This house was ideal for our purposes. Our group included us -- a Canadian couple in our 60s -- and our son and his girlfriend in their thirties. We are huge travellers and almost always rent self-catering houses. We spent a week at Joachim's house over New Year's. Everything about the experience was delightful. Communications with Joachim and his house manager Leanne were reliable, responsive and informative. Leanne met us as promised and escorted us to the house, and then spent a good long time with us, giving us a thorough orientation and lots of tips about the area; and then she followed up by email a couple of times with extra information. We followed her recommendations for day trips and restaurants and they were right on. When the barbecue broke, she had it fixed the next day. Everything else worked.
The fact that there are actually two houses, each with its own bathroom, makes it ideal for two couples. We spent lots of time together on the wonderful terrace but then were able to have privacy whenever we felt like it. The big house has a king-sized bed, the kitchen and terrace. The little house is basically a bedroom with a bathroom. Both houses are basically furnished but adequate. The terrace is large and very well furnished. We loved being able to simply lean over the railing and watch a wide variety of forest animals, including howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, iguanas and others forage within 20 feet of us.
We also loved frequent dips in the pool, bird watching, and getting daily exercise walking down the hillside stairs to the beach, and back up again!
But most of all we loved the privacy and the silence of the property. We were there for New Year's Eve. Montezuma (which is about 5 km north of the house) was bedlam, but up on the property we had a bird's eye view of the bay, the fireworks and the stars. It was perfectly peaceful. On New Year's Eve, we cooked ourselves a sumptuous meal, welcomed the new year and counted our blessings that we weren't in Montezuma. New Year's Day we lounged in hammocks, read books and drank delicious Haitian rum!
This is not a five-star resort, so if that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere. But it is a gorgeous, well-maintained property with ecologically sound structures and it has everything it needs. We would highly recommend it for its simple efficiency, for the property and views, for being well-managed, and for the privacy. It is excellent value for the price.