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Our home in Atenas, is Bali-style - all wood and glass - perched on a ridge above the jungle with magnificent views of multiple mountain ranges. The house is filled with furniture and artifacts collected on our extensive travels. We've designed it to be a relaxing, zen-feeling retreat. It has 2 bedrooms/2.5 open-air bathrooms, a wrap-around infinity pool (great for doing short laps), and lovely decks and tropical gardens. Each deck overlooks another incredible view. From the breakfast deck you look out over jungle and mountain ranges and into the favorite toucan watching trees. The master-bedroom deck overhangs the jungle where we have seen mot-mots, trogans, carablanca monkeys and sloths. The sunset deck borders the pool and is perfect for evening cocktails and dining.
Atenas is 45 minutes from the San Jose airport and 1 hour from the closest beach. It is a laid-back town with several good restaurants and a great Friday fruit and vegetable market. National Geographic claims that Atenas has the best climate in the world. And it does! There is no need for either heating or cooling - and our house is designed so that it can be open to nature all the time. The house comes with a maid and gardener. Because the it is built on a steep ridge and has a very deep swimming pool we cannot allow children under twelve.
The house is on a hill-top 2 kilometres from Atenas, an agricultural town (lots of coffee plantations and orchid farms) of about 20, 000 people. From our house you can take long walks on country roads and trails. From the deck we have seen many fabulous birds including the toucans that visit mornings and evenings. In the rainy season (it generally just rains in the afternoons) - we have heard howler monkeys; we've seen a sloth just hanging out in the trees below us, white-faced monkeys in the jungle next to the bedroom deck, and an anteater on our morning walk.
San Jose (and its upscale suburb of Escazu), just 45 minutes away, is a sophisticated area of fabulous restaurants and boutiques, English language bookstores and movies, and all the culture you could possibly want. Within an hour or two of our house we have beaches, volcanoes, rain forests, several interesting cities, incredible plant nurseries and nature preserves. If you're looking for places to go and things to do while in Costa Rica, check out our new book Sleeping With the Toucans - it's all there.
Atenas is the perfect place from which to explore the rest of Costa Rica - and our house is the perfect place to relax and enjoy a luxurious tropical vacation. |
