri handed my infant son to the kitchen staff and joined my table for dinner. She'll also arrange any day trip you can cook up.
Traditionally, Costa Rica hasn't been a place known for fine cuisine. With the April opening of the Inn at Coyote Mountain, a 90-minute drive west of San José in San Ramón, the country's reputation as a food purgatory was transformed. On a remote hilltop, Charles Leary and Vaughn Perret, the chef-owners of Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia, have created an intimate retreat where aspiring chefs can join one- to three-day classes on "Caribbean-Creole" cooking (think tropical jambalaya). Built in the Mudejar style of architecture from Spain, the five-room inn has circular windows and glass-tile tubs, custom-made wrought-iron sconces and four-poster beds, and a spectacular Observatory Suite with its own spiral staircase.
Alajuela and Northern Guanacaste
Time: Four to five days. Inland from the white sands of the Pacific is one of the last intact dry tropical forests of Central America. These pristine stretches, alternating with clear-cut areas marked by lone umbrella-shaped conacaste trees shading humpbacked Brahman cows, rise up a volcanic mountain range to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve in Puntarenas, an essential stop on any nature-lover's itinerary. Getting there requires a four-hour drive from San José or Liberia.
When I first came to Monteverde in the early nineties, I took a standing-room-only bus and stayed in a cabin with a shared bath. Not much has changed: most of the drive is up a precipitous, unpaved track (the area is too jagged for planes, too windy for helicopters), and properties marketed as luxury lodges are often quite disappointing. But it's worth the bother to see mist-shrouded trees draped in epiphytes, 450 species of birds, and views all the way west to the Nicoya Peninsula.
Settled by Alabama Quakers looking for a utopian escape from the Korean War draft, the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and its closest town, Santa Elena, retain the tranquil, anti-establishment aura conferred on them by these immigrants. Hippie kids run the butterfly farm in nearby Cerro Plano, and you can get great thin-crust pepperoni slices at nearby pizzeria Johnny. The reserve allows only 160 visitors at a time on its brick paths. A handful of decent hotels line the road to the park; two stand out from the pack. Monteverde Lodge & Gardens has 27 rooms in an Arts and Crafts-style building, with a 12-person Jacuzzi that is in an acrylic-domed room apparently inspired by I. M. Pei's Louvre entrance. Fonda Vela, owned by two brothers, is half the price and just as nice, and its eight bungalows are within walking distance of the cloud forest's entrance.
Once you've completed the tough stuff--long hikes in the cloud forest, hours spent searching for a quetzal's nest--schedule some R&R at the beachfront Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo. Before the resort opened its 153 rooms and suites in January, getting to the Pacific coast of northern Guanacaste required chartering a plane or navigating bone-rattling potholed roads. Now major airlines fly direct to the nearby airport from the United States. Local architect Ronald Zürcher drew inspiration from butterfly wings and the backs of armadillos in his design for the resort's buildings, which are set on a steep hillside between two beaches. Arnold Palmer created the sprawling golf course. At the restaurant, chef James Cassidy (poached from Hawaii's Four Seasons Hualalai) makes Latin fusion dishes, such as the teetering tower of crab-and-avocado salad with red pepper sauce. Six other resorts are planned for the once-remote Papagayo Peninsula. What a difference a Four Seasons makes.
Nicoya Peninsula and Quepos
Time: Three to six days. Populated by American pensioners, international surfers, and tico farmers, this coastal corridor claims some of the country's finest hotels, all of them built with a conservationist's eye. You'd be mad to spend all your time lazing by the Costa Rican shore, but the region's dozens of beaches do come in handy for convalescing after a week spent trekking, tracking birds, and, let's be honest, driving. A ferry that crosses the Gulf of Nicoya connects the peninsula to the mainland at Puntarenas, near Manuel Antonio National Park, home to the country's most popular beach, which attracts swarms of backpackers and locals on holiday.
The nicest places to stay on the Nicoya Peninsula are the beachfront hotels that run south from Guanacaste all the way to the tip of the peninsula, at Montezuma. Hotel Punta Islita, owned by Harold Zürcher and designed by his brother, Ronald (creator of the Four Seasons at Papagayo), has occupied its own crescent-shaped black-sand beach and hillside for 10 years. Today its 43 thatched-roof rooms, suites, and casitas make up one of the most sophisticated addresses in the country. Guest quarters come with hand-hewn teak beds and hammocks angled to view the sun as it drops into the Pacific. Chef Pablo de la Torre prepares fresh ceviche and native fish dishes at Borrancho Beach Club (or on the sand with a bonfire, at no extra cost). An art gallery showcases local artisans' handicrafts. And a European-style spa opened in December.
Punta Islita is an extravagant refuge, but getting out of the resort is a nightmare: there are tide tables posted in both of the hotel's restaurants so that guests can escape before water floods the driveway. On my first visit, tempting fate, I left with only 15 minutes to spare and barely managed to cross the two rivers filling up with seawater that separated me from the main road. Harold Zürcher had not been so lucky: he'd lost his ATV the day before. Braving the tides--and the potholes--is par for the course on the Nicoya, which is why most guests fly into one of the charter airstrips scattered across the peninsula.
Florblanca, the newest addition to the luxury accommodations in Costa Rica, is just down the road from Punta Islita--but don't let that fool you. The quickest way to this resort, with its outdoor bathrooms, stucco porches, and gorgeous canopy beds, is to drive along the beach, which is subject to flooding at high tide. Regardless, Florblanca's 10 villas and its open-air restaurant (built from clear-cut wood that American owners Susan Money and Greg Mullins bought from farmers and saved for some 15 years) are always crowded--with surfers, honeymooners, and the occasional society-page regular.
When both Punta Islita and Florblanca are full, the nearby Hotel Milarepa offers consolation: its four bungalows stand beside the beach and a French chef prepares classic dishes with Caribbean ingredients.
For millionaires, there's Hacienda Cabo Velas, a 1,700-acre working ranch that goes for $65,000 a week and sleeps up to 12 people--who generally bypass the roads of Guanacaste and instead arrive by private plane on the property's own airstrip. From there, it's a short walk to a Spanish-colonial hacienda surrounded by four smaller thatched-roof ranchos, or to any of the five beaches on-site. Guests get it all: an Italian cook, a naturalist guide, a boat captain for tours of the mangroves, even a cowboy to lead horseback rides in the jungle.
Across the Gulf of Nicoya on the mainland, near Manuel Antonio National Park, adventurers can kick in their endorphins in countless ways: Equus Stables takes riders galloping and cantering along the sprawling white sands; Iguana Tours leads kayakers through mangrove swamps and estuaries to some of the park's emerald islets; the experienced guides of Blue Fin Sport Fishing let anglers pose for snapshots with their prize marlin, tuna, or sailfish before detaching the hook and setting their catch free.
Dozens of hotels around Manuel Antonio cater to every type of traveler (European, gay, vegetarian) on every type of budget, but the top spots are those with secluded suites on the ridge above the beach. The adults-only Makanda by the Sea, a collection of 11 freestanding villas, is encircled by a rain forest. Apart from the private cove and Japanese-inspired accommodations--notice the rock garden?--Makanda has that other luxury rarely found in Costa Rica: good food (fresh-fish tacos, blackened shrimp). Breakfast is presented on your private veranda; during lunch at the Sunspot Restaurant, you can spy toucans, two- and three-toed sloths, and spider monkeys.
Nearby, the spare wood-and-stucco cabanas at Tulemar, also on the ridge, are furnished with teak armoires, fully equipped kitchens, and jungle or ocean views from all sides of the octagonal structures. The seven just-opened deluxe bungalows emphasize space--1,400 square feet inside, 400 outside--and each has two bedrooms, a rainfall shower, a private garden or balcony, and panoramic vistas.
Osa Peninsula
Time: Five days. In southern Costa Rica, the remote Osa Peninsula is one of the most biologically dense tropical regions on earth. Scarlet macaws do flybys past the lodges, howler monkeys swing from the forest canopy, and whales migrate along the coast. Basically, if it lives and breathes in Costa Rica--caiman, iguana, sloth, jaguar--it probably resides in the nature preserves, public and private, that blanket this peninsula. Some of the world's first ecolodges were built in the undeveloped jungles of Drake Bay, Golfito, and Corcovado National Park; they are still models of sustainable tourism today.
When they opened Lapa Rios in 1993, Americans Karen and John Lewis pioneered the practice of ecotourism in Costa Rica. The 16-room hardwood-and-thatch resort on 1,000 protected acres of jungle and Pacific oceanfront continues to win conservation awards. Visitors often plan their Costa Rican vacations around availability at Lapa Rios, whose friendly service and surprisingly creative meals--not to mention alfresco showers, private decks, and abundant wildlife right outside your screen door--make up for the rickety prop plane (and the airsickness) that gets you there. Just be sure to take a low-numbered room: the higher they get, the farther the trek up and down the steep incline on which the villas are built.
The nearby Bosque del Cabo gets less attention but deserves equally high praise. Set at the end of a mile-long drive in another 500-acre preserve, its 13 bungalows have rustic cane beds, garden showers, and private sunbathing decks with hammocks. The expert forest guides on staff can take groups hiking, horseback riding, or flying over the trees on the hotel's zip lines
The newest biosensitive resort on the peninsula is the Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge in 100,000-acre Corcovado National Park, across the Golfo Dulce from Golfito. Everything here is recycled: the four cabins and a four-bedroom house are made from farmed trees; covering the roofs are tiles made from bags that once used to protect banana stalks; and solar energy provides the electricity. Accessible only by boat, the hotel keeps guests busy with kayaking, fishing, snorkeling, windsurfing, and, of course, naturalist-guided hikes.
The only other place to stay inside the park is Corcovado Lodge Tent Camp. Guests fly into Drake Bay by prop plane, drive two hours to the shore, and then walk along the beach for 45 minutes to reach 20 steel-framed tents that guarantee utter privacy (from humans, anyway). A little pleading with the guides (and a lot of Valium for yourself) gets you and your partner harnessed into a bed built into a platform 100 feet above the jungle floor, where the two of you can spend a night under the stars.
Tortuguero
Time: Three to four days. If no one told you otherwise, you could easily mistake Tortuguero National Park, on Costa Rica's east coast, for the Amazon. This dense forest was carved out by a series of rivers and canals dug to ease the transport of timber before the area became protected in 1970. Easier to reach (and cheaper to stay in) than that other basin in South America, Tortuguero has turbulent Caribbean beaches that give safe haven to four turtle species, including the Atlantic green, during the summer nesting season. It's also the stamping ground of tapirs, caimans, anteaters, coatis, and the electric-blue morpho butterfly.
The hotels along Tortuguero's lagoon specialize in guided cruises down the area's waterways by canoe or small motorboat. You can get a free nature tour if you approach the hotels by water: your craft will be greeted with the squawks and screeches of countless species of birds and monkeys. Pachira Lodge, a rustic resort with almond-wood cabins and a pool shaped like a turtle, attracts a mostly European clientele, which gives it a relaxed, rather festive vibe. Tortuga Lodge, whose 24 rooms are distributed among five bungalows, has a lovely river-rock pool and excellent service: the general manager calls guests by name, and the chef can prepare basic dishes that aren't on the simple set menu. Both Pachira and Tortuga have plenty of kayaks and motorboats for canal cruising and are absolutely silent at night, save for the rhythmic rush of the Caribbean across the peninsula on the other side of the lagoon.
Costa Rica Real Estate Information
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE YOU BUY
1) Security of Property Ownership in Costa Rica
The Law
For most people looking to purchase property in a foreign country the first and foremost question to answer is “Can I as a foreigner own land in Costa Rica?” One of the great aspects of property ownership for foreigners in Costa Rica, and perhaps one of the most important of the mitigating factors for the attractiveness of Costa Rica to foreigners, is the security of land ownership.
Foreigners’ rights of land ownership are documented in the constitution of Costa Rica. The rights of a foreigner to land ownership are equal to that of a Costa Rican.
The National Registry
All legally transferable properties in Costa Rica are registered in the public National Registry. If the property can not be found in the public national registry then it is not a legally registered property. The National Registry can be accessed via the Internet. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can enter the public national registry and review a property. You can quickly find out whether there is a registered lien, encumbrance, mortgage or annotation on any specific property. If it is not noted in the National Registry then it does not exist.
Title Insurance
The security of land ownership and the transparency of the National Registry are further substantiated by the fact that a number of US based title insurance companies operate offices in Costa Rica and offer guarantees on title. The cost for title guarantee varies from 0.4% to 1.0% depending on the property and the package of services be offered by the Title Company.
Costa Rican Companies
Most purchasers of Costa Rican property take title of their property in the name of a Costa Rican S.A. (Sociedad Anonimo) that they have created with the sole purpose of owning the property. There are a few advantages to structuring your purchase this way. The primary advantage presently available is when one goes to re-sell the property you are selling a company and not a property and as such you avoid some significant taxes and government fees. The cost of a company ranges from $350 to $1,000 depending on the lawyer used to set up the company.
2) Property Types
Understanding Concessions in the Maritime Zone
Concession property in Costa Rica is approximately 85% of all the coastal or beachfront property, . It is owned by the government and is governed by the Maritime Zone Law and other regulations imposed by municipalities and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism. A concession is defined as the right to use a property located in the maritime zone for a pre-determined period of time, typically 20 years. The first 200 meters measured horizontally from the median tide line defines the boundary of the maritime zone.
The first 50 meters from the median tide line is considered public area and is not available for any type of ownership. Because this area is public, all people have the right to use it. Basically, there are no privately owned beaches in Costa Rica.
The next 150 meters is available for concessions to be granted. A concession is essentially a lease on the property with a 20 year concession period. The concession owner may build on the concession only what is permitted as per the zoning plan. All Maritime Zone property will be governed by a “Plano Regulador”, a Zoning Plan. New 20 year concession terms are granted so long as the Zoning Plan and all of its requirements have been observed.
Unlike fee simple property, foreigners cannot be majority owners of a concession property. However, if a foreigner wishes to have a concession property this is easily and legally done through the establishment of a Costa Rican S.A. and the appropriate structuring of the ownership of shares of the company.
Understanding Fee Simple Ownership
Purchasing ‘non-concession’ property in Costa Rica is basically the same as buying property in the U.S., i.e., it is considered fee simple ownership. Fee simple ownership conveys the absolute right to own the property, and or sell the property, lease it, improve it, etc. Fee simple also means that if the owner is obstructed from his or her rights to the property, he or she has the right to be made whole, meaning to have the property restored in its original condition. Fee simple title owners enjoy the most rights under the law to use the property at their discretion.
Understanding Properties in Condominium
In the U.S. condominium refer to residences in multi-tenant buildings. In Costa Rica the Condominium Law benefits developers responsible for building many types of properties, including single-family
homes, finished lot projects and condos. The law allows developers to regulate the development with By-Laws that can be registered in the National Registry to the individual lot, home or condo. The By-Laws outline the restrictions and benefits placed on individuals who purchase these properties and as well possibly the property itself. This is still fee simple ownership, but properties ‘in condominium’ come with additional restrictions that are generally intended to protect the integrity of the development’s physical ambiance. If you are considering purchasing a property that is “En Condominium” read the by-laws before you buy or have a professional do so for you.
3) Steps to Purchasing Property in Costa Rica
Reputable Realtor
The first thing that you should consider is who you should work with to help assist you in finding and purchasing your property in Costa Rica. Like any other investment you make involving a significant sum of your money the first thing you would do is look to get the advice and assistance from an experienced professional in the chosen field with a proven track record. You look for an expert that you can trust to give you accurate information, as well as all the information good or bad so that you can make informed decisions. You should not approach purchasing property in Costa Rica in any other way. Get the results you want, work with proven professionals.
As we have been serving the local community since 1992, and having worked to assist more buyers in more transactions than any other real estate agency in our area, we feel Century 21 At The Beach has the expertise to assist you. Not only that, we have developed a strong reputation as buyers brokers. We are here to protect your interests.
Be aware that there is no licensing of realtors in Costa Rica. Anyone and almost everyone is a “realtor” in some way shape or form down here. This is where misinformation, as well as bad information or advice can cause serious problems to a purchaser. As you would anywhere else, look to work with an experienced professional with a proven track record.
Search in the National Registry
Most Costa Rica properties are registered in the National Registry with their own Folio Real (registration number) in a centralized database at the offices of the Public National Registry in San José. The Folio Real is a unique number to each property for identification. A title search in the National Registry with the property’s Folio Real should be performed for any property under consideration. A search will show you the property area, ownership, boundaries, location, mortgages, liens, encumbrances and any annotation. Some properties are not listed in the National Registry yet. These properties would be “possesorial” properties that are not yet registered. Proving ownership of or acquiring ownership of a “possessorial” property will be more difficult. It is best to avoid these properties if possible.
Escritura de Traspaso (Transfer of Deed)
The Escritura de Traspaso contains all important information regarding the real estate transfer, including information about the buyer and seller, the property and any terms of sale, including contingencies, easements or financing. A Public Notary (attorney) prepares this document and records it at the Public Registry of Property and in his/her Notary Book (Protocolo). After the deed is signed at the closing, the attorney immediately records the deed at the Public Registry for annotation, which protects the property against any third parties. Secondly, the property is recorded under the name of the new owner.
Plano Catastrato (Survey Plan)
The Cadastral Office holds all Costa Rica property surveys, and it operates separately from the Public Registry. Every property must show a survey recorded at the Public Registry for successful ownership transfer. Because the Cadastral Office often has outdated surveys on file, we recommend obtaining a new independent survey plan and registering it with the Cadastral Office before purchasing the property to eliminate potential disputes about property boundary lines at closing time.
4) Purchasing Options in Costa Rica
Purchasing a Property In Your Name
This process occurs when an individual or group of people acquire a property in their personal name(s). The property will be re-registered in the National Registry in the name(s) given.
Purchasing a Property In a Corporation
It is common practice to purchase property in Costa Rica through a newly formed corporation or by changing the ownership of an existing corporation. Establishing a corporation in Costa Rica is not complicated, but does require the advice of an experienced real estate agent and attorney who are knowledgeable of the protocols and requirements involved. The advantage of buying property in a corporation is that it can reduce the closing costs and it works to protect the buyer’s identity so that the ownership of the real estate asset is anonymous. There are some obligations such as annual tax declarations and other corporate responsibilities that can be explained by your real estate professional and or attorney.
Costa Rica Residency
If a family or individual plans to live in Costa Rica, or spend significant time here, they will need to establish legal residency. Most North Americans seeking residency in Costa Rica will do so under the rentista (a foreigner who has a guaranteed income) designation or as an investor. If you wish to simply enjoy your property as a vacation property you should seek advice as to whether you need legal residency status in Costa Rica. The residency process must be started outside of Costa Rica. It is recommended to speak with an immigration lawyer that specializes in the residency process.
Rentista status has three requirements:
· The individual must have outside investments that guarantee $1,000 income per month for five years
· The individual must change at least $1,000 a month into colones
· The individual must live in Costa Rica for at least six months out of the year
Mortgage Financing
Mortgages are available to foreign buyers of property in Costa Rica. Not all banks offer mortgages to non-residents but a few do. The process is somewhat more cumbersome than that of the US. Additionally the cost of initially setting up a mortgage is high here in Costa Rica as are the annual rates if interest. Please contact one of our professional real estate agents to discuss current costs and rates.
Banks in the United States will not offer mortgage financing on properties in Costa Rica. The mortgage industry in Costa Rica is growing and more options are becoming available to Buyers.
5) The Process and Options To Close on a Property & Closing Costs
There are three standard procedures for closing on a property being purchased in Costa Rica.
Money
The most common means of getting the initial deposit and the balance of the money into Costa Rica to purchase a property is by wire transfer. Typically, the Buyer through the advice of their real estate professional will use the services of an Escrow Agent and Escrow Account.
Buyer and Seller Present
The most common procedure for closing on a property is that both the Buyer and Seller are in the country and have decided on an agreeable location to meet and close. Typically, the Buyer’s lawyer will have prepared the transfer deed and it will have been reviewed by the Seller’s lawyer. The deed will be read to and explained to the Buyer in their language of choice. Both Buyer and Seller will sign the deed. The Buyer will make payment via a “manager’s check” drawn against the funds held in the Escrow Account. A Managers Check is similar to a certified check. The notary will then register the changes to the property ownership in the National Registry.
Power of Attorney
If one or both the Buyer and Seller can not be in Costa Rica but have given a Power of Attorney to someone to legally represent them, then the same process noted above would take place by their legal representatives.
Out of Costa Rica
Though not a very common practice it is possible to close on a Costa Rican property outside of Costa Rica. If either the Buyer or Seller is unable to be in Costa Rica to close, and have not left a Power of Attorney, they can have a Costa Rican notary come to where they are and sign the transfer deed in the notary’s protocol book in the presence of the notary. The cost to have the notary perform this service is born 100% by the party that requires this service.
Closing Costs
As briefly mentioned above the closing costs to purchase a property in Costa Rica varies depending if you are purchasing a property by way of purchasing a Costa Rican S.A. with the property as an asset of the company, or a straight transfer of ownership from the Seller to the Buyer as an individual.
Standard closing cost for the transfer of ownership from the Seller to the Buyer as an individual will be 4.2% of the actual purchase price of the property. This fee is a combination of legal and notary service fees, as well as land transfer taxes and government stamp fees.
The cost to close on a property that is held by a Costa Rican S.A. with the property being the asset of the corporation is 1.25%. This is the legal fee to change the “junta directive” (the board) of the company and the ownership of the shares of the company and to register these changes in the National Registry. Working through one of the recommended lawyers of Century 21 At The Beach this fee can be reduced. This fee reduction is a result of the long standing relationships Century 21 At The Beach has with these lawyers.
6) After Purchase Concerns
Annual Land Taxes
Presently in Costa Rica annual land taxes are 0.25% of the registered land value of your property. Annual land taxes are paid to the local municipality.
Insurance
Insurance in Costa Rica is a government monopoly. All policies are offered by the Institute Nacional de Seguros (INS). There are a number of private entities that sell INS policies. A standard “All Risk” policy will cost 0.28% of the construction cost of the home. Additionally, both Liable Insurance and Home Owners Insurance are available and costs vary depending on the amount of coverage required.
Property Management
As you may not be here to enjoy your home full time you may wish to employ a property management company to pay your monthly bills; water, electricity, phone, Internet, cable or satellite TV. Additionally you may require the services of a property management company to clean your home, maintain your gardens, cut your grass, clean your pool, and fumigate. We can recommend proven professionals for this service.
As you may also wish to generate income from your home while you are not in residence, both long term and short term rentals can be obtained through the property management company.
1) Security of Property Ownership in Costa Rica
The Law
For most people looking to purchase property in a foreign country the first and foremost question to answer is “Can I as a foreigner own land in Costa Rica?” One of the great aspects of property ownership for foreigners in Costa Rica, and perhaps one of the most important of the mitigating factors for the attractiveness of Costa Rica to foreigners, is the security of land ownership.
Foreigners’ rights of land ownership are documented in the constitution of Costa Rica. The rights of a foreigner to land ownership are equal to that of a Costa Rican.
The National Registry
All legally transferable properties in Costa Rica are registered in the public National Registry. If the property can not be found in the public national registry then it is not a legally registered property. The National Registry can be accessed via the Internet. Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can enter the public national registry and review a property. You can quickly find out whether there is a registered lien, encumbrance, mortgage or annotation on any specific property. If it is not noted in the National Registry then it does not exist.
Title Insurance
The security of land ownership and the transparency of the National Registry are further substantiated by the fact that a number of US based title insurance companies operate offices in Costa Rica and offer guarantees on title. The cost for title guarantee varies from 0.4% to 1.0% depending on the property and the package of services be offered by the Title Company.
Costa Rican Companies
Most purchasers of Costa Rican property take title of their property in the name of a Costa Rican S.A. (Sociedad Anonimo) that they have created with the sole purpose of owning the property. There are a few advantages to structuring your purchase this way. The primary advantage presently available is when one goes to re-sell the property you are selling a company and not a property and as such you avoid some significant taxes and government fees. The cost of a company ranges from $350 to $1,000 depending on the lawyer used to set up the company.
2) Property Types
Understanding Concessions in the Maritime Zone
Concession property in Costa Rica is approximately 85% of all the coastal or beachfront property, . It is owned by the government and is governed by the Maritime Zone Law and other regulations imposed by municipalities and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism. A concession is defined as the right to use a property located in the maritime zone for a pre-determined period of time, typically 20 years. The first 200 meters measured horizontally from the median tide line defines the boundary of the maritime zone.
The first 50 meters from the median tide line is considered public area and is not available for any type of ownership. Because this area is public, all people have the right to use it. Basically, there are no privately owned beaches in Costa Rica.
The next 150 meters is available for concessions to be granted. A concession is essentially a lease on the property with a 20 year concession period. The concession owner may build on the concession only what is permitted as per the zoning plan. All Maritime Zone property will be governed by a “Plano Regulador”, a Zoning Plan. New 20 year concession terms are granted so long as the Zoning Plan and all of its requirements have been observed.
Unlike fee simple property, foreigners cannot be majority owners of a concession property. However, if a foreigner wishes to have a concession property this is easily and legally done through the establishment of a Costa Rican S.A. and the appropriate structuring of the ownership of shares of the company.
Understanding Fee Simple Ownership
Purchasing ‘non-concession’ property in Costa Rica is basically the same as buying property in the U.S., i.e., it is considered fee simple ownership. Fee simple ownership conveys the absolute right to own the property, and or sell the property, lease it, improve it, etc. Fee simple also means that if the owner is obstructed from his or her rights to the property, he or she has the right to be made whole, meaning to have the property restored in its original condition. Fee simple title owners enjoy the most rights under the law to use the property at their discretion.
Understanding Properties in Condominium
In the U.S. condominium refer to residences in multi-tenant buildings. In Costa Rica the Condominium Law benefits developers responsible for building many types of properties, including single-family
homes, finished lot projects and condos. The law allows developers to regulate the development with By-Laws that can be registered in the National Registry to the individual lot, home or condo. The By-Laws outline the restrictions and benefits placed on individuals who purchase these properties and as well possibly the property itself. This is still fee simple ownership, but properties ‘in condominium’ come with additional restrictions that are generally intended to protect the integrity of the development’s physical ambiance. If you are considering purchasing a property that is “En Condominium” read the by-laws before you buy or have a professional do so for you.
3) Steps to Purchasing Property in Costa Rica
Reputable Realtor
The first thing that you should consider is who you should work with to help assist you in finding and purchasing your property in Costa Rica. Like any other investment you make involving a significant sum of your money the first thing you would do is look to get the advice and assistance from an experienced professional in the chosen field with a proven track record. You look for an expert that you can trust to give you accurate information, as well as all the information good or bad so that you can make informed decisions. You should not approach purchasing property in Costa Rica in any other way. Get the results you want, work with proven professionals.
As we have been serving the local community since 1992, and having worked to assist more buyers in more transactions than any other real estate agency in our area, we feel Century 21 At The Beach has the expertise to assist you. Not only that, we have developed a strong reputation as buyers brokers. We are here to protect your interests.
Be aware that there is no licensing of realtors in Costa Rica. Anyone and almost everyone is a “realtor” in some way shape or form down here. This is where misinformation, as well as bad information or advice can cause serious problems to a purchaser. As you would anywhere else, look to work with an experienced professional with a proven track record.
Search in the National Registry
Most Costa Rica properties are registered in the National Registry with their own Folio Real (registration number) in a centralized database at the offices of the Public National Registry in San José. The Folio Real is a unique number to each property for identification. A title search in the National Registry with the property’s Folio Real should be performed for any property under consideration. A search will show you the property area, ownership, boundaries, location, mortgages, liens, encumbrances and any annotation. Some properties are not listed in the National Registry yet. These properties would be “possesorial” properties that are not yet registered. Proving ownership of or acquiring ownership of a “possessorial” property will be more difficult. It is best to avoid these properties if possible.
Escritura de Traspaso (Transfer of Deed)
The Escritura de Traspaso contains all important information regarding the real estate transfer, including information about the buyer and seller, the property and any terms of sale, including contingencies, easements or financing. A Public Notary (attorney) prepares this document and records it at the Public Registry of Property and in his/her Notary Book (Protocolo). After the deed is signed at the closing, the attorney immediately records the deed at the Public Registry for annotation, which protects the property against any third parties. Secondly, the property is recorded under the name of the new owner.
Plano Catastrato (Survey Plan)
The Cadastral Office holds all Costa Rica property surveys, and it operates separately from the Public Registry. Every property must show a survey recorded at the Public Registry for successful ownership transfer. Because the Cadastral Office often has outdated surveys on file, we recommend obtaining a new independent survey plan and registering it with the Cadastral Office before purchasing the property to eliminate potential disputes about property boundary lines at closing time.
4) Purchasing Options in Costa Rica
Purchasing a Property In Your Name
This process occurs when an individual or group of people acquire a property in their personal name(s). The property will be re-registered in the National Registry in the name(s) given.
Purchasing a Property In a Corporation
It is common practice to purchase property in Costa Rica through a newly formed corporation or by changing the ownership of an existing corporation. Establishing a corporation in Costa Rica is not complicated, but does require the advice of an experienced real estate agent and attorney who are knowledgeable of the protocols and requirements involved. The advantage of buying property in a corporation is that it can reduce the closing costs and it works to protect the buyer’s identity so that the ownership of the real estate asset is anonymous. There are some obligations such as annual tax declarations and other corporate responsibilities that can be explained by your real estate professional and or attorney.
Costa Rica Residency
If a family or individual plans to live in Costa Rica, or spend significant time here, they will need to establish legal residency. Most North Americans seeking residency in Costa Rica will do so under the rentista (a foreigner who has a guaranteed income) designation or as an investor. If you wish to simply enjoy your property as a vacation property you should seek advice as to whether you need legal residency status in Costa Rica. The residency process must be started outside of Costa Rica. It is recommended to speak with an immigration lawyer that specializes in the residency process.
Rentista status has three requirements:
· The individual must have outside investments that guarantee $1,000 income per month for five years
· The individual must change at least $1,000 a month into colones
· The individual must live in Costa Rica for at least six months out of the year
Mortgage Financing
Mortgages are available to foreign buyers of property in Costa Rica. Not all banks offer mortgages to non-residents but a few do. The process is somewhat more cumbersome than that of the US. Additionally the cost of initially setting up a mortgage is high here in Costa Rica as are the annual rates if interest. Please contact one of our professional real estate agents to discuss current costs and rates.
Banks in the United States will not offer mortgage financing on properties in Costa Rica. The mortgage industry in Costa Rica is growing and more options are becoming available to Buyers.
5) The Process and Options To Close on a Property & Closing Costs
There are three standard procedures for closing on a property being purchased in Costa Rica.
Money
The most common means of getting the initial deposit and the balance of the money into Costa Rica to purchase a property is by wire transfer. Typically, the Buyer through the advice of their real estate professional will use the services of an Escrow Agent and Escrow Account.
Buyer and Seller Present
The most common procedure for closing on a property is that both the Buyer and Seller are in the country and have decided on an agreeable location to meet and close. Typically, the Buyer’s lawyer will have prepared the transfer deed and it will have been reviewed by the Seller’s lawyer. The deed will be read to and explained to the Buyer in their language of choice. Both Buyer and Seller will sign the deed. The Buyer will make payment via a “manager’s check” drawn against the funds held in the Escrow Account. A Managers Check is similar to a certified check. The notary will then register the changes to the property ownership in the National Registry.
Power of Attorney
If one or both the Buyer and Seller can not be in Costa Rica but have given a Power of Attorney to someone to legally represent them, then the same process noted above would take place by their legal representatives.
Out of Costa Rica
Though not a very common practice it is possible to close on a Costa Rican property outside of Costa Rica. If either the Buyer or Seller is unable to be in Costa Rica to close, and have not left a Power of Attorney, they can have a Costa Rican notary come to where they are and sign the transfer deed in the notary’s protocol book in the presence of the notary. The cost to have the notary perform this service is born 100% by the party that requires this service.
Closing Costs
As briefly mentioned above the closing costs to purchase a property in Costa Rica varies depending if you are purchasing a property by way of purchasing a Costa Rican S.A. with the property as an asset of the company, or a straight transfer of ownership from the Seller to the Buyer as an individual.
Standard closing cost for the transfer of ownership from the Seller to the Buyer as an individual will be 4.2% of the actual purchase price of the property. This fee is a combination of legal and notary service fees, as well as land transfer taxes and government stamp fees.
The cost to close on a property that is held by a Costa Rican S.A. with the property being the asset of the corporation is 1.25%. This is the legal fee to change the “junta directive” (the board) of the company and the ownership of the shares of the company and to register these changes in the National Registry. Working through one of the recommended lawyers of Century 21 At The Beach this fee can be reduced. This fee reduction is a result of the long standing relationships Century 21 At The Beach has with these lawyers.
6) After Purchase Concerns
Annual Land Taxes
Presently in Costa Rica annual land taxes are 0.25% of the registered land value of your property. Annual land taxes are paid to the local municipality.
Insurance
Insurance in Costa Rica is a government monopoly. All policies are offered by the Institute Nacional de Seguros (INS). There are a number of private entities that sell INS policies. A standard “All Risk” policy will cost 0.28% of the construction cost of the home. Additionally, both Liable Insurance and Home Owners Insurance are available and costs vary depending on the amount of coverage required.
Property Management
As you may not be here to enjoy your home full time you may wish to employ a property management company to pay your monthly bills; water, electricity, phone, Internet, cable or satellite TV. Additionally you may require the services of a property management company to clean your home, maintain your gardens, cut your grass, clean your pool, and fumigate. We can recommend proven professionals for this service.
As you may also wish to generate income from your home while you are not in residence, both long term and short term rentals can be obtained through the property management company.
Why Costa Rica for your Property Investments?
WHY THE PAPAGAYO REGION REMAINS “HOT”
AND WILL GET “HOTTER”
In 2005 I wrote a wonderfully informative article titled “Why Costa Rica, Why Now!” and a few of you truly bored may have stumbled upon it in some obscure magazine or newsletter and actually had the pleasure of reading it. The article described the variety of compounding factors that were directly responsible for the incredibly active real estate market we were enjoying and as a result, the tremendous growth we were experiencing in our immediate area, and to some extent, most of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The factors combined provided Buyers with a tremendously profitable environment and made buying real estate in this area a very, very smart investment.
The reasons were pretty easy to understand;
I) A newly opened International Airport (Liberia International Airport) that had gone from the first direct commercial airline flights, 3 a week out of Atlanta with Delta Airlines, to 18 a week with in one year, with American Airlines and Continental Airlines joining Delta and commencing flights from their hub airports.
II) The opening of the Four Seasons Hotel and Arnold Palmer golf course which are located just across the bay from us. The Fours Seasons and Arnold Palmer golf course were the first phase of a three phase project that will incorporate two more golf courses, two marinas, additional real estate and an overall build out budget exceeding $400 million dollars.
III) A very strong US economy, combined with very low interest rates for mortgages. It can also be argued that the extremely low returns from traditional secure investments (GIC’s, T Bills, Savings Accounts…..) as well as a lingering uneasiness with the stock market, motivated investors to look at real estate as is the case during this economic cycle and Costa Rican was a close and secure real estate market that was performing well.
IV) This fast paced activity was also the result of the initial effects of the Baby Boomer market starting to look off shore for their retirement/investment/vacation properties and making acquisitions.
V) Our area is the closest beach community to the Liberia International Airport.
These were the factors that created the foundation for the growth we experienced from 2003 to the first quarter of 2006. Properties appreciated fairly well during this time period.
Due to the fact that 95% of the buyers of Pacific coast properties in the Costa Rica are from the United States, it is assumed by many of those now looking at Costa Rican real estate that the Costa Rican real estate market should be suffering similar maladies as that of the US real estate market.
The questions I get now are, “How is your market doing?” “Are prices dropping/” “Are you worried about your market?” ….
The reality is nothing could be further from the truth.
The reason I make that statement is due to the following factors;
I) It became very evident that a number of the larges scale developers from the United States recognized the predicament of their domestic real estate market some time ago in conjunction with understanding that the Baby Boomers were looking for vacation/investment/retirement properties outside of the US and looked around the world for better opportunities. Many decided on Costa Rica. With in a two hour radius of the Liberia International Airport at least nine large development properties have been purchased over the last 24 months representing an initial investment of over $325 million dollars to acquire these properties. The collective investment to build out these resort destination projects over the next ten years will be well over a billion dollars. Historically the world over, when this magnitude of investment occurred in a specific area, the neighbouring properties have appreciated in value, and in many cases at very aggressive rates. You know what they say about history repeating itself. The same will happen here. Very beneficial investment opportunities will present themselves to those that take advantage of them. Exceeding the returns of funds in similar secure investments such as GIC’s, T-Bills, Savings Account interest will happen.
II) The Liberia International Airport now has 42 commercial airline flights a week and continues to grow. Delta started a direct route to Liberia from Los Angeles in December 2006. Opening the Californian market to a direct flight will have a very substantial impact on the real estate industry here. New direct flights from London, England started in May 2007 opening the European market to Costa Rica. The March 2007 traffic through the airport was an increase of 15% over March of 2006 when it was expected not to exceed 10%. A budget of $16 million has been approved by the government to expand the Liberia Airport and open up an additional 20 check in counters.
III) The following hotel groups have signed contracts to operate hotels in our immediate area, Hilton, Westin, Regency International, Mandarin, Aman Group, Fairmont, Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood, Auberge, J.W. Marriott, and Hyatt. Many of these hotels will be under construction before the end of 2007. The joint marketing done by these hotel groups, combined with that of the airlines, will expose Costa Rica to the internal market place at a much grander scale than ever before. These hotels are all four or five star hotel operations and as a result will be bringing to Costa Rica a large and continuous supply of new qualified buyers each week.
IV) The Baby Boomers, yes I realize this is old and you have been hearing it forever (and more than likely you are one yourself) but the simple reality is that the shear numbers of this age group has changed markets their entire lives. Seventy-eight million people (or there about) will retire over the next 15 years in the US alone. Don’t think those developers that bought in Costa Rica aren’t aware of this. Our market can be sustained by less than 0.5% of the Baby Boomer market. Not much to ask for or need.
V) One of the major factors for our market not softening is that it is a cash market. Close to 100% of the property or home purchases here are cash buys. We do not have to deal with the aftermath of an over indulgence of speculator leveraged financed buys that artificially prop up property values and work to help values free fall when the market turns. This can not happen here as mortgage financing to date is not readily available in Costa Rica.
VI) We are not over built. A more accurate statement would be, we remain under built. The demand is still severely outweighing the supply. It will be some time before supply can catch up to demand, if it is ever able to.
VII) No hurricanes. It may seem like an insignificant factor but it is not. A significant portion of the market purchasing retirement/vacation or investment property would prefer to do so where a hurricane will not destroy their property. Costa Rica is such a place. It is surprising at the number of buyers we have seen that exchanged coastal properties in Florida or Texas for a property in Costa Rica over the last few years.
Yes, you have to take everything I state with a grain of salt as I live here and make a living from owning and operating a Century 21 real estate office, a successful development company and a technologically advanced construction company. However, what I have stated is simple fact and not “speculation”. It is what has happened, and what is happening.
And for me, I do not need to embellish the realities of our real estate, construction and land development industries as I have the comforting knowledge of knowing I can always turn to a prosperous career in free lance writing.
Costa Rica remains “hot” and will get “hotter”. You may want to slap on some sun block and get down here to take advantage of the knowledge you now possess and get in front of all of those that will be coming. There are some opportunities that can be taken advantage of by those that are willing to act upon them, hopefully you will be one of them and we are able to assist you..
Written by Scott MacDougall, an expatriate that has lived and worked in Costa Rica since 1992 and has been specifically involved in the real estate, construction and land development industries during this time. Scott was also a member of the executive management team of Los Sueños Resort & Marina for five years, the largest and most successful resort destination community project in Costa Rica. Scott can be contacted at scott@discovercostarica.com
AND WILL GET “HOTTER”
In 2005 I wrote a wonderfully informative article titled “Why Costa Rica, Why Now!” and a few of you truly bored may have stumbled upon it in some obscure magazine or newsletter and actually had the pleasure of reading it. The article described the variety of compounding factors that were directly responsible for the incredibly active real estate market we were enjoying and as a result, the tremendous growth we were experiencing in our immediate area, and to some extent, most of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. The factors combined provided Buyers with a tremendously profitable environment and made buying real estate in this area a very, very smart investment.
The reasons were pretty easy to understand;
I) A newly opened International Airport (Liberia International Airport) that had gone from the first direct commercial airline flights, 3 a week out of Atlanta with Delta Airlines, to 18 a week with in one year, with American Airlines and Continental Airlines joining Delta and commencing flights from their hub airports.
II) The opening of the Four Seasons Hotel and Arnold Palmer golf course which are located just across the bay from us. The Fours Seasons and Arnold Palmer golf course were the first phase of a three phase project that will incorporate two more golf courses, two marinas, additional real estate and an overall build out budget exceeding $400 million dollars.
III) A very strong US economy, combined with very low interest rates for mortgages. It can also be argued that the extremely low returns from traditional secure investments (GIC’s, T Bills, Savings Accounts…..) as well as a lingering uneasiness with the stock market, motivated investors to look at real estate as is the case during this economic cycle and Costa Rican was a close and secure real estate market that was performing well.
IV) This fast paced activity was also the result of the initial effects of the Baby Boomer market starting to look off shore for their retirement/investment/vacation properties and making acquisitions.
V) Our area is the closest beach community to the Liberia International Airport.
These were the factors that created the foundation for the growth we experienced from 2003 to the first quarter of 2006. Properties appreciated fairly well during this time period.
Due to the fact that 95% of the buyers of Pacific coast properties in the Costa Rica are from the United States, it is assumed by many of those now looking at Costa Rican real estate that the Costa Rican real estate market should be suffering similar maladies as that of the US real estate market.
The questions I get now are, “How is your market doing?” “Are prices dropping/” “Are you worried about your market?” ….
The reality is nothing could be further from the truth.
The reason I make that statement is due to the following factors;
I) It became very evident that a number of the larges scale developers from the United States recognized the predicament of their domestic real estate market some time ago in conjunction with understanding that the Baby Boomers were looking for vacation/investment/retirement properties outside of the US and looked around the world for better opportunities. Many decided on Costa Rica. With in a two hour radius of the Liberia International Airport at least nine large development properties have been purchased over the last 24 months representing an initial investment of over $325 million dollars to acquire these properties. The collective investment to build out these resort destination projects over the next ten years will be well over a billion dollars. Historically the world over, when this magnitude of investment occurred in a specific area, the neighbouring properties have appreciated in value, and in many cases at very aggressive rates. You know what they say about history repeating itself. The same will happen here. Very beneficial investment opportunities will present themselves to those that take advantage of them. Exceeding the returns of funds in similar secure investments such as GIC’s, T-Bills, Savings Account interest will happen.
II) The Liberia International Airport now has 42 commercial airline flights a week and continues to grow. Delta started a direct route to Liberia from Los Angeles in December 2006. Opening the Californian market to a direct flight will have a very substantial impact on the real estate industry here. New direct flights from London, England started in May 2007 opening the European market to Costa Rica. The March 2007 traffic through the airport was an increase of 15% over March of 2006 when it was expected not to exceed 10%. A budget of $16 million has been approved by the government to expand the Liberia Airport and open up an additional 20 check in counters.
III) The following hotel groups have signed contracts to operate hotels in our immediate area, Hilton, Westin, Regency International, Mandarin, Aman Group, Fairmont, Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood, Auberge, J.W. Marriott, and Hyatt. Many of these hotels will be under construction before the end of 2007. The joint marketing done by these hotel groups, combined with that of the airlines, will expose Costa Rica to the internal market place at a much grander scale than ever before. These hotels are all four or five star hotel operations and as a result will be bringing to Costa Rica a large and continuous supply of new qualified buyers each week.
IV) The Baby Boomers, yes I realize this is old and you have been hearing it forever (and more than likely you are one yourself) but the simple reality is that the shear numbers of this age group has changed markets their entire lives. Seventy-eight million people (or there about) will retire over the next 15 years in the US alone. Don’t think those developers that bought in Costa Rica aren’t aware of this. Our market can be sustained by less than 0.5% of the Baby Boomer market. Not much to ask for or need.
V) One of the major factors for our market not softening is that it is a cash market. Close to 100% of the property or home purchases here are cash buys. We do not have to deal with the aftermath of an over indulgence of speculator leveraged financed buys that artificially prop up property values and work to help values free fall when the market turns. This can not happen here as mortgage financing to date is not readily available in Costa Rica.
VI) We are not over built. A more accurate statement would be, we remain under built. The demand is still severely outweighing the supply. It will be some time before supply can catch up to demand, if it is ever able to.
VII) No hurricanes. It may seem like an insignificant factor but it is not. A significant portion of the market purchasing retirement/vacation or investment property would prefer to do so where a hurricane will not destroy their property. Costa Rica is such a place. It is surprising at the number of buyers we have seen that exchanged coastal properties in Florida or Texas for a property in Costa Rica over the last few years.
Yes, you have to take everything I state with a grain of salt as I live here and make a living from owning and operating a Century 21 real estate office, a successful development company and a technologically advanced construction company. However, what I have stated is simple fact and not “speculation”. It is what has happened, and what is happening.
And for me, I do not need to embellish the realities of our real estate, construction and land development industries as I have the comforting knowledge of knowing I can always turn to a prosperous career in free lance writing.
Costa Rica remains “hot” and will get “hotter”. You may want to slap on some sun block and get down here to take advantage of the knowledge you now possess and get in front of all of those that will be coming. There are some opportunities that can be taken advantage of by those that are willing to act upon them, hopefully you will be one of them and we are able to assist you..
Written by Scott MacDougall, an expatriate that has lived and worked in Costa Rica since 1992 and has been specifically involved in the real estate, construction and land development industries during this time. Scott was also a member of the executive management team of Los Sueños Resort & Marina for five years, the largest and most successful resort destination community project in Costa Rica. Scott can be contacted at scott@discovercostarica.com
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