A friend of ours from San Francisco came down to visit Costa Rica with two of her pals this week. Because they were travelling on a budget and staying further south of here, we decided to road-trip down to see them in Samara (about two hours away) instead of having them come to us. Truth be told, We weren't very excited about the drive when we started, but once we got on the road and were enjoying the beautiful scenery (many of the hardwood trees are blooming right now- riotous explosions of color in the middle of a drab dry-grass background) we had a great time. It has been a few years since either of us has spent any time in Samara, so it was fun to see that little town from a fresh perspective as well.
After catching up with the girls (clockwise from left: Natalie, Jen, Jocelyn, Jen) on the beach for a while, we all enjoyed a great lunch in town. Caly had her first "no dogs allowed inside, so I'm tied up at the entrance waiting for my people" experience. I think it was more stressful to Jocelyn than the dog.
On account of the fact that Natalie and I are both in real estate, the conversation took the inevitable turn towards investment opportunities which ended up with Natalie headed back up to Tamarindo with us to see some property. She treated us to a delicious dinner in Santa Cruz on the way home. To our disbelief, the breeze was so strong that by the end of our meal we were actually cold! Odd things happening meteorilogically this year, normally the end of February is well on its way into "damn hot". Go figure.
We spent Sunday morning fiddling with the cars and the yard, enjoying breakfast, then the girls spent an hour at the studio jewelrying. Finally hit the road south sometime after midday. After showing her the great property we are selling in Avellanas, just south of Tamarindo, Natalie and I decided to take the coastal road down to Samara. It makes for a bumpy but beautiful tour of the Guanacaste coastline. It had been entirely too long since I'd spent the day bumping along a dirt road looking at monkeys, beaches, and local folk just living their lives.
Living in Tamarindo offers conveniences that feel indespensible sometimes (delivered pizza, video stores, various shopping options, a mote of cosmopolitan culture) but getting out of town into a more authentically laid-back Tico atmosphere is refreshing and fun. Unexpectedly, the coastal dirt road made for less travel time than the inland highway (remember, we're still in Guanacaste, "highway" should be interpreted loosely). On account of the fact that it was dark when I started back and the Nosara-Samara section of the road was full of potentially tricky wrong turns, I decided to take the highway back, which wasn't nearly as fun.

Labels: landcruiser, photo, travel

Click. Watch. Laugh. Learn.

I'm working too much, not surfing enough. So I'm going to take advantage of the relatively high seach engine rankings of Sandcruiser to see if it drives some real estate traffic towards the two condo projects that we are representing in Tamarindo right now.
Las Gaviotas de Tamarindo is a 15-unit project just a hundred feet from the house we are renting. Great views of the valley, sunset views from the 4th-floor common area patio. These units are optimized for long-term renters or people looking to live in Tamarindo. They are close enough to enjoy town, but far enough away that you can get a good night's sleep and generally avoid the more touristy areas of town if you choose to. We are looking to sell three more units before construction starts in April, so the $179,000 asking price should be considered "flexible".
Balcones del Pacifico Condomimiums is about 300 yards from the beach, and a great deal. There are units available at $120,000 and the developer is pushing hard to sell the first couple of units. The foundation is nearly done, the rest of the project should wrap up in less than nine months. A deposit of as little as $15,000 could hold a unit until construction is complete. The crappy web page that I threw together in no way reflects the quality of the project- this will be top-quality construction by a company who has done dozens of projects in Argentina and Spain.
Of course, we've also got home-lots, larger parcels, near-beach home lots in Avellanas for less than $40,000, and other condo and/or commercial property opportunities, just ask if you would like some more information.

Labels: real estate

We never post surfing pictures because we are lame. Except for today. Our buddy Mark took this picture right before his "waterproof" camera died in the surf last week. At least the media still had pictures on it. We hope to get some more morning surf shots in the near future. Oh, and for the record: Yes, Steve's partner Brian is in the process of dropping in on Steve.

Labels: surf

There's a guy in Australia whose Landcruiser has completed more than a million kilometers. That's a lot of driving.

Labels: travel

...feeling like, "What do I want to do today?"
instead of, "What do I have to do today?"

Well, today wasn't one of those days. One of the great things about being self employed is that, in theory, you can take off on random days or at random times during the day to do whatever it is that you want to do. That also rolls over into the fact that sometimes you've gotta work on the weekends, even if you would much rather do something else. With that elaborate excuse, I'll put off posting more house pictures or surfing pictures right now and instead put up a little inspiration that is also a chuckle...
Make your own poster here