Costa Rica the happiest country in the world

Landscaping

The last few days have been as exciting as they have been exhausting. The sun has been sizzling nonstop and we are working on getting the plants in the ground without getting to much sundamage. Finally tonight the rain came and provided a much needed release for our newly transplanted vegetation. The restaurant only covers about a quarter of the terrain of our ocean front lot in town so it was important to plant lush gardens to create an ambiance that detracts from the fact that the rest of the area is basically a huge gravel parking lot. We have now have a green buffer with all indigineous plants from the area. We make an effort on bringing plants that provide a living environment for the local wildlife such as humming birds who love a particular banana plant whos bright red flowers attract them with its sweet honey. Today there were litterally hundreds of humming birds all over the place and both our sloths took up in the tree situated right in the middle of the dining area deck. Our green Iguana also passed by to check out the progress up close and in the mornings there is this particularly funny squirrel that shows up like clockwork to stuff his cheeks full with almond from the tree in the restaurant before looking around at us and returning thru the restaurant whith his cheeks bulging with almonds on his way back to his abode in a tree half a block away. I can only imagine faces of our future breakfast guests when this spectacle unfolds infront of their eyes. Our existing sangrillo trees that we incorporated into the restaurant area are not only great for shade but is also the habitat of a particularly beautiful butterfly - the Morpho - that are colored in metallic, shimmering shades of iridescent blue and can have an imposing wingspan of up to 20 cm (8 inches). We also discovered the presence of the tiny bright green and red poison dart frogs that love to live in the cool crevices provided by trees and exposed corall which we have plenty of. The sound of the waves, the ocean breeze, the palatte of colors from the flowers and wildlife makes the place such a magical sanctuary that sometimes I just have to stop sit down and take it all in.

We are also happy to welcome our Chef Martin Gonzales, whos latinamerican fusion cuisine with roots in aztec as well as mayan tradition, two cultures that greatly influenced the area by their interchange and trade, will stimulate our tastebuds using local ingredients presented with a modern interpretation. His passion for the art is tremendously contagious and the love transmitted in each dish doesn't go unnoticed to any diner.

humming birds love these red banana plants

Tomorrow the roof is going up

plants are in

office before the landscaping

shadow play on office wall

bar

Bar area

dining area view from the kitchen

Kitchen entrance

ramp to dining area installed

all in a days work

A four hour power outage and a drizzle of rain put us back some but a glorious afternoon helped us catch up. The dining area ceiling sheets is now painted a lovely "Cloudless Sky" blue, kitchen ceiling is painted white, the deck is oiled and the beginnings of the walkway to kitchen and bathrooms is taking form.

onwards & upwards

The ceiling beams are raised above the dining deck and are ready for the roof to be put on. Door and window hardware are in and the water is connected to the bar area. The weather is gorgeous as we are entering the best two months of the whole year and tourism is holding up pretty good in these economic times. American Airlines just announced it will add a fourth flight from its Miami hub to Costa Rica come Feb 11. Demand is up

crunch time

Only three weeks left till the pre opening party.

Kitchen

Today I felt like a kid at Christmas opening a heavily package shipment containing our new stove, grill, freezer, refrigerator, plates and glasses.

Windows installed

support beams for dining area

dining area

Tuesday

Great progress today . The carpenters showed up today and one set of windows are in for the office. The materials arrived and about half the beams for the dining area roof are up already.

monday

Today building materials as well as the wood for the deck being delayed sadly keeping todays construction advances minimal. The good news is that tomorrow it should all arrive and we can pull full force ahead with a full work crew on hand.

north view

A taste of Costa Ricas Caribbean coast

http://www.examiner.com/x-17315-Tampa-World-Travel-Examiner~y2009m8d1-A-taste-of-Costa-Ricas-Caribbean-coast

decking

All efforts are now on building the outdoors decking for the bar, lounge and dining area.

San Jose

Today we spent the day successfully shopping for additional restaurant equipment in the capital San Jose. The kitchen can now count on lighting, a refrigerator, a freezer, exhaust for the stove and a couple of prep tables. I am almost ready to start cooking

beachfront

Before the opening the ficus (our eco friendly construction fence) will be removed and the front will be replanted with other lower foliage to preserve the beach view and to the right the wooden entrance structure with the irongate will be located. (below)

finally

All of our stone gaviones are done. Done. Finally. Also we finished the lower deck closest to the ocean including the stairs. Now the terrace is raised 60cm above ground providing an excellent view over mainstreet and the beach.This ties the whole place together and people can now easily visualize the final result. A backhoe leveled mounds of dirt and sand in the back of the property so the place looks even larger and much cleaner after construction. Our backgate for deliveries got installed. The guy that was supposed to install the bathroom doors today stood us up so instead I went by swanky Cameleon hotel picking up empty Champagne bottles from Diego, the GM, and our friends, Claudine and Regis, at Beach Hut gave us tons of empty wine bottles that we will craft into lighting installations.

The bar wall is ready

color of stone

Puerto Viejo named to list of “Top 10 Cheap Beach Vacations” Worldwide

http://away.com/features/top-ten-cheap-beach-vacations-1.html?utm_source=onsite&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=mostpopular

Getting there

In the spirit of using local materials and incorporating the unique aspects of our area we contacted Carolina, a paintor and art historian, that works with the indians living in the surrounding mountains in helping preserve and promote their ancient crafts handed down for generations. She was delighted to hear we wanted to give them our support and said she would let us know how long it would take them to produce our breadbaskets, lampshades, serving plates and so on. Some of the indiginious live a several day walk inside the almost impenetrable jungle so it will take some time to get an answer. But thats ok.

We decided on using handmade placemats that are weaved by using recycled the plastic banana bags that unfortunately ends up either in the ocean where it often is mistaken for food by seaturtles that die when ingesting the plastic or in enormous floating underwater mountains of seatrash. In the best case scenario they end up in landfills. The group of local women that perform the very laborous and time consuming task of producing these placemats and bags do an incredible job with amazing results. I can't wait to have the first order.

We also got the power company to move what best can be described as a small forest of wire anchors that were splattered all over one corner of the property impeding our use of the space. Now they left only two right by the property line and we are happy.

The barback made of solid stone is going up and will reach 4 meters (12 feet) of the ground. Its looking very dramatic and we have a steady stream of locals stopping by checking out the progress. Everybody is super positive which is great