My Holiday in Costa Rica
I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season.
Some of you have asked for photos of my Thanksgiving. This year, my family and I went away. It felt odd at first - no turkey, no cranberry sauce, and no pie, but once we got to Costa Rica, near Dominical, a beach-front town in the province of Puntarenas, I started to relax and loved every minute of the five days we spent there. We enjoyed the beaches, the wildlife, and of course the many spectacular views from our villa.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here I am at Los Elementos, an extraordinary villa built on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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- The house is superb – a large, secluded home built by two very talented garden designers. The pool area was one of our favorite spots.
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- Los Elementos has four levels and is reminiscent of an open-air house in Bali. In fact, the house was inspired by five Balinese elements – water, earth, fire, air and ether. All the couches were so beautiful and generously sized.
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- The entire space was so tranquil – look closely at the hammock at the back. There were many spaces in which to lounge.
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- There were also some resident pets – this cat was so friendly and loved entertaining my grandchildren.
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- Here is my gorgeous daughter Alexis. She did her yoga exercises every morning by the pool.
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- Los Elementos has a wonderful infinity-edge swimming pool. Jude and Truman, who love the water and are excellent swimmers, swam nonstop.
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- Los Elementos is just a short walk to some of the area’s most beautiful and secluded beaches. Here I am with our friend, Milena. She loves the beach.
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- The views from the beach were endless. Dominical Beach is well known around the world as one of the best places for surfing.
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- My grandchildren played and played and played – they adore the water.
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- We were there for the end of the “green season” or wet season, which runs from May to mid-November. The weather was excellent – mid to high 80s during the day with lows in the 70s – perfect beach weather.
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- The modern garden at Los Elementos was designed by Dennis Schrader, owner of Landcraft Environments, Ltd., a pre-eminent wholesaler of tropical, tender perennials, and exotic annuals, in Mattituck, New York. This garden showcases tropical plants, including water lilies, Calathea, palms, and Heliconia.
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- Bismarckia palms, my favorite fan palm, abound in Costa Rica.
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- The water lilies are so beautiful – they are in full bloom every morning.
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- Here’s a closer look at the water lilies, Nymphaea. These are hardy pond plants that live as rhizomatous aquatic herbs in temperate and tropical climates. The family contains five genera with about 70 known species.
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- I was so intrigued by this extraordinary vine. Its leaves cling to the tree trunk, all separated and exposed to the light.
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- Jude floated purple flowers in the pool. She also loves photography and took this picture herself.
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- And here is another photo by Jude.
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- The flowers are picked off this pergola – the gardens were so well-maintained – everything was groomed and swept every day.
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- Here is a beautiful sunset seen from the infinity-edge pool. The sunsets were so stunning.
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- Here is a photo I took one early morning of a gecko on the screen. It reminded me of an Aztec lizard print.
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- We also visited Playa Ventanas. The name comes from the caves that look like little windows – ventanas means windows in Spanish. The caves of Playa Ventanas are natural formations.
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- Our boat was able to go through some of the them – this can only be done at low tide.
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- Playa Ventanas is located south of Dominical and Uvita and north of Ojochal and San Buenas.
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- At both ends of the beach are huge boulders covered with lush vegetation that extends to the sea.
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- Here is another view of one of the “windows.”
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- Here is Milena standing at the entrance of one of the caves. During the low tide, one can walk through and see the waves breaking inside.
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- At night, we enjoyed dinner back at Los Elementos. Jude and our friend, Ari, who also accompanied us on the trip, made these arrangements for the table. In my next blog, I will share more photos of our holiday in Costa Rica.
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