Dies

I'll do some fast forwarding....

Rob and Jim corresponded throughout November/December and were hoping to get a sattelite system put in so that we would have high speed internet, and use that for skype phones... So right after the holidays, in early 2008, Jim traveled for a quick trip to meet the sattelite guy, and have him view on site options so we could determine whether we needed 2.4ghz, or 900mhz system. We initially settled on the 2.4 system which is cheaper, and adequate for line of sight install. But our power was not yet on... We chose to delay until we actually had power - in retrospect, glad we did....

Then at the end of February we traveled back in part for vacation, and in part for meeting of Alazan homeowners. Robs family was visiting so they were pretty much busy with that. We got to enjoy some local travel, and stayed at a new place for us called Villas Mymosa in Manuel Antonio (see fourth photo of view from patio). We enjoyed the rainforest not far from Parrita (first two photos, the second actually starting to cross that way up high rope bridge), horseback riding on the beach (third photo) and otherwise took time to enjoy ourselves. We still have not attempted zip line tours. I know we will, and once we do Jim will absolutely love it - but crossing that fear the first time always a challenge...

We then spent time working on the determining the exact position of our casita. I have to admit, we nearly gave up on the whole concept this trip. Communications were awful, with so many systems breaking. At one point we sat down, said to each other we'll try this call one more time. If we don't hear from Rob, we'll give up and maybe pick up on building in a couple of years....

We determined during that time that we'll leave it to fate, that trying was not getting us anywhere, letting go the most peaceful way. And moments later, Rob knocked on the door.... Go figure....

Anyway, this last photo is of overweight Jeeeem signaling the front corner (approximately) of what would become our casita. When you compare this photo, from February 2008 to now, there has been a huge amount of progress. I imagine the other thing one will notice is how much dryer it is in February. If you review the main building blog, you can almost see the progression of rain; even though Alma dumped a ton of rain in May (unusual).

Anyway, the big message here on this post is how close we came to abandoning the whole notion of building... What it did though was help us to throttle back our expectations of speed. Many know when they ask "when will you be done building" my answer is always "in the future".

Anyway, all along, we're identifying with Costa Rica as a future home, and getting a better bead on breaking the "ideal" view to the "real" view - important steps...

Thanks for reading... To be continued....

Jim and Dick

Nueve

We returned to Costa Rica just two months later, in early November hoping to find that rainy season had ended. And we rented a car this trip, and nice Hyundai Tuscon which in Tico terms means "gringo"! But it was the right sort of vehicle for the trip, and most of the time is what we will rent up until the point we purchase a vehicle there.

We stayed this time at Casa Blanca - a place we absolutely do NOT recommend. Room was very small, bed insanely uncomfortable. But nonetheless, it was a place to stowe our stuff and sleep, best we could, for our stay. And the price was quite low. For saving money, is a pretty good place!

For this trip, Rob was out of the country for most of our stay, so we were fundementally on our own. But we made do rather well. Early on we met with Pietro to go through electrical plans to let them finish the design. On this trip we managed to convert a lot of the appearances of our plan to reality - with a better scale that the original artists rendition took liberties with.

We checked out the beginnings of construction for Rob/Kent casita. And we rechecked out property, waterfall, etc. Met a bit with Gerardo and all in all, got ourselves more familiar with the area. We ventured into stores in Parrita, checked out appliances available there, and some of the Ferriterias in town as well.

We took a good assessment of our new driveway, and determined changes we felt would be important.

Our first night at Casa Blanca, we had taken a quick run up to Alazan, but found all the guys coming DOWN the mountain and a light rain starting. We later learned that there are places on the roadway that it is best to NOT be on while it is raining... Anyway, we went ahead and turned around and decided to settle into our room, and relax a bit. By then the rain had picked up a bit - to an INSANE downpour! We figured we would wait a bit and it would pass, but two hours later it had NOT passed. Another hour after that it still had not passed. So we decided to walk to the nice second floor restaurant next door (Agua Azul - wonderful food!). Mind you we were on a mountainside. But the water was still about 3 inches deep as we walked to Agua Azul. The intensity of the rain caused a mist on all the outer tables of this open air restaurant. So all the customers were in the center tables only. We enjoyed a great dinner, relaxed a bit for the rain to let up, but alas, it didn't. So back through the 3" rain (on a slope) to our room. On the plus side, the Tucson was clean by the time the rain was over.

During this trip we had hoped to connect with our friend Mike Conley. Close, but never quite happened. We did drive the 'bone cruncher' highway southeast to Dominical through some great country and some trecherous bridges. But it was a nice trip and gave us a chance to see another developing community, and more of the coast.

After just a few days on the coast, we headed back to San Jose, another night with Steve and Rita, and back home in time for ThanksGiving.

To be continued....

Ocho

Wow, posting this is timing to real-time but 12 months back...

So we were on our way to paying for Lot #14, and were working with Rob to lay in the groundwork. Alazan had hired the electrical contractor to run electricity throughout the project. We were curious as all get out what Pietro would come up with; and so we planned our trip for Labor Day week of 2007. By this point our friends at Casa Bellarita were on their way to reframing the old Canyon House into the very nice B&B it is.

When we arrived on Sept 1, 2007 we did not find Steve, and were unable to recall or easily pull up the phone number there. We were still inexperienced enough to not understand that finding people is by phone (when the phone system works) and having their number is essential. Jim did have the CasaBellaRita reservation form with travel paperwork, but there was no phone number on it. All we had was Jim's work laptop computer. Great, if only we had internet.

Oh my, this was really interesting... One of the many many cab drivers took us to an internet cafe several blocks away in San Jose. All at high speed on impossibly narrow barrio type streets; clearly not in a place where tourists typically go. As we went, the sky opened up with an INCREDIBLE thunder storm! And so as we pulled up in front of the cafe, the driver and Jim went through the downpour into the cafe, where Jim hooked up his computer, got the phone number, gave it to the cab driver who phoned Steve. During all this intense thunder, rain and lightning, every car alarm in the area was being set off by the thunder ricocheting off the buildings. What noise!

Somehow we mixed up arrival time and so by the time we got back to the airport, paid our cab fare, Steve was there waiting for us. Oh my, through the whole experience we ran the gammut of emotion - from "Oh man, what the heck are we thinkin about!?" - to - "We could never go to an unfamiliar city in the US, and be treated so well by a cab driver - what a blessing to be here!".

Anyway, we arrived as Casa Bellarita, tired from travel and ready to relax! Jim connected into work to make sure all was well, handle some project work, and otherwise just stayed connected. And we relaxed. On that Monday morning (Labor Day in the US); we met with Pietro to see his concept drawings of each of the first three homes proposed for Alazan. We were rather blown away by the design, which is beautiful.

The next day we rode with Rob cross country for the first time to Parrita (recall we took a bus to Arenal). Rob and Kent had purchased their Kia Diesel 4wd four door work truck. And loaded with Rob's and our travel gear, and our combined weight, we had a fairly nice drive to the coast. This trip really helped set our love for our new country. What a stunning place!

We arrived in Manuel Antonio where we stayed in the now familiar La Plantacion (regrettably, now closed). And once again, headed to Alazan to see the progress on the new roadway/driveways; and the beginning of telephone poles going in.

Oh the MUD! Rainy season was moving along rather well, and so we enjoyed all sorts of mud as we walked around. On these included photos, you can see some of the extended roadway which is a fairly typical Alazan view. Some of our roadways are getting pavement, and I imagine over time, it will be entirely paved. But for now, this is a good representation of what the roadways were like in late Summer (US season) 2007.

You can see Rob and Jim walking back uphill towards Rob/Kent and Callie/John driveways. The final photo is Alvarro laying bloque zecate driveway on Lot#14 section (the end of the road). We included this photo specifically in part to prove there really can be sun during rainy season, but mostly because unbeknownst to us, just over his shoulder is the location of the casita under construction a year later. At the time we had no vision we might build something in this spot. All vision at the time was towards building off the end of the drive. It will be interesting what exactly we do put in there... Pietro's design is beautiful, but no place for a theatre. We're not sure how we would bridge that desire. For certain, this won't get built in the short run.

While we were at Alazan seeing the driveway paving, and learning how to properly use a machete with a quick in-service course from Alvarro, and of course frolicking in the waterfall for the first time (much more on the next trip from which this final photo was actually taken; all along we kept returning to Pietro's design and what we liked/didn't like. So at the end of the week we returned via Sansa to San Jose, and visited Luz and Pietro to cover our first set of changes we would desire.

And so we returned back to Wisconsin - all excited about the evolution of our project. We were excited about building, but at this point not committed to it. We decided to spend a few weeks pondering while Luz and Pietro continued the conceptual work.

To be continued....

Ricardo y Jeeeem

Siete....

The Spring of 2007 seemed to come fast - even though everyone else thought it was slow. We began thinking of concepts of a house. What did we want, what was optional. We disagreed... But this was a great time to work through all this as it was the second house the two of us built - and we had worked through several remodelling projects so we were conditioned to find solutions. And we did.



In early June of 2007 Jim and Dick traveled back to Costa Rica to meet with Rob and to determine, we hoped, where we would place the roadway getting from the existing road to each of our lots (Rob, Calle, D&J and Fred). We did manage to enjoy some of the Costa Rican sea shore and you can tell from this photo, we suffered...


It was during this trip we met Rob's handsome brother Fred. We trudged through the jungle, machette's in hand figuring out a path. We agreed upon a building site for our house. Rob did same conceptually for his and his sisters house so that we could consider the roadway. We made some marks, and came up with what we thought was a path. It was a successful trip!

With our potential building pad identified, we took some pictures, made some notations, and headed back to Wisconsin to motorcycle and enjoy the short northern Summer.

July took Jim back. Gerardo and crew had cleared some brush, and we once again reconsidered the roadway. We found that our original thinking was spot on. The bad news is that it encroached on Kent and Rob's lot more than any of us would have liked, but we had to follow the contour the mountain gave us. It was on this trip Jim met Rob's mate Kent for the first time. In this picture the fellow in the blue shirt is Kent. The space in front of him is our big house intended building site. At the time, we did not have a concept of building a smaller casa, much less building one first. In this picture, if you went just beyond the trees in the distance, you would be in the waterfall. So the big house was intended to be as close as possible to that.

Also during this trip, Jim hired Pietro Stagno (architect) to create a house plan for us. Rob and Kent had hired him for their casa, and Rob's sister Calle (and John) were planning same for their casa. All in all a rather heady trip! All of this set the stage for building - and the roadway was not even in yet to our lots!!! In the end, we do have a nice house plan from Pietro, but the cost to build it now exceeded significantly our ability to build it.

As we review the photo's from between early June to early July, it is obvious how much cloudier it is in Costa Rica in July. And that was certainly the case! I should mention that it was in the time between the June and July trips that we formally entered our reservation and put our deposit on lot #14. Because of that, we had our first glimmer of "owning" land in Costa Rica - and began to feel that connection of owning in a foreign country and being part of the larger world beyond the USA. It is a good feeling!


From this point forward, we were definitely on a path to our project.

Thank you for reading this far!


to be continued....

In the beginning Part Sies

The night before we were to return to Wisconsin there was a HUGE BLIZZARD in south east Wisconsin. We read about it on the internet, and were able to instant message our friend Chris from Port Washington who confirmed that the snowfall was significant.

After so many sunny, warm days - we seriously considered extending our stay, and indeed, we could if we just paid a ransom to the airline and Orbitz. We decided returning as planned made the most sense. Afterall, it seemed as though we were destined to return anyway - so why not?

We bid farewell to our other fellow guests at La Plantacion, and packed up to head out the next morning. So began some discussions of how we would pull this off - and read up on details we needed to know. We landed in Milwaukee late that night. While it was clear that there was a decent snowfall, our neighbor Jason had cleared our driveway (and his; with our snowthrower). We were grateful for that.

We returned to work; and began to determine what we wanted on Lot 14 - and set about to forming an LLC to hold it all. We wrote Rob after returning home to confirm that it was our plan to buy that lot, and as soon as reservation agreements could be signed, we would...

Elvira Orly was a great attorney recommended to us, and it was through her we set up our LLC. Dick, in conversing with a coworker - came home one night with the idea of "Torrente de Agua" and we both jumped on the name. It described Lot 14 perfectly. That became the name of our LLC, and would become the name of all associated with our lot.

Of course, we had to grapple with the concept of having a home in another country. But it became our intention to build our building(s), and along with our neighbors, rent them to vacationers to Costa Rica. We felt that a place away from the crowds, but not so far that they were difficult to reach - was a potential experience folks visiting that beautiful country would enjoy.

And over those first weeks back in Wisconsin, we adapted to the notion of this purchase, and changed our personal identities to people with property in other parts of the world. Both of us had often thought that when we went on vacations... But in past travels never found anything so specific as a piece of real estate that was, at the time, undeveloped, and where between us and our neighbors we could be the pioneers for a part of a country. And indeed, in the coming posts you'll see that it will be exactly that.

So that's tonights post everyone...

to be continued....

"In the beginning... Part Cinco

Hola friends!

Winded from our hike back up from the purported waterfall we stood near on lot 12, which later became Rob's lot and discussed more about investing in Costa Rica. Rob passed on some conceptual ways to tap in to cash we might not have been able to. I'll keep that a secret on this blog, but is a fully legal and interesting method - and one that makes great sense. At that time no lot had been sold, and in fact, none were available for sale, just reservation. And even reservations needed some time for the Costa Rican legal processes to catch up.

While Rob and Herolf went off to discuss Herolf's potential interest in Lot 15, Dick and Jim stepped away - walked back to lot 14 and continued to ponder it. The price was very attractive - one of the least expensive lots. Yet it still had a view of the Pacific, and that lovely waterfall that runs about 9 months per year. Determining that it was a viable option - at a price that we didn't think could possibly remain as the property continued to develop - we decided to go for it and gave Rob our verbal commitment to purchase Lot 14.

Afterwards we drove out to the beach. This photo is of the beach that day. As you can see, not at all crowded unlike Hermosa beach just a few more kilometers towards Jaco. We've since learned that not much further towards Quepos is a great place to rent horses and ride on the beach. But in this stretch, really just a great place to enjoy the sun and sea! You can see Dick out there in the distance checking out the broad beach (low tide). But this is the sort of beach that is easy to get used to. Behind me as I snapped this picture is a long (kilometers long) triple row of palm trees spaced as natural shaded picnic areas. Definitely a great place to read a good book!

When we left just a couple days later (and immediately after a big Milwaukee blizzard had hit) Jim snapped this photo while flying back to San Jose - thinking this was the land. And indeed, it is not too far. But sadly, this is NOT the view from above. Still I included it since it is close enough to give the idea of Alazan. If you look at the first post of the casita blog series from early May, you'll see a great aerial view!

Meanwhile, it was at this point, February 24th of 2007 that Dick and Jim decided to pursue this venture. Little did we know this was just the TIP of the adventure!

To be continued....

In the beginning, Part quattro

One evening soon after arriving at La Plantacion we met Rob Hunter. You'll see him in this first photo. Big Ruby's during High Season has an evening bar social so that guests can meet each other, can catch up or share their adventures of the day.

Rob had just come back from some sort of adventure, had his laptop computer with him, and ordered a glass of wine - sat down to visit with the other guests. We asked him what his day had been like. He began talking about a project he was part of - as yet unnamed - where he and his socios were developing a parcel of coastal mountain into lots, with the thought of creating an 'intentional community'. The thinking was that it would be largely gay-owned, but there was certainly not requirement for that (and indeed, it hasn't turned out exactly that way; but then many lots are still for sale). {this first photo is of LOT 12 - ultimately Kent and Rob's parcel}

As he began talking about it, Jim's interest grew. Dick was curious. First, it was away from the hustle and bustle of Manuel Antonio which, while lovely, can feel awfully busy. Second, it was in an area between two other developing areas, and thus had potential advantages of accessing both Hermosa Beach (excellent surfing) to the west, and Manual Antonio to the east. We asked if he was showing lots yet. He had plans the next day of taking another guest, Herolf, up and had room in his car for us - we were welcome to join in.

Thus began the Parrita adventure. After crossing 2 SINGLE LANE "bridges" (see photo) which definitely brought an air of adventure, and driving past kilometers of Royal Palm Plantations; we made our way to the town of Parrita. Our experience of it that day was shops on either side of the road, and a good amount of people.

Shortly after driving out of Parrita, Rob turned down a gravel road; bumpy and dusty; and we drove about 5 more kilometers first through Royal Palm Plantation, and then Pinapple (pino) fields - past a few cattle and finally to "the farm". {this photo is just after starting up the mountain}

All along the drive he told us of his socios, Gerardo, from whom they bought the land; and the adventure so far of subdividing it and making arrangements for power, water, roadway. Rob was enthusiastic! Arriving at the property, we enjoyed a rustic road to the bottom of the hill, and then a windey, lengthy, bumpy ride up to the top.

We then walked up to lot 10 - high point in that part of the property, and down from there lot 11 and 12 (see Lot 12 pic at beginning of blog). Lot 12 has a fantastic view of the river valley, Manuel Antonio, and the ocean. Really a beautiful spot. Lot 13, just below it, shared similar views.

Lot 14 was tucked slightly down, but had this wonderful {dry} waterfall next to it. We were exhausted hiking down to the waterfall and back; and note we had to imagine the sound of it, but we got to see a beautiful jungle, and walking through it back to Rob's car, came across an army of Leaf Cutter Ants. {this photo is of LOT 14 - less expensive and thought to be of limited value}

The sounds were only of wind, and the feel of sun and ocean breeze was beautiful. From Lot 12 we would occasionally hear sounds of agriculture - but no hustle, no bustle - just lovely jungle...

To be continued....

In the beginning Part 3

Our flight to Quepos and Manuel Antonio area required us to stop at San Jose first to Nature Aire's hub airport (known as Pavas). The flight was wonderful, great views of the valley as we flew overhead on a clear, sunny day!

The quick flight to Quepos was equally beautiful! As you can see from the photo on the right, the airstrip is in the middle of a Royal Palm field. It's that little cutout you can see pretty much center left of the windshield.

We decided to stay at a gay friendly resort, and so booked a beautiful villa at La Plantacion (aka, Big Rubys). La Plantacion offers breakfast every morning - coffee, fresh juices, fresh fruit (picked ripe), toast, often eggs, sometimes breakfast meats. This photo is of the dining area. What is evident in Costa Rica is that a room is just a covered place. Most living is in rooms with few to no walls. With such a balance of nature, insects are not too troublesome.

All this is next to the very small town of Quepos. I honestly don't know how many residents, but probably

smaller than Saukville, WI (5,000 people).

Next to Quepos is Manuel Antonio, which includes the few miles of road from Quepos to the Manuel Antonio park. MA is a beautiful park with incredible wildlife and vegitation. Well worth a tour. When we went, we had a great guide named Gamma who seemed to be able to spot even tiny creatures, and show us on his telescope. Much of the walking includes walking the beach. This photo is of Turtle Rock (aptly named). Well after we returned home from this trip it occurred to me that if one pointed a telescope anywhere at Manuel Antonio, some critter would be in view...

Nearby La Plantacion is an interesting looking restaurant we just HAD to go to named El Avion. It was built around the surviving airplane from the Iran Contra affair from El Salvidor which is northwest from Costa Rica, opposite Nicaragua. We thought the concept was cleverly done. El Avion has many Costa Rican bean and rice based dishes. But we found they also make some wonderful Hearts of Palm salads that were perfect at the end of a warm day enjoying the beach.

So in just a few days we had SOME exposure to Costa Rica, the climate, the food, the (wonderful) people. What an awesome experience!

Staying at La Plantacion was a nice man named Rob Hunter, and meeting him cracked open the door to so much more....

To be continued....

In the beginning, part 2

In the Fall of 2006 Jim and Dick began planning their Costa Rican adventure. Mike referred Jim to Charlie and soon an evening conference call was made, with maps, experiences to be enjoyed, etc. Jim went off and found the optional air travel arrangements; decided upon day 1 lodging, and booked a rental car.

Soon after Jim found a fellow with a B&B in San Jose, Costa Rica. Ric helped with further plans, but warned the normally adventurous Jim off from renting a car - suggesting Interbus or Nature Air for travel in country, and otherwise using cabs. Sadly, Jim cancelled the rental car and by mid February our trip began. As we left we told each other "we are NOT buying any property while we're there".

We decided the beginning half of the trip would be spent in Northern Costa Rica by the Arenal Volcano. Please understand that February is DRY season. So after spending the first night at Ric's B&B; we proceeded to Arenal by Interbus. We had lovely weather, and got to enjoy the awesome scenery on the six hour drive up to the volcano. We arrived at our resort, just seeing clouds at the top of the volcano, and looking forward to a great time there.

The next morning was overcast, but warm. We decided to hike up the foothills to a great view of the volcano. The more we walked, the heavier the overcast became. We arrived at the lookout, after hiking what was easily two kilometers up and probably more uphill. A light drizzle started, but we nonetheless enjoyed what we could see and hear of Arenal. The sounds were incredible, but alas, we could not see the top. It was the first time for both of us where we stood next to an active volcano. Indeed, had there been a major eruption at that point, likely this blog would not exist. After a rest, we hiked back down, with the drizzle becoming a light rain.

By the time we got to our cabin, the rain was heavier; and soon became a full fledged downpour! Thus began our Arenal experience. We sat out one day waiting for the steady intense rain to stop. It did not stop. Jim read a book, Dick "enjoyed" Spanish language TV. On the afternoon of the second day we decided to take the "hanging bridges rain forest tour". Our guide was wonderful and the rainforest was beautiful, albeit rainy.

The rain continued. The next day, we decided we would go ahead and take a rafting safari. We were the only ones - the remaining tourist all stayed inside, out of the rain. The river had raised about 4 meters in the prior day of rain, making for a more, um, rapid trip. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful trip enjoying some great Tico hospitality. We were blessed!

The following day it was time to leave. As we took our cab to the airport, the sun emerged into a lovely, dry-season, Costa Rican morning. We found the local La Fortuna airport, um, rustic. Clearly had been a cattle gathering place, converted to a sort of airport with grass strip. The colorful high winged Nature Air plane landed, took us first to San Jose for us to catch another plane for the second part of our adventure!

To be continued....

In the Beginning part 1

Jim had wanted to go to Costa Rica for AT LEAST the past 20 years. Never sure quite why - there was something about 'the coast of riches' that just appealed to him. Dick loves to explore new places, and prior to meeting Jim had gone many places he had not yet experienced. When Dick and Jim met in 2000, they began an at least annual venture to unvisited places. (an interesting aside; the first weekend Jim and Dick spent together after meeting; they ran into Betsy Walton right after breakfast -- introducing Dick to the extended Nowlen clan right away... Destiny????).

In 2003 Jim met his friend Mike Conley; who he met as a result of his work. Jim had known OF Mike for the prior five years from Jim's prior job, but it was his new job that led them to meet. Mike Conley sure sounds like an irishman, but he is actually Irish/Panamanian. And Mike and his buds had been investing in Costa Rica from some time. So in the years from 2003 through 2006 Mike regailed Jim with more stories of Costa Rica than Jim had ever heard from other friends who had vacationed there.

Costa Rica is an exotic, yet very normal country. Warm people, lovely weather, kick-a*s rain during rainy season.

So began the planning of Jim and Dick's Costa Rica trip scheduled for February 2007. And thus began a whole new adventure....

(to be continued)