Grecia

"Alan was a gracious host. Even took us to Puriscal to the MaxiPali for groceries our first day and did a load of laundry for us! Above and beyond. The mountaintop home views all the way to the Gulf of Nicoya and beyond on a clear day. At night in the other direction the views of San Jose's lights were beautiful.The views were constantly changing with the clouds and the aerial show the different birds displayed everyday. When the rainclouds rolled in as it does many days during the rainy season, you are enveloped in the cloud forest. There is a short gravel road from the highway to the gated entrance to the property. From there it is a paved and very steep road to the top where the home is located. And definitely worth the drive. The home was as the pictures portrayed - a large studio with kitchen, living area, and queen sized bed (the best mattress we experienced on our trip so far) with a large bathroom and a stone shower. The location is very private so curtains are not needed to interrupt the view. Alan showed us several good food locations in the area which we sampled. Pizza Express in Puriscal was especially good. The TV had only local Spanish stations from San Jose, so Alan graciously loaned us his AppleTV unit for our week-long stay for us to watch some of our favorite programs and 1st run movies with my iTunes account. If there was a negative, it would be a few large bugs we encountered, but Costa Rica is in the tropics after all. We would much prefer that to the smell of bug spray permeating the house. The wireless internet service was the fastest we had experienced in our travels in Costa Rica. Not quite fast enough to stream a movie but plenty fast for my work online. I enjoyed the view from the deck every morning while drinking Costa Rican coffee and working online or making conference calls back to the US. Alan, his wife, their young son and the friendly dog, Demo, also live halfway down the mountain on the property. We were able to do laundry in the common area. We would love to stay here again. The only reason I rated the property a 4 instead of a 5 was it was a little hard to find initially, the steep road to the top and that it was a studio. We loved our time there, the cool weather and gorgeous views of the mountains."