The first layer of stucco goes in upstairs

Coming from the main entrance

The kitchen

Looking into the jungle from the lounge/kitchen. This will be a deck

The lounge/kitchen. Ocean view

Stunning roof we have there!!

Working on the kitchen

Bathroom sink made with bamboo

Our Jungle Villa boasts its brand new 'palapa' roof

Week 14 - Construction continues while en route back to Europe

Currently en route 'back home' to Europe although after five months bumping between the dusty village of Coronado in my ever so faithful pickup (who is now officially called 'suerte') and the amazingly quick and almost complete Pura Vida Ecolodge Jungle Villa project, the emotions ran high as I said my goodbyes to the villagers, neighbours, the once shy younguns, the colourful houses and abundant nature, even the early rising parrots seemed to arrive for my send off - "5 weeks and we'll be back" I told them between handshakes and embraces. hopefully to add the final touches and dress our new Jungle Villa for its first guests in June!

The dusk before, up at the project, I had said my goodbyes to the team. El 'jefe' Marvin cheekily promising completion within the month. Alex posing some last minute questions on finishes, final positions and sizes. Pencil scriblings with 'Perra' clarifying the final touches of our contemporary 'mesa/isla' in the kitchen/dare I say dining room. A low key exit of different handshakes and requests to bring Spanish (or even English) ladies back with me on my return. Diego carving out yet another bambu beer mug, William shaving in the mirror of a dusty motorbike, while Lelo y Paisa patiently tried to kick-start their ride home. Chef Pinpin slops the frijoles onto 11 ominously balanced plates scattered around 'la rancha'. Out of Marvins sight, the normal 'end of day' activities were slowly exhaled by Jupah and Alan as reds and yellows seemingly melt into yet another fantastic sunset.

Five months have passed remarkably quickly and just as the stress and anxiety is gradually replaced by genuine excitement and pride, my return flight beckons. The next five weeks will be enjoyed - (or maybe suffered) via skype and regular engineer & architect visits - as well as my increasingly helpful and 'solo bueno' neighbours who promise to continue my photographic reportage of the last few 'pasos'

After a shaky start, our last week before 'Samana Santa' came to a nice end. Palmex completed their super speedy roof instalation, just in the nick of time as the seasons start to change and the first rains arrive. Our palapa or 'palma' roof looks beautiful and really compliments the rustic and somewhat irregular bambu or guadua structure. Fascinatingly, its colours seem to change throughout the day, depending on the sunlight cast, but it pleasingly seems to blend into the rugged surroundings. Still to come are the 'tapicheles' (the details of cedazo, teak and ornemental bambu that cover or rather 'seal' the triangles at the ends of the main living area's roof).

With the permits of our plunge pool coming through just in time, the peones got to work preparing the space at the back of the side deck. When finished it's orientation will be stunning, seemingly hanging over the jungle canopy itself with the best sunset views of the retreat.

Downstairs, our 'espresso cream' stucco finish is starting to look perfect, after various aplication experiments by Perra and Alex, it would seem the best combo was lijando the concrete finish, 2 'manos' of pasta lisa, sellador to take off or ratger seal the chalky finish and then the stucco itself. The nuetral colour works so well with the ornamental bambu cieling with all the real vivid colour coming from the jungle.

So, it would seem on the day of my departure, all is 'mas o menos' under control. Sometimes there aren't the appropriate words to describe a situation or an emotion and besides,sometimes words just don't translate between the languages. 'Carinyo' is the overiding sentiment. Regardless of the non-sensical beaurocracy and the non-existant concept of time, the 3 plates of 'arroz y frijoles' (rice and beans) daily and the overly laid back attitude, the measuring straight lines with clearly bent bits of wood and the 7 sets of architectural plans all jumbled into 1 crumpled confusion, the dubious improvisation and the long days, the heavy rain and the scorching afternoons, as I take off from San Jose airport, I have a beaming smile, for the time I have experienced and the people that I have met. Ojala hablara 'los maes' Ingles, asi me entenderian...

Gracias a todos, una experiencia, aunque no sea completa, inolvidable... Proper photos to come soon!!!!

Week 11- The countdown has started!!

Bambu plantation in Costa Rica

With my last two weeks of 'the experience - the adventure - the challenge' about to begin we come to the end, somewhat unbelievably, of week 11. Hopefully you will have seen our progress via the sporadic photos uploaded over the last few weeks - albeit with a lack of commentaries or blog posts - you will have to excuse the lack of finer details of late, 10 hour days during the week have become 12 recently and we even worked the weekend (some of us at least) this week just gone...in short not a huge amount of spare time for blog writing especially with the constant struggle the lack of Costa Rican Communication & Infrastructure seems to provoke.

The freshly roasted Bambu

Starting with the 'lowlights' or nervous moments - and there have been quite a few anxious moments of late - the main 'bronca' being with the roof. Already on design number 5...(since the initial conceptualization back in June), the treated Guadua Bambu had arrived and was looking grand, with most of the 'team' new to bambu and its irregularities, there were the inevitable grumbles and 'mas o menos' became worrying inaccurate. With around two thirds of the bambu 'vigas' or roof spines in place it was clear that the carefully designed roof that Maish International and I had spent so long sketching and modelling was never going to be symetrical regardless of builders optomistically telling you otherwise. In theory the design was fine, the mistake was encouraging Alex and the team to trust the architects plans which had somehow, and rather expensively, managed to mix dimensions and measurements of the OLD design!

By mid week (last week) we had an emergency site visit, myself, contractors, builders, roof contractor, engineer and lastly our Josefino architect. Frustrations arose, fingers were pointed, excuses made, heads scratched, measurements taken, questions posed, plans scrutinized and critisized but the important thing was that 4 hours later, a solution was found - it would mean taking it all down, a few new lengths of bambu, a week lost and the whole team slightly disillusioned - but at present time of writing, the new roof is 80% complete and with its bambu & palapa finish, should be the real protagonist of the jungle villa which is what we always wanted. 

The next day, another friend arrived on Costa Rica soil - and was almost immediately dragged from the idylic landing strip in Palmar Sur on yet another shopping trip to Panama! This time for swimming pool pipes, fans, switches and dimmers, placas and the whole electrical kit for the 'acometida' (basically a glorified fuse box with lots of underground earths, wires, fittings and connections!) 

Same game, same rules - $500 limit of tax-free goods per person on the condition that you stay 48hours in Panama. The truth is that I was feeling guilty for kidnapping my friend who was scheduled to be in Costa Rica for just 6 days - 2 of which were going to be bouncing between hardware strores haggling them all down on prices as if they were marketplaces! 

So in short, we left Panama early, after the normal mahem and chaos at the border - how anyone that doesnt speak Spanish manages it I do not know. Dave was amazingly patient and optomistically put it all down to the adventure of the 'road trip'.

After various stamps, queues, and forms we came to our penultimate hurdle - the customs office. He immediately noted (despite my lame attempts of distracting him with my friendly Tico banter) that we had been out of Costa Rica for just over 24hours - the truth is that we didn't really know the consequences of this but the general concensus was that we could go home empty handed and with a heavy fine - worrying moments indeed. I was careful not to disclose the real amount of our shopping trip nor did I mention the toilet smuggling of late - he eventually let us go, saying that he wouldn't 'denunciar' us but we would inevitably come unstuck at the 'second' police/customs post 30km down the road. Night was falling and we took refuge in a local cabana for the night. After a few beers, telephone calls and some scare stories of the locals, we took their advice to leave at day break when the border police were less likely to be 'heavy searches'.

As we approached the border, with an empty road ahead I toyed with the gas pedal and a speedy getaway, only to remember the age of my loyal Toyota pickup combined with its blatenly top-heavy cargo and the relatively innocent 'co-pilot' who thought he came to Costa Rica on a 6-day 'holiday'!

Amazingly, yet again, the locals advice paid off. No searches, no passport checks, no questions, no receipt showing, no unloading, no fines, no tax to be paid, no worries - Pura Vida...just three sleepy looking policemen in hamnocks sipping their morning coffee - 3 times lucky - I won't disclose how much we got away with this time, needless to say it won't happen like that again!

A few days later, back at the site, the phonecalls start to come in... Big delays with the 'orno' or 'drying device' for our freshly cut teak wood that will eventually take the form of 10 very stylish custom designed sliding panels covering three sides of our open-plan living area. This inevitably puts everything out of sink as the carpenter already has the bambu 'tableta' ready and waiting...

Then came the swimming pool permits ballsup. While they were supposedly ready to pick up last week, it turns out they're missing the ever so vital 'firma' or signature of the architect that designed them! That wouldn't be such a problem if that same architect didn't live on the other side of the country, many jungles & volcanoes away!

Despite the complete lack of urgency and consistancy that seems, almost charmingly inherant of the 'Ticos' Costa Ricas, we are all in good spirits.

With the roof dramas almost over it becomes apparent that with 'la mayor parte' of the bambu guadua structure in place another bambu run was necessary. A slow windy 3 hour 66km roundtrip from the coast up to San Isidro and back and we were enroute back up to the Jungle Villa. One more stop, via the aseraderro to pick up some locally sourced teak lengths for the window sill and horizon ledge of the sea-view master bedroom. Its going to be stunning.

Downstairs, the Jungle View ensuite boasts a freshly poured and polished concrete floor which constrast brilliantly with the recently installed, oven roasted ornemental. Round the corner, the bathroom is complete, with its natural stone finishes complete with bambu faucets, looking very 'ecolujo' indeed.

Could winter be coming early here in Costa Rica??? It rained last night, and LOTS!

With completion on the horizon I'm very happy to announce we are now officially taking bookings from June! We got our first Premiership Footballer enquiry yesterday...!

Buenas noches

Our Bambu (not our dog!)

Teak wood for the deck

The Bambu structure

Almost finished

The roof from below

Progressing...

All that's left now is the last 'agua' which hangs iver the lateral deck and the front & back 'aleros' which hang out and 'shelter' the jungle villa...

Sunset as the working weekend begins

...showing where the two rooves meet at the corner between the open plan living area and the master ensuite bedroom...

We are almost there

5.30 Friday, the weekend begins!

Proposed location of our plunge pool- with sunset view of course

With the plaster work almost finished, the spaces start to take shape

Still very much a building site, but starting to take shape

Getting the angles in...

Looking up towards our very "open area" living area

The walls have been plastered- the panacor way

First details of roof installed as Friday's sunset approaches

Bedroom sliding door entrance

View across lounge and out onto side deck (hanging over jungle canopy)

With most of the heavy work now complete- access is clear and we can start with the finer details & finishes

The plantel, home of our team and supplies- Bambu just arrived

Looking across the lounge and the entrance to bedroom 2

Alex preparing first supports for the roof

Week 9 is over

View from above-2nd floor

The "deck" seen from below

View from the balcony

Peones on the second floor

Framing the window of the ensuite bedroom, 2nd floor

Stop for ceviche on the way to San Jose

Week 8 is over

Week 8 - another hot week up at the project - with summer in full swing by 8am its already sweaty allround! Being the last week with 'Maish International' on site (aka my Israeli architect friend) there were 1001 things that needed confirming and 'clarifying' before we headed up to San Jose on yet another shopping spree. Monday and Tuesday were all about assembling the panacor walls of the second floor, carving out the windows. The 'panacor' system being the optimum material for our Jungle Villa's structure because of its durability, construction technique (much quicker than 'block', light weight and temperature control (once complete and finished with stucco. Then there was the running back and forth between local glass and aluminium suppliers. By the middle of the week we had yet another Montoya brother on site (it really is a family show here in Tres Rios), this time in the shape of an electrician. What started off as being an incredibly complicated 'planta electrica' with a clash of Costa Rican and European symbology, instalation techniques and cultures, after a few hours actually walking through each living area imagining how each indrpendant space would be used and enjoyed by our 'eco-luxury' guests - I don't think I ever realised how many options there were!! In a nutshell, lots of three-way switches, dimmers and uplighting will be the final touches of the retreat! 

Special thanks to Maish International (in the form of DonDon) for all his patience and help in whats been a hugely productive last 4-5 weeks!!! Will be very interesting to see how the next few weeks go without my 'in-house' architect on site and at hand!!!


Also, meet the team (they've been a little camera shy until now) and some great inspiration from a local project whose roof construction was constructed out of bambu (guadua) and of course the last sunset of the working week!!!
Photos courtesy of Don Don and 'Maish International'

Week 8 

Roof with Bamboo structure

The project manager managing things :)

 

The second floor

House on the beach next to a watermelon plantation

Amazing sunset on the beach