March 30, 2008

Costa Rica- The Undiscovered Southern Central Pacific Real Estate Boom

Costa Rica has been the buzzword for those seeking a tropical Disneyland-like eco-tourism experience. A place where monkeys, birds, and butterflies playfully share their piece of paradise. A country known by biologists as having the richest biodiversity in the world. Nature truly smiled on this small country of only 52,100 square kilometers, with the geography and climate making it an ideal location for tourism and real estate appreciation. Property values have increase nearly 34% annually since 1998, with an even higher return on land with a home. This appreciation has been primarily reflected in the Northwest region of Costa Rica, the Province of Guanacaste. This is where Costa Rica’s second International Airport was built and new infrastructure made this primarily arid region the area of choice for both investors and those seeking a retirement/vacation home. Historically, the only tourists venturing down the Pacific Coast were those going to see Manuel Antonio National Park, (the most visited park in Costa Rica), and the surfing crowd going to Dominical and the “Southern-Zone” where “the mountains meet the sea”. Changes are coming … this out-of-the-way place is not so out-of-the-way anymore!

1) A New International Airport (Costa Rica’s third) is being built in Palmar Norte and is scheduled to be open for International flights by 2010. (Just 45 minutes from Hacienda Matapalo)

2) A New 80,000 square foot Hospital is currently under construction and nearly complete. (Only 20 minutes from Hacienda Matapalo)

3) The Costanera Highway (Pacific Coast Highway) is in the final stages of being a road improvement project which included rising, widening and paving the 26 mile stretch connecting Quepos and Dominical. (Including the town of Matapalo)

4) The largest, and only, full service marina in Central America is being built in Quepos and is currently under construction. (Located approximately 16 miles from Hacienda Matapalo)

This has led to a new construction boom, which is bringing developers to the area just now seeking the right property to purchase and begin planning their development. However, one developer with the right affiliations and information was able to place themselves ahead of the curve. The partners of Hacienda Matapalo set out to find the most spectacular piece of land in the region, and boy did they ever!

They identified and put under contract 665 acres of lush land and forest with three natural springs and naturally created waterfalls that will take your breath away. After an intense, six month due diligence, the partners closed on the property and began the initial environmental and planning work of what would be a master-planned, gated community with amenities never before available in the region. One of Costa Rica’s most respected law firms, Pacheco-Coto (www.pachecocoto.com), was retained as counsel and the leader in environmental protection, INDECA (www.indeca.info), was hired to conduct the environmental surveys on the property.

Hacienda Matapalo (www.haciendamatapalo.com) is now in the final stages of the permitting process, and is offering an opportunity for savvy investors and those seeking a retirement/second home. A limited number of pre-construction prices are available to the readers of this publication at this time.

Many individuals have been attracted to Costa Rica for a means to diversify their retirement portfolios. Costa Rica real estate serves as a great hedge against the cyclical changes in the stock and bond markets, the US economy, and the falling US dollar.

A little known option for investing in real estate is using your Individual Retirement Account. All types of retirement accounts can be converted, tax-free, to a Self-Directed IRA and subsequently invested in all types of real estate. The Developer of Hacienda Matapalo is extremely well versed in the use of Self-Directed IRA’s for real estate purchases. Having this knowledge has allowed the Developer to work with Buyers on an individual case-by-case basis, customizing contracts based upon that particular individual needs and working capital. In fact as of January 2008 nearly 27% of the purchases at Hacienda Matapalo were made with Self-Directed IRA’s

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March 29, 2008

Costa Rica. Bellingham to build world class marina on Quepos coast

Situated along the spectacular coastline of Quepos, Costa Rica with direct access to some of the world’s best sport fishing, development of Costa Rica’s newest premier destination and world class marina is underway. Marina Pez Vela scheduled to open late 2008, is the vision of sport fishing enthusiast and Costa Rica local Harold Lovelady. Harold and colleague John Kane have teamed up with world renowned marina contractor Bellingham Marine to deliver a state-of-the art modern marina. The new marina will open up thousands of miles of ocean to anglers and trans-oceanic travelers and is positioned to be the region’s premier destination marina.

Quepos has long been regarded as a fishing haven; however, access to the region’s fishing grounds is nearly impossible. Boating facilities and services in the region are extremely limited. Marina Pez Vela will provide a safe haven and fully staffed maintenance facility for boaters. “We are confident Marina Pez Vela will satisfy the tremendous demand for marina services in the region, which have gone largely unmet until now and will provide access to Costa Rica’s tranquil, rich waters and stunning coastline,” commented John Kane, partner in the project.

The 300-slip marina will feature extra wide modern concrete floating docks to allow easy access by golf carts, safe loading of passengers and equipment, and secure moorage. The first phase of construction includes 100-slips accommodating yachts up to 200 feet in length. Slip side services include telephone, cable, high speed internet, fresh water and electrical hook ups. High speed fuel pumps, septic pump-out and dockside concierge services will also be available on site. The marina will be built with an emphasis toward environmental protection and will meet full American and Costa Rican building

codes and standards.

Marina Pez Vela is slated to be a world class waterfront development. Upon completion, the development will include a full service 300-slip marina, a drystack for boats up to 40 feet, maintenance facilities with a 200-ton travel lift, an upscale boutique hotel, residential units, restaurants, upscale shopping and a retail center including tackle shop, marine supplies, deli and grocery store.

As the world's leading marina design/build construction company, Bellingham Marine produces Unifloat saltwater systems, Unideck freshwater systems and Unistack dry storage systems for marinas worldwide.

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March 26, 2008

La Mansion Arenal, Costa Rica, still #1

90% of the time in Arenal you cannot see the Arenal Volcano as it is covered by clouds, however at night is always the best time to view the 3rd most active volcano in the world. On average you can hear the volcano erupting every 48 minutes and at night you can see the volcano glowing as lava flows down it sides. Having stayed at the majority of luxury hotels in Arenal, la Mansion Arenal still holds the crown for the most authentic and natural stay in the Arenal area.The hotel is situated close to Nuevo Arenal (New Arenal) which is called this due to the Viejo Arenal (old Arenal) being under the man made lake Arenal. It is situated on the shores of the lake and boasts 16 beautiful private cottages all with their very own private tropical gardens and views over the lake and hills of Guanacaste. The hotel is privately owned by the Ponteur family who originate from Belgium, however have been in Costa Rica for over 25 years.

There are no other hotels surrounding the hotel so if you are quiet the only things you can hear in the Costa Rican Wildlife. Since the boom in constructing hotels in Arenal, it seems that the wealth of people invading the area is pushing the wildlife further out. However they are more than welcome at La Mansion Arenal and can join the owls, toucans, horses, frogs and many other animals and insects that also stay at La Mansion Arenal. Some people complain about the remoteness, however they are only 30 minutes from Arenal and if you are not here to relax and enjoy the nature the what are you in Costa Rica for??

The food at the hotel is fabulous and a typical meal would be a starter of Soup or Salad followed by Duck/Chicken/Sea Bass or Angus steak and topped off with some homemade apple pie!! The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed with people playing pool or drinking a cold ‘Imperial’ at the bar. La Mansion Arenal.JPG

Currently the hotel has a special for the green season that if you stay 3 nights the 4th is free or stay 8 and pay only 6. This hotel is truly magical and the reviews written in their comments book will support this. If you want somewhere quiet and enchanting to escape to be sure to visit la Mansion Arenal.

Enquire about a custom designed luxury holiday to Costa Rica from 899GBP per person.

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At the crossroads of the compass, Costa Rica jams a world's worth of spectacles into a very small space.

Story and photos by Chris Welsch, Star Tribune

A crown of streaming clouds flowed off the cone of Costa Rica's Arenal volcano. A sound like thunder shook the air.

Standing in a lava field about 2 miles from the mountainside, I watched boulders the size of Chevy Suburbans fly out of the clouds and tumble down the gray and black slope.

Oddly, the volcano's audience treated the spectacle with casual curiosity. A dozen Dutch and German tourists sat or leaned on black pumice boulders, chatting while they scoped the geological show with their binoculars.

"Doesn't this make you a little nervous?" I asked my guide, Alexander Araya.

"A little. See that lake?" he pointed to a body of water a couple of miles behind us. "The old town of Arenal is under there. It was destroyed when the volcano blew up in 1968. This thing has been active every day since. It can throw a boulder 5 or 6 kilometers."

During a four-day excursion across Costa Rica's interior, I often had the feeling that I was watching a special-effects-laden movie instead of experiencing reality. Maybe it was suddenly going from the gray world of Minnesota winter to the saturated colors of the equatorial tropics, but everything — the exploding volcano, the cloud forest as viewed while flying down a steel cable, a flock of iridescent hummingbirds — seemed too extravagant to be true.

Araya, 31, added to the sense of disassociation. Perpetually clad in wrap-around shades, he told outrageous stories with disarming nonchalance and an utter lack of irony. When we checked into a hotel near the volcano, he told me not to get too close to bushes or trees with my camera because of the abundance of poisonous snakes.

"The fer-de-lance is the only aggressive one. If he sees you coming, he'll come out toward you," Araya said. "My uncle got bit by one. Blood comes out your eyes and pores. He was in the hospital six months, but don't worry, he survived it."

At the juncture between North and South America and between the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, Costa Rica compresses an intense amount of geography and wildlife into a very small country (about the size of West Virginia) a few hundred miles north of the equator. bird wildlife.jpg

The character of the people who live amid all these phenomena is interestingly relaxed. They are known to other Latinos (and to themselves) as Ticos, for the Costa Rican tendency to add the Spanish diminutive to nearly every noun. In Costa Rica, a coffee is un cafecito. With milk? Con lechita.

That tendency seems representative of an affectionate and nonviolent outlook on life. Araya proudly told me that the country hasn't had a standing army since 1948, and that the money is better spent on schools. "Tourism is the No. 1 industry," Araya said, "but high-tech is No. 2. And that's because everyone here can get an education."

Volcanic beauty

The people are nonviolent, but the landscape isn't. There are more than 100 volcanoes in Costa Rica and at least five are active. Arenal, reliably rumbly, has become a hub of geo- and eco-tourism. The volcano provides heat for a number of hot-spring spas, and a dramatic setting for a number of other attractions, such as a private park with hanging bridges suspended in the rain-forest canopy.

We spent the morning hiking in Arenal National Park, a rain-forest preserve at the base of the volcano. There, stark evidence of the Earth's potential for destruction was brightened by its powers of creation; orchids sprouted from crevices in lava, from trees, from the damp forest floor. An orchestra of insects, frogs and birds made the air vibrate.

waterfall wildlife.jpg Down the trail, Araya pointed out a termite mound, as big as a cluster of bowling balls, growing around a tree stump. The tiny bugs crawled around the nest.

"These are the kind that are good to eat," he said with a nostalgic sigh. "I used to eat a lot of them when I was a kid — like candy. Now, I just can't do it. They work so hard to build that nest. I feel guilty to break it up."

A blur of activity

That Araya would feel guilty about breaking up termite nests to eat the bugs seemed to fit the stereotype of the nonviolent Costa Rican. I had a harder time putting the zip-line phenomenon into any kind of context.

A day after leaving the volcano, I joined several other tourists in climbing a tall scaffolding, attaching myself to a pulley on a high-tension steel cable and then taking off on a high-speed journey through the upper canopy of the cloud forest. It was another surreal experience, kind of like being Tarzan, if Tarzan wore a hockey helmet and a neon-orange jumpsuit.

Light rain added luster to every leaf in the jungle on the morning I showed up at Selvatura Canopy Tours in the mountain town of Monteverde. I went through a 10-minute orientation with a honeymooning couple from Toronto. Briefly, we were taught how to brake with our heavy leather gloves and how to keep our feet forward (in case the braking doesn't work, you don't want to come to a stop against a tree with your head — it makes sense).

The "tour" consisted of sliding down nine cables strung down the side of a cloud forest mountain. The longest, we were told, was 2,000 feet. We had a minder in front of us (to help us make safe landings) and one behind (to push us along if we got stuck in the middle of a cable; it is possible to brake too much.)

The climax of the trip was the "Tarzan swing," a 55-foot cable strung from the branch of a massive tree. The Canadian groom and I climbed a 60-foot high platform. I went first. There was quite a bit of falling straight down before the cable caught and I became a 200-pound pendulum. I was told that I let out a strangled scream as I dropped. When the Canadian's turn came, his legs shook like Bugs Bunny's about to get shot by Elmer Fudd.

The zip line was fun, I admit, but it rendered the jungle a green blur. I was happy to have my feet back on the ground the next day, when Araya and I spent several hours hiking in Monte Verde's main attraction: the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.

At 4,000 to 5,000 feet high and straddling the country's continental divide, the reserve shelters more than 3,000 kinds of plants, 500 bird species and 120 mammals. For birders, the ultimate aim is to spot the rare resplendent quetzal, a spectrum-defying bird with a 3-foot train of luminous feathers that might make a peacock jealous.

A winged rainbow

We hiked for miles. At times, the trail disappeared in thick fog. The moss-covered trees dripped. When the clouds parted momentarily, I could see we were walking along a ridge, with deep valleys on either side of the path.

Every available surface supported life. In the cups of pineapple-topped bromeliads, poison-dart frogs sang. Along the trail, leaf-cutter ants busily carried their harvest to the colony. Araya shined his flashlight in a hole to illuminate a tarantula, as broad as my palm, lying in wait for its next meal.

Periodically, Araya blew a short double whistle, hoping to hear the wikka-wikka call of the quetzal in response. "When people see it, they cry," he said. "I've cried when I've seen one. There is something about them, a special energy. When one flies by, it's like the colors stay in the air behind it. I can see why the Maya thought it was a god."

Finally, a bird returned Araya's call. He set up his spotting scope and in short order identified a female, not quite as resplendent as her male counterpart, sitting quietly in a tree about 150 feet from the trail.

Through the scope, I saw a bird about the size of a crow, but radiating colors — iridescent green and gold across the back, a glimmer of red near the tail, and checkered black and white tail-feathers. It was like a fragment of rainbow, living and breathing. A minute later, the quetzal flew away, vanishing into the clouds.

"You know, once I did the zip line a few times, I don't need to do it again," Araya said. "But I never get tired of this."

Chris Welsch • 612-673-7113

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March 21, 2008

Costa Rica Real Estate Development Company Begins High Tech Marketing Plan

(OPENPRESS) March 1, 2008 — With the obvious success that search engine marketing has brought to many companies by using Internet searches to draw in customers, the Costa Rican Development Corporation has decided that this is a marketing tool worth their time and money. The CRDC surpasses every other Costa Rica land development company with their investments in the promotion of their luxury resorts.

The company’s decision to use these new techniques to increase traffic to their websites adds to their reputation of being a revolutionary company in marketing exclusive real estate in Costa Rica. It is obvious they dedicate a higher budget to advertising than any other local company. They spare no expense to stay a step ahead of their competitors, using their investments in advertising to create a recognizable brand name, synonymous with elegance and luxury.

Catering to a high-end clientele who wants the absolute best in luxury amenities, the Costa Rican Development Corporation has already proven their dedication to their brand with alluring websites for each of their premier property groups. Their investment in search engine marketing will allow more prospective buyers the opportunity to view some of the most posh and elegant resort communities in Costa Rica.

The group’s properties can be seen at www.cerrofresco.com, www.highlandsestates.com, and www.villasaltas.com. A glance through the picturesque pages gives buyers and browsers an inside look at some of the most premier locations in all of Costa Rica. Their gated communities offer private spas, restaurants, concierge services, and other amazing features, befitting those who want a true lifestyle experience.

About CRDC
Costa Rican Development Corporation is setting the standard in design and development of luxurious master planned community’s, within the epicenter of the country’s fastest growing region, the Central Pacific in Jacó, Costa Rica. Our community's are strategically positioned amongst some of the most exclusive ocean view property in Costa Rica in the highlands of Cerro Fresco.

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Professional Free Press Release News Wire

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