So it was two sundays ago that Guillermo, Natalia, and Alex drove down from San Jose to Nosara to meet me and Wendy and to walk the land. Guillermo was in Costa Rica on another business trip, but extended the stay for a week to make our meeting possible. Then he was nice enough to rent a car and drive out from the capital, a drive Wendy and I would later learn was Ullysian in its length.

We all met in the open air patio of the Guilded Iguana and drank beer, batidos, or water according to our thirsts.




Guillermo asked me how I felt about Nosara in my return. It had been 8 years since my first visit, and almost two since Ian, Jmer and I visited it again. In my first visit, Nosara was a sleepy little beach town. I recall flip flopping up dirt roads to Cafe de Paris, and how the howler monkeys would take an interest and inguanas would scurry away. I would stash my board in the plants, and eat breakfast and drink coffee for an hour or more. I recall living under the ranchitos, and surfing sun down alone. I recall the quiet at night, and the stillness in the forrests. I remember how polite everyone was, and how isolated and primitive the area was.

Time has changed Nosara. Originally, I wanted to begin a post on this subject with the line "Its done. Its was grand while it lasted, but Nosara is over". After further reflection, I do not think that is the case, but the character of Nosara has changed, and not all for the better.

The distance between the ticos and the gringos has grown and deepened. I do not know how to measure this, but the feeling is there. The Americans and other foreigners who visited this place in 1999 where all similar in a way. They were tan, and lean from walking, and had wanderlust in thier eyes. They came for the rough edges, for the lack of electrcity, for the iguanas, for the crabs, for the bugs, for the thuderstorms, for the solitude, for the electric energy from nature. The modern visitors seem fat and comfortable. They seem to want to have thier old lives here with them in Nosara. There are now Banks, and massages, and souviener stores, and the markets stock american foods. People scream by on ATVs and everywhere everything is for sale: "Se Vende, Se Vende, Se Vende...". The land, the air, the water, it seems everyone is in a rush to sell what they have. You want to buy a beach? A finca? A forrest? Its all for sale, only cash though, but few questions asked.

And the foreigners seem eager to buy. And once they buy, they get the bulldozers running. They crush the soil, and bury the trees, and tie the land in fences. They erect monuments of concrete, and crushed rock, and granite countertops, and airconditioners. Originally, I intended a photo essay of the ugliest monstrosities in Nosara, but I became depressed and overwhelmed by the candidates. Aparently, if you have an acre, you should build an acre size house. There is no temperment, no unified design, no subtlety. Cut the trees, build the retaining walls and up goes an Italian villa, designed to fit in jersey, or Nabraska, or anywhere. I wish I could tell you that it was all US designs, but I know a lot of it is local. (I am looking at you Gecko Architecture).




This is supposed to pass for architecutre.

I take all this personally. This is the most biodiverse land per square meter of any on the planet outside the amazon. It stuns with natural beauty, yet the best people can muster in thier haste for "beach front proprty" "ocean views" or "walk to the beach", are these hideous architectural monoliths that I could design with a grease pencil, 15 minutes, and a .08 blood alchohol level if only my consciounce would let me overcome years of training in taste, balance, and harmony.

It takes no more effort, though a little more time, to build something sensitive. Sensitive to your environment- the land, the animals on it whose homes you just bought, and to your nieghbors.

I fear the developers are killing the golden goose. The views are spectacular, but people are flocking to Costa Rica for La Pura Vida. The good life. The good life is a byproduct of the land, and what grows on it. It is those green spaces, that unspoiled aquifer, that exotic hardwood, those monkeys, those parrots, that fish that create the values of these homes. In an effort to snatch and grab as much profit as possible in as short a time as possible, the developers are quickly snuffing out the very reseource that drives those profits. Soon it will be gone, and the developers with it, and the Ticos will be left with a land paved, and chopped and buried.

Its not the developer's fault particularly. There is no incentive for them to do anything but build as much as densely as possible. Cut acre plots into 1/8th of an acre. Condos for houses. Develop develop devlope, and let the next guy sacrifice his profits for greenlands.

But all is not lost yet.

Nosara still has something special in it. It has a population that prides itself on environmental sensitivity. That population agreed to deed the planned golf courses into green space. It petitioned for the beach to remain a reserve for 200 meters past high tide. There is a feeling there, a community that might, MIGHT, stem the flow of development.


Dont get me wrong. I am not advocating halting development. I advocate for sustainable, responsible development. I am not overly concerned about the earth...the earth will look untouched by human hand about a thousand years after the last human dies. The earth, and life, is far stronger than we. What I am concerned about is my relationship with that earth, and my childerens. It is ultimately very selfish. I dont want to live in LA. I dont want Cota Rica to become Miami. I like the vibe there, and I want to preserve it, even extend it.

My house is an experiment in doing just that, responsible development. No retaining walls. minimal earth moving. piers so that the widlife can pass under the structure. Minimal square footage, passive cooling, open air, open light. Cisterns for water, cells for power. It is not rocket science, it simply requires repulsing the urge to build as big as you can.