We are proud to announce the newest member of the Las Villas de San Buenas team, Jennifer Ivey! Jennifer is part of a new property management company that will soon be making a big impact in the area – Osa Property Management.
Osa Property Management and Jennifer are our new Property Managers and they oversee all of our homes in Las Villas de San Buenas. Additionally, she assists our guests and visitors in check-in/check-out, answering questions about their vacation and making sure our homeowners’ homes are always in great shape.
Jennifer has spent almost three years in the San Buenaventura/Punta Mala/Ojochal area of Costa Rica and is extremely well-informed about the area. She has over 10 years of project management and construction management experience in Costa Rica and in Canada.
If you have ever hesitated about owning a property in Costa Rica because you weren’t sure how, or more importantly WHO would take care your home, Osa Property Management will ease your concerns. Contact us now if you’d like more information about owning or renting a home in Las Villas de San Buenas (or if you already own a home in the area contact us about having Osa Property Management take care of it for you).
Naively, I thought 3 months in Costa Rica would be like Hemingway’s ‘A Movable Feast’ or like any of the Beat Generation writers living in Mexico City or Morocco. Instead it was like ‘Walden’ by Henry David Thoreau.
I’ve spent an incredible amount of time alone in communication with nature. Often I awake at sunrise or moments before, and always, without fail, I make sure I am outside during sunset.
I’ve never been an outdoorsy person and yet I love Costa Rica’s countryside. Everything is so beautiful here, the mountains, the jungles and the sky, sometimes I swear when I look up, the clouds are perfect, perfect sizes and perfect shapes, during the day when they’re white and puffy and at sunset when they reflect gold and pink.
Strangely, I grew up in Florida drinking orange juice and ice tea and yet, the best ice tea and orange juice I’ve ever had is in Costa Rica. Their milk shakes are great, too as is their ice cream. Coffee here is potent and delicious and their chocolate rivals the best in the world.
Like the quest of the Transcendentalist, I’ve ‘found myself’ in this beauty and solitude. I’m happy, and see my life with a newfound clarity. I’ve accepted every aspect of my past, happy with my present and have renewed enthusiasm for my future.
While here, I’ve meditated, I’ve prayed and I’ve written a novel. I’ve also lost weight and genuinely look the best I’ve looked in years.
Life is transformative in Las Villas de San Buenas de Osa and whatever it is that you are seeking, you will find in its natural beauty and pace of life. And I want you to come here and have the same experiences I have in regards to ‘finding yourself’ and being one with the world around you. (If that’s what you’re seeking.) (You can come here if you simply want to relax and have good time, too.)
However, there’s something I’ve lacked down here that I don’t want anyone to suffer from. Lack of companionship. All this beauty would be enhanced if I was here with somebody I love.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had a great time here and have enjoyed my solitude but there have been so many moments that would’ve romantic with the right company.
A few nights ago, we had a full moon that hung over the villa, just a few clouds in the sky, even the dark, stone-filled dirt roads that are generally black as midnight by 7, were now illuminated by grey light bright enough to not use my flashlight, a necessity in a part of the country where there are very few street lights and the jungle’s protected by the government.
It felt like I was walking through a black & white movie. You can see everything clearly but it’s all dark and grey.
Walking into the beautiful night I thought first of Erskine Caldwell who once wrote, “At night, I saw how beautiful the day could never be,” and I thought about love.
I would’ve done anything to share that night with somebody I love.
To share the sunsets, the sunrise, the perfect clouds, the coffee, the chocolate, the food, the nearby beaches, the waterfall, and the multiple swimming pools here in the villas, with somebody you love, would make my here as romantic as it would be perfect.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy and think this time here has been exactly what the doctor ordered and I know you can have the same great, enriched, transformative experience that I have.
However, you can do one better than me by simply bringing somebody with you whom you love. And loves you back. Be it a spouse or a lover.
Come here alone, -I’m having a great time, or bring somebody you love and hold hands while walking during the full moon and pretend you’re in a black and white movie and kiss. Lay in the fresh cut fields pointing out which cloud is most perfect, admire the other’s skin when the sun sets, and open the bedroom windows, pull the curtains aside and snuggle when the sun rises.
My name is Ezekiel Tyrus. I am the gatekeeper to paradise. Contact me. Come down here. You’ll have an amazing time. Bring somebody you love and make it romantic.
I am house-sitting where you belong. This place belongs to you, dear Reader.
Do you understand? I’m merely the gatekeeper, the house-sitter of YOUR paradise and I’m in bliss.
Again, I repeat. It is Christmas Eve in Costa Rica and I’m in bliss. And this experience, belongs to you.
Made some lemon ice tea last night. It’s some of the best I’ve ever had and I’m originally from Florida so I know my lemon ice tea.
It’s sunny. I’m hanging by the swimming pool, got the house open, the windows, the doors, and have the TV on the classic MTV channel playing music from the 1980s, my generation. the good songs and the bad, which are good now, too, if only for nostalgia’s sake.
It’s hot, very hot and the sun is baking but I’m wearing suntan lotion and there’s a breeze coming through the trees from over the mountains. Whenever I get too sweaty, I jump into the pool, always the right amount of chill, refreshing, invigorating.
I’m reading Hemingway’s A Movable Feast, though I’ve read it before, I often reread books I love to rediscover certain gems you may have missed the first time:
“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be the happiest.”
-Great line Hemingway, and though I know you were writing about Paris in the 1920s, the same is true about Costa Rica today.
You may want to read another book or listen to another music channel but this experience belongs to you, you deserve it, let’s make it happen.
I’m happy here and this morning I had a moment walking into the sunny, spacious backyard where I had to stop, stretch my arms towards the sky and shout, “I’M IN COSTA RICA!!”
Come to Villas de San Buenas de Osa. This place is beautiful and magical. The land gets inside your soul and changes you in a positive way.
With all this beauty and happiness happening in the daytime, I don’t know how I will contain myself at 4:30 when the sun sets turning the earth and the sky into pink and gold, my favorite time of day in San Buenas.
Regardless how giddy or silly I’ll be, surely you’ll see me back in the same spacious backyard taking pictures of the sunset like I have every evening since coming down to Costa Rica a little over a month ago.
I’m not discrediting the Northern Lights. If you are like me, seeing the Aurora Borealis, a collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth’s atmosphere, is on your Bucket List.
However, I don’t believe the Northern Lights will have anything on the sunsets of Costa Rica.
Another day, another beautiful sunset here in Las Villas de San Buenas
There are 5 specific reasons why I feel this way, the first 3 are practical, the other 2 are special like Costa Rica itself.
First, to get to the Aurora Borealis, you’ve got to travel to the far North. The closer you get to the Arctic Circle, the more prominent the Northern Lights are. For the sunsets, all you’ve got to do is come to Costa Rica.
Second, because it’s the far North, you’ve got to wear layers upon layers just to stay warm. It’s cold!
Here, in Costa Rica, I usually wear nothing but a tank top and running shorts, only throwing on shoes when I’ve got to go somewhere.
Go ahead and keep your layers, when I’m through writing this, I taking off my tank top and going for a swim.
Third, you’ve got to look up towards the sky to see The Northern Lights. Even though it’s lovely, who needs that neck-strain? Seriously.
I’m in Villas de San Buenas de Osa in the Southern Zone, and all one has to do is look straight towards the Pacific Ocean beyond the horizon.
There’s no Daylight Savings Time in Costa Rica like there is in The States, screwing up Americans emotionally and mentally for days and weeks on end.
This is why you always make sure you’re outside at 4:30pm every day all year long, and you can stand or walk or sit in a chair and just look straight ahead to where the sun’s setting. No neck-strain.
This leads to the fourth reason. The Aurora Borealis is up in the sky, beyond your reach. A Costa Rica Sunset envelops you. You watch the sun set, then at 4:45, almost 5, you look around you as the entire country turns into gold.
There’s a sheen everywhere. Everybody’s skin is glowing, including yours.
The incredible light, the soft golden hue is reflecting in all the vegetation, the mountains, the jungle, reflecting back against the houses, and you can walk around letting the light embrace you, or spin around like when you were a kid in a field. You are part of this natural wonder. It’s of the Earth, the air and sky. You don’t need to look upwards but around, or rather straight-ahead and side-to-side. You are inside the Costa Rica sunset from your bare feet to the top of your head.
If you are a spiritual person you will see and feel your God. This may be true regarding the Aurora Borealis but it’s different when you are inside your God, and can feel and see God all around you, not just up in the sky.
And lastly, if you are an artistic person, like myself, and we each have an art inside us, the sunsets of Costa Rica will make you want to create art.
Mine has always been the written word, but each sunset I experience, inspires me to go beyond words, enabling me to draw, to paint, and even take photographs than I ever have before.
Your skin will never look better than it will during a Costa Rican sunset, so take lots of pictures and nobody will need to tell you to smile because you’ll already be there.
The Northern Lights certainly inspired artists, folksinger Nick Drake wrote beautiful songs about it but when you’re inside a Costa Rican sunset, if makes everybody feel like an artist and you’ll feel like a piece of art for just being there.
My name is Ezekiel Tyrus. People call me Zeke. I am the gatekeeper to Paradise. Come see me.
Las Villas de San Buenas proudly donated over 10 headlamps to Reserva Playa Tortuga (RPT) recently. RPT is located approximately 10 minutes from Las Villas de San Buenas and they provide our residents and visitors an amazing opportunity to help protect Costa Rica’s Osa wildlife.
Tortuga is Spanish for turtle, and they focus a lot of their time, energy and financial resources on protecting migrating turtles. However, they also study a variety of wildlife in the area.
Las Villas de San Buenas is looking to increase its support of Reserva Playa Tortuga and preliminary discussions have started to finalize a program that benefits both organizations.
Nick Halverson
1759 Valerie Lane
New Brighton, MN 55112
Be sure to include your name in the order and/or send us an email to notify us that they are on the way and we can send you a thank-you card.
Las Villas de San Buenas (LVSB) recently donated headlamps to RPT Juan Manuel Salazar (RPT), Nick Halverson (LVSB), Melissa Jimenez Kardentey (RPT).
Mr. Juan Salazar, from RPT, said that “these headlamps will help our volunteers work throughout the night in protecting the mothers who are laying their eggs, and for the hatchlings to successfully make it to the ocean.”
Some of the donated headlamps from Las Villas de San Buenas to Reserva Playa Tortuga
Please contact us if you’d like to make a financial or product donation to Reserva Playa Tortuga.
To develop positive communication with populations and communities associated with study areas focusing on protection of coastal marine resources and the development of responsible ecological tourism.
To establish strategic alliances with governmental and non-governmental entities working towards conservation and management of natural resources at local, national and international levels.
To educate and enable local population, via programs and opportunities, to live in environmentally sustainable ways.
To identify populations of coastal animals in danger of local, regional, or global extinction.
To maintain and rehabilitate the land in order to create/re-create an intact coastal zone that protects the Osa’s incredible wealth of biodiversity while supporting and facilitating sustainable development and living for the immediate coastal populations from Cortés to Dominical.
To provide opportunities to the scientists and researchers from Costa Rica to work with senior researchers and faculty members of US and other international universities and research facilities in order to further develop their research skills in the scientific fields related to Conservation Ecology and Biogeochemistry of Tropical Coastal Marine Systems.
To facilitate scientists and researchers to use the equipment and facility of Playa Tortuga Marine Conservation and Research Center for their own research activities involving biological investigation of tropical marine environments in regions where such research has not been carried out in recent times.
The Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT) in July reported that U.S. carrier United Airlines will open two seasonal flights between Denver and Costa Rica from December to April.
One of the flights will arrive at Juan Santamaría International Airport, outside San José, and the other will fly to the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste.
The new seasonal trips from Denver will operate Fridays and Saturdays from December 18 and April 30. (Courtesy of United Airlines)
The route between Denver International Airport and San José will operate once a week from Dec. 18 to April 30, 2016. The flight will depart from Denver at 10:59 p.m. on Fridays and will arrive at Juan Santamaría on Saturdays at 5:24 a.m. From San José, the flight will depart Saturdays at 7:19 a.m. and will arrive in Denver at noon.
The route to Daniel Oduber also will operate on Saturdays from Dec. 19 to April 30.
Flights will leave from Denver at 9:55 a.m. and arrive in Liberia at 4:15 p.m. Departures from Liberia will be at 12:30 p.m. and will arrive in Denver at 5:05 p.m., the ICT reported.
Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura said the news from United is important for the country: “These new flights will boost the tourism sector throughout the country, but they also will expand opportunities for Costa Ricans to fly to this major U.S. destination.”
The U.S. is Costa Rica’s main source of travelers. In 2014, the country registered a total of 936,929 arrivals from that country, a 7.6 percent increase from 2013.
Las Villas de San Buenas has a diverse set of owners from around the world (eight countries and counting). Come join us in paradise!! More information here
Our customers come from around the world and have a variety of backgrounds.
The photograph below was taken by Nick Halverson in May 2015 from the backyard of Casa Lapa using a Nikon D5000 with a Nikkor 18-140 mm lens. It is of a scarlet macaw (or a lapa as they are known in Costa Rica).
There were four lapas eating the ripening almonds from the almond tree in the early morning. If you look closely at the photo you can see that this one has the almond between its beak. We planted those trees approximately three years ago and we now regularly have lapas flying in and eating.
Lapa (scarlet macaw) enjoying an almond behind Casa Lapas, Las Villas de San Buenas. (c) Nick Halverson
Las Villas de San Buenas recently purchased 2,000 trees from a non-profit division of ICE (electricity provider) called Sembrada Agua. This project connects high schools and local communities to organizations looking to repopulate damage done decades ago by cattle farmers whom cleared some of the jungles in Costa Rica. The goal of Sembrada Agua is to plant one million trees by 2030 – and we wanted to do our part in helping out.
“We are committed to designing and planning our development in an eco-friendly manner and integrating native trees into the landscapes,” explained Hanz Cruz, General Manager of Las Villas de San Buenas.
Some of the 2,000 trees that have been delivered to Las Villas de San Buenas.
Las Villas de San Buenas will be spending the next month planting these trees. When we purchased the land that is now Las Villas de San Buenas there were thousands of gmelina trees that had been planted in the 1960s by local farmers. Gmelina is a non-indigenous, invasive species that chokes out the native trees. After several years, and approximately $85,000, we successfully cleared out the majority of the gmelina trees. We are now actively replanting the same area with fourteen tree species that are native to the Osa Peninsula, which will help bring the land back to its more natural state from 100 years ago.
“We will be planting a variety of fruit trees, hard woods and ornamental trees which will show our owners the beautiful mix of the wonderful bio-diversity found in this region of Costa Rica,” said Las Villas de San Buenas CEO Nick Halverson.
Earlier this week, Las Villas de San Buenas CEO, Nick Halverson, met with Carrol L Henderson, to exchange
Nick Halverson (L) and Carrol L Henderson enjoyed meeting and discussing Costa Rica earlier this week.
their experiences and stories about Costa Rica. Mr. Henderson is a wildlife biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and has written four books about Costa Rica’s mammals, birds and wildlife.
During the 75 minute meeting, Carrol shared many stories of his travels around the world and his success in raising awareness of wildlife in Costa Rica. In fact, Carrol was instrumental in getting the Ballena National Park designated as a national park by using photographs he took of migrating whales, and having those compared to photos on file at the Cousteau Institute.
Prolific Writing
Carrol’s four books about Costa Rica are: Costa Rica Wildlife, Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica, Butterflies, Moths, and Other Invertebrates of Costa Rica, Birds of Costa Rica
Carrol has spent a lifetime studying wildlife in both Costa Rica and in Minnesota, USA. He made his first visit to Costa Rica in the late 1960’s, where he met and married his wife of 40 years+. Over the past 45 years, Carrol has documented every trip and every animal sighting he’s had in Costa Rica. Armed with this data, he went on to write his books about wildlife in Costa Rica. He is constantly looking for updates and photographic proof of sightings so each new edition of his books is kept up-to-date. In fact, after the meeting Mr. Halverson sent Mr. Henderson some photos so that Carrol could identify the bird species in the photos.
Las Villas de San Buenas is committed to protecting the environment and due to this commitment, birds that were not seen 10 years ago in San Buenaventura are now common. Through working with professional horticultures, local experts and actively searching out other professionals (such as Carrol Henderson), Las Villas de San Buenas is continuing to improve the environmental diversity of Osa.
Small Town, Common Roots
It turns out that Carrol and the Chairman of the Board of Las Villas de San Buenas, Duane Halverson, both were born in Iowa and both were students at Iowa State University at the same time in the late 1960’s.
Nick Halverson was also born in Iowa, and interestingly, both Nick and Carrol have a strong belief that to truly appreciate and enjoy Costa Rica, one must immerse oneself into the local culture and customs.
Costa Rica Birding Tours
Since 1987, Mr. Henderson has lead private birding tours for small groups of people. Every trip is unique and different from any other previous trips. If anyone is interested in learning more about his past trips, or the January 2016 trip, please send us a note.
NOTE: All of Carrol’s books are available at national book sellers and Amazon.
Villas de San Buenas. Additionally, she assists our guests and visitors in check-in/check-out, answering questions about their vacation and making sure our homeowners’ homes are always in great shape.
Tortuga (RPT) recently. RPT is located approximately 10 minutes from Las Villas de San Buenas and they provide our residents and visitors an amazing opportunity to help protect Costa Rica’s Osa wildlife.
and preliminary discussions have started to finalize a program that benefits both organizations.
ICE (electricity provider) called Sembrada Agua. This project 
