Jump to:
Real Estate Update
A Growing Construction Team | Welcome to Senderos
Architecture Insights | The Changing Seasons
ADI Tamarindo Update | We ? Tama
The Essence of Pure Life | The Tamarindo Almanac
A Wave of Closings and Progress on Phase 2 Infrastructure!
As the green season comes and goes here in Senderos, one thing is certain — demand for beautiful homes in Costa Rica is strong. And alongside a wave of closings and contracts, the infrastructure team is working hard in Phase 2!
Keeping Momentum Strong Through October!
October is typically a month of rejuvenation for both the natural world and the people of Guanacaste. During the last month of the green season, the rivers are running high, the landscape is at its most lush, and many people around the region take some time off to prepare for the surge of visitors in the traditional “high season” months.
Sometimes, October can be a slower month for visitors and real estate, but that hasn’t been so in Costa Rica this year, and we’re happy to report that the same is true for Senderos!
Just this month we had 4 closings (including two homes and two homesites), and can report 4 more additional homes under contract.
With the construction starts on homes 15B (“Lakefront Retreat”), 3E (“Sunset Sanctuary”), and 3D (“Perfect Modern Tropical”), we really have some great momentum around the project.
Airlift Returns to Pre-Pandemic Levels at LIR
And Senderos isn’t the only one continuing strong momentum through the season. The airlift numbers from September have come in and we can report another strong month with visitors returning to pre-pandemic levels.
Canada’s borders are now open, and all four Canadian airlines that service LIR will be adding back routes in the fourth quarter, which will be a significant boost. Add in the fact that 15 US Cities now have direct flights to Liberia:
Los Angeles: Alaska (ends in August), Delta (November to January), JetBlue, United.
San Francisco: United.
Denver: Southwest (November to April), United.
Austin: American (starts in November).
Dallas: American.
Houston: United (IAH), Southwest (HOU).
Minneapolis: Delta (December to April), Sun Country (December to April).
Chicago: American (November to April), United.
Atlanta: Delta.
Miami: American.
Orlando: Frontier (starts in November).
Charlotte: American (starts in December).
Washington, D.C.: Southwest (BWI).
New York City: United (EWR), American (JFK; starts in December), JetBlue.
Boston: JetBlue (ends in April).
And you have the makings of some promising trends. As the high season approaches — and with it the traditionally busiest months in Guanacaste — we can predict that there’s going to be a lot of news at the end of this year and the turn of the next one.
Stay tuned!
And Progress on Phase 2 Infrastructure!
Last month we touched on Phase 2 infrastructure as the initial planning and grading began.
Well, this month we can report that Phase 2 infrastructure is thoroughly underway, with our construction teams hard at work laying the basis for the roadways, water systems, and electrical networks that will form the backbone of Phase 2.
Lots to look forward to!
Hope to See You Soon!
It’s beautiful in Senderos right now, and it will only get more beautiful as the year goes on. And with all signs pointing to a tremendously busy end of the year, we hope you’ll be able to join us as we continue building this community.
If you’d like to learn more about Senderos or schedule a visit, you can reach out to our team at info@senderos-cr.com.
A Growing Construction Team | Welcome to Senderos
Costa Rica, and Guanacaste in particular, are a hot topic around the globe right now. And it’s understandable, we live in a country with astounding natural beauty, exceptional quality of life, and a combination of culture and policy dedicated to protecting both.
And with the homes at Senderos, we focus on delivering truly world-class construction expertise, which allows us to design and realize dream homes that some builders might think impossible (or at least impossibly expensive).
But making these homes a reality takes organization, skill, and — most importantly — a team with many decades of experience, and today we’re happy to welcome Allan Muñoz, Head of Construction.
A Finely-Tuned Machine
The process of designing and building a home in Senderos requires a combination of artistic, engineering, construction, communication, and organizational expertise, and tends to feature dozens (if not many dozens) of people working towards one goal — make dream homes a reality.
To the inexperienced eye, it can look like magic, but in reality, a good homebuilding team is a finely-tuned machine executing each of the many tasks required to bring a home to life.
And as Head of Construction, Allan is in charge of understanding each and every one of these unique, necessary roles as he ensures that each team, and each member of those teams, has what they need to succeed and keep that finely-tuned machine functioning correctly.
Getting to Know Allan
Allan is originally from the Central Valley, specifically the San Pedro de Montes de Oca area east of San José, and brings more than 15 years of experience in construction and real estate developments.
Whether it was houses, mixed-use shopping centers, office buildings, retail, apartments, entertainment, hospitality, education, distribution and logistics centers, infrastructure, or any other project, Allan has helped build it and contributed at every level from Project Engineer to Development Manager.
It’s a wealth of experience that Senderos will benefit greatly from, and Allan is excited to contribute.
“I am excited to be working on this project and with this team in the making, as it is a great and challenging opportunity to contribute my experience and learn, grow even more professionally and personally.
And to be able to do so in a very beautiful area of Costa Rica, with very beautiful towns, places and people… well, it’s exciting! Good food, lots of nature, lots of animals and spectacular sunsets (I really like sunsets) are hard to beat!”
In his spare time, you can usually find Allan training for another triathlon or playing sports for fun, though he also has a soft spot for a good movie or a great book. And most importantly, Allan explains, is doing it all with wonderful family and friends.
¡Bienvenidos Allan!
A Homebuilding Team We Take Pride In
Construction is one of the fundamental pieces of the homebuilding process, and we’re excited to see it continue to grow with new, friendly faces that bring a wide range of expertise.
Because at the end of the day, the goal is to not only create dream homes, but to make the very process of designing a dream home fun, engaging, and inspiring. If you’d like to learn more, you can reach out to us at info@senderos-cr.com.
Architecture Insights | The Changing Seasons
There’s never a bad time to be in Guanacaste, but there is certainly a difference in the region’s character depending on the time of year.
Anyone who’s spent a few trips around the sun living here can tell you that January and February are bright, warm months filled with endless sunshine, whereas June and July see the occasional shower that brings cooler mornings and evenings along with a lush green mountainside.
And while visitors flood into the country in November and December, when the skies are clear and the trees are in full foliage, there’s a bit of a misconception about September and October, known by some as the “deep green season.”
In this article, we’ll break down what it’s really like in September and October’s green season, and also take a broader look at how homes in Senderos have something to offer every time of the year.
What the Green Season is Really Like in Guanacaste
Green season is typically characterized by the arrival of aguaceros, brief showers that tend to arrive around midafternoon and fade out before sunset. Throughout May, June, July, and August, the early green season months, these aguaceros are infrequent, reflected in the average rainfall during those few months.
As shown above, September and October do have a bit more rainfall, but not much more than the early green season months.
In fact, what really accounts for the perception of September and October as rainier months is the occasional storm blowing in off of the Caribbean or Pacific that can lead to a few gray, rainier days.
So what can you really expect from Costa Rica during the green season?
Well, you can expect cooler temperatures and nature in full bloom. You can expect jaw-dropping sunsets given texture and color by evening clouds (the inspiration of the phrase celaje).
And throughout the day you’ve got a pretty great chance that you’ll enjoy the same bright blue skies, refreshing breezes, and sunny atmospheres as during the rest of the year.
How Do Homes in Senderos Adapt to Different Seasons?
There are a number of different ways that homes adapt to the seasons, and we’ve touched on them in some other articles. In our article on heat management, we addressed how Costa Rica has the luxury of a consistent climate, which means homes can be optimized to shed excess heat.
And in our article on building for your environment, we addressed how we use local materials that are well-adapted to our area’s blend of heat, moisture, salt, and sunlight to build homes that fit naturally in Guanacaste and don’t require tons of maintenance or upkeep.
But there are three areas that we haven’t touched on in detail — the beauty of a home, the experience of living there, and the surrounding infrastructure — that we’ll touch on in greater depth in this article.
Showers, Sunrise, and Celaje
Senderos is located on the hillsides of Tamarindo, and stunning views are a vital part of what makes the homes here beautiful and desirable. Look only at two recent sales — Sunset Sanctuary and The 290 House — to find homes centered around the frankly astonishing views west towards the Pacific.
Without those views, those homes might not feel quite as beautiful, but you might be surprised to learn that during the green season the views can be even more dynamic and striking than during the high season.
Watching showers sweep across the mountainside and out to sea, leaving behind shimmering rainbows in their wake (yes, we have rainbows all the time). Tracing the path of banks of clouds as they shift in the colliding currents coming off of the ocean and the mountains. And most impressively, catching the celaje, the many-colored sunsets dotted with clouds after an afternoon shower.
During the drier months, there is certainly a consistency to the sky, but in the green season the sky has texture, and to many that dynamic beauty can be even more fascinating than the calm consistency of high season.
The Connection to Nature Remains, Rain or Shine
Another fundamental aspect of the homes in Senderos is the fact that you can experience an immersion in nature and the outdoors without sacrificing the comfort of a dream home.
And the exact same strategies that help provide light and fresh air to the homes in Senderos (which we outline in this article), also keep you connected to nature throughout the day in the green season, be it during rain or shine.
Covered outdoor terraces, large windows to welcome in light, and careful design to ensure each room has a connection to the outdoors are vital to the Senderos architectural vernacular, and the terraces that shine bright during warm sunset are also ideal to watch an afternoon shower.
Bringing Life and Greenery, Not Mud and Puddles
One of the things that you can’t control on an individual level is the infrastructure surrounding your home, and how it accommodates the different seasons. But this is a place where the dramatic landscape of Senderos provides an additional benefit.
The very land itself in these mountains has been sculpted over millions of years into slopes that carry water away, and create natural drainage down the mountain and into the seas, rivers, and estuaries.
It doesn’t take much to take advantage of that natural flow of water, other than intention and a willingness to adapt, and the result is a system of infrastructure that supports the natural flow and drainage of water throughout the project, turning it into a feature rather than an inconvenience.
During the green season, water flows smoothly down through the project along designated, original paths, providing life to green areas and a calming atmosphere rather than floods, mud, puddles, and headaches.
In the words of long term Senderos Sales team member, Andrew Mercer]:
“A lot of people want to be right on the water, to be beachfront, but in Costa Rica there is a place even better than right on the water. Finding a place close to the sea, but up high, where there are natural breezes and water washes away… that is the dream for me, and for anyone who has lived here!”
Come See For Yourself
When people say “rainy season” don’t be led astray, September and October are actually a bright, beautiful time of year, punctuated by afternoon showers, and with the thoughtful design of Senderos, any potential problems with a rainier time of year is turned into a positive.
Add in experiences around Tamarindo like visiting Las Baulas in full bloom, surfing against the backdrop of beautiful celaje, or simply enjoying watching the afternoon showers sweep across the countryside, and Guanacaste shows that no season is a bad season to be in town.
If you’d like to learn more about the area, when to visit, and how locals live during all times of year, you can reach out to us at info@senderos-cr.com.
ADI Tamarindo Update | We ? Tama
ADI Tamarindo is a local community organization focused on improving Tamarindo and the surrounding communities, through projects ranging from development of community spaces to the protection of the environment and many more.
We actually highlighted ADI Tamarindo in a previous month’s article, and in the meantime we’ve been working directly with ADIT to see how we can support them in their upcoming projects.
And this month, we’re glad to share that we’ve become a Diamond partner of ADI, and can share some updates about what Senderos — and the many other supporters of ADIT — will be contributing to in the near future!
The ADIT Goals and How You Can Help
ADI Tamarindo’s goal is to improve Tamarindo and the surrounding community, but it does this through a wide variety of ways.
Two of the biggest are: a) working directly with the Municipal and Regional governments to direct tax dollars to projects in Tamarindo and the surrounding areas, and b) providing a vehicle for interested people and organizations to contribute directly to the community.
For example, each of the five pillar projects currently going on with ADI Tamarindo — including the Oneida Children’s and Community Park, the Lifeguard Program, Daily Beach and Street Cleanups, the Football Academy, and the Tamarindo Security Program — are all made possible by a combination of tax dollars, private donations, and donated professional services.
It’s one thing to notice the good work that your community is doing, but another entirely to be involved, as Senderos Community Manager Carlos Madrigal explained:
“One of the most exciting feelings for me is the search for solutions, and making things happen. [It’s fantastic to] collaborate with that community and bring some exciting plans to life.”
And if you’re interested in finding a way to contribute to Tamarindo, ADIT is a fantastic outlet that is currently flexible, growing, and available to accommodate almost any form of support whether that’s financial or through volunteering/professional services.
It’s all a part of making a better Tamarindo for us all to enjoy.
Reach out to the ADIT Team
If you’re interested in finding a way to connect with the ADIT team and give back to Tamarindo, you can reach out to them at aditamarindo@gmail.com, or learn more on their website.
The Essence of Pure Life | The Tamarindo Almanac
We use the phrase ‘pura vida’ often in Costa Rica. It’s a phrase that means everything you need it to. It’s the unofficial motto of the nation, it’s an instinctive response.
And yet, when heard over and over again, it can start to mean everything and nothing as well.
But there is something intangibly beautiful, inextricably linked with the beauty of the Costa Rican essence in the concept of Pura Vida. It’s something that transcends ages and nationalities, class and creed, background and body.
You can find a million shirts, hats, towels, postcards, bangles, and businesses all inscribed with the phrase Pura Vida, but the essence of pure life — what that eponymous phrase truly represents — isn’t something that can be bought or purchased.
It’s something that you can discover in a moment, watching sunset on a hidden beach in the company of friends, in each footstep along the quiet forest trail, in the surge across the waves on the one moment you finally catch the break you’ve been chasing.
And it is cemented over time well-lived, growing stronger and stronger with each passing day, week, month, until you forget what it was like to live outside its warm, soothing embrace — that is, until you leave these mountains and shorelines to find yourself yearning for home.
There is little measure to it, that magical, intangible essence of pure life, though in quiet times we’ve all tried to wrap our heads around the pieces, seek out the building blocks that make this land so different from many others.
And perhaps that was where it started, with this land. Costa Rica rose from the sea into the sky, forged by fire from the earth’s very core — by its nature this place is elemental. Two oceans collide here, where two continents meet, and for millions of years those swirling currents of wind and water and wildlife collided to create one of the most naturally rich locations on earth.
Each valley, each mountainside, each forest and island and hidden cove — they all have a story to tell a million years old and still just beginning, swept in and swirled around across the weathered landscape, waiting to be discovered.
The raw force of humanity has leveled every inch of this planet, changed it, bent it to a collective will, and yet somehow among all of that, the essence of pure life remained here, and seems to be stubbornly growing stronger.
The land we today call Costa Rica was conquered and reconquered starting millennia ago. It was freed and resettled and colonized and broken up, and drowned in war and split to pieces and then burst forth somehow united as the nation we recognize it as today.
And maybe in the grand scheme of things, those conquerors and colonies and countries were just another wave of animal migrations, settling in to take their place on this land just like the wildlife before it.
The northern and southern boundaries that separate Costa Rica from Nicaragua and Panama are by definition arbitrary. At least, more arbitrary than the oceans that border us on east and west. And while ties to our neighbors are strong, and national boundaries bleed like rivers merging, and the world goes more global, between those four boundaries something has arisen, a little over 50,000 square miles that feels… different.
Over a century ago, this place was surrounded by war, and then in a landmark decision, decided it would no longer take part.
Decades ago, the forests had been razed, nature was in peril, and then in a whirlwind of events this little chunk of land became one of the most protected on earth.
And all along, its people had become one of the happiest, one of the longest lived, one of the most peaceful and educated.
Maybe there is something more here. A force of life so raw and so pure… so undeniable that it hooks you in, draws you to this place and fills you with life, and gives you this undeniable sense of peace, like you could never need anything else.
You need only look around the nation to see the truth of it.
The young and the reckless are drawn here, to fill their hearts and minds, to put their bodies on the line, to grip life with a crooked smile like every moment will be their last. They are chasing something, and yet for all they discover, there is always something more to find.
And yet, at the same time, the oldest, healthiest communities in the world thrive here, forging on past a century of age, never losing sight of why this life is worth living. With smiles, and the comfort of friends and family, and a combination of quiet contentment and purpose most people could only dream of.
You could take aside each one of them, young and old, and ask what makes the sun shine brighter, what makes the birds sing more beautifully, what makes the seas warm and the beer cold and the food and friends and music so good.
And for each person, you could spend a thousand hours, hear a thousand stories that capture the indescribable essence of life that dwells here, that fills us all, that grips us and soothes us and reminds us all that sometimes joy is simply in having all you need, including the twinkle in your eye to seek one more adventure.
They could use a thousand stories, or maybe, that’s why we all use one phrase.
Pura Vida.
