A roofed terrace wraps this contemporary home with amazing views of Arenal Lake, Arenal Volcano, jungles & on-site tropical gardens. 2 bedroom, one with a King Size bed and the other with a Queen Size bed, 3 full baths, full kitchen, living & dining room. Rural and close to zip lines, hiking trails, horseback riding, good restaurants, butterfly conservancy, art gallery and more.
When we bought this house, we described the view as “The most beautiful view I had ever seen.” The Arenal Volcano dominated the landscape. And in the same view, there was Arenal Lake, the largest inland lake in Costa Rica. Running alongside of our property, just out of sight, but not out of sound, is a river, singing it's song 24/7.
This is a beautiful contemporary home, with what you would expect in an American built home...On demand hot water in every room, American plumbing where you can actually flush the toilet paper, screens on the windows and fans on the ceilings. The bedroom is air conditioned, although in the many years we have been here we have never needed it. Fresh air is welcomed into the house so inside or out you can take advantage of the amazing Costa Rica weather. Come along on a verbal tour.
After you park your car in the carport, you will walk through the first of 7 hand carved doors (all designed from photos the previous owner has taken.) You will be astounded by the view provided by the floor to ceiling glass walls that let you be a part of nature. Your dining room table is hand made locally from a tree trunk slab as the top and a root section as the base. The kitchen features a gas stove with 2 ovens, a large refrigerator/freezer, a walk-in pantry, coffee maker, rice maker, blender, mixer, toaster and most every other gadget you will need to cook absolutely fabulous meals. Your flat screen TV (with a satellite connection and some English programming) can be watched from the leather couch or from two comfortable chairs with ottomans. The chairs swivel 180 degrees to let you look outside through the floor to ceiling tinted windows while reading or relaxing. Your terrace wraps around the house giving you perfect views of Arenal Volcano, Lake Arenal, Arenal National Park and the Children's Eternal Rainforest. A stairway leads to a private tropical garden with walking paths for you to enjoy the plantings and fauna. There you will find banana trees, wonderful eatable red hibiscus you can pick for your salads or tea, many flowering tropical plants, hummingbirds, flycatchers as well as tanagers, often the toucans visit...a wonderful place to linger.
The Master bedroom with a large en-suite bathroom is located in the first floor has a comfortable King Size bed from where you can enjoy magnificent views of the Arenal Volcano and the surrounding rain forest. The bedroom has direct access to the wrap around terrace, a perfect place for sunrise and sunset, as well as a cup of coffee,or tea, or a glass of wine, and also a small private walk out balcony. Wake to the sunrise lighting the volcano with amazing colors. Watch the clouds rise from the forest floor (we are at the 2400 foot elevation dividing line between the rainforest and cloud forest). Heading upstairs you will find the guests bedroom, you will find a Queen size bed. Your bedroom has a walk out covered terrace, Your view from the upstairs terrace takes in the jungle, lake and volcano. Both baths have wonderful walk-in showers that blesses your body with spring water, heated by an on-demand water heater. There is a walk-in closet for your use as well.
Without even starting your car, you will be able to walk our private trail to the river (we even have boots you can wear) go horseback riding right up the hill at Parrot Hill and/or walk to supper at a wonderful restaurant , Nepenthe Phoenix, hike and watch the wildlife. We are regularly visited by three kinds of toucans, howler monkeys as well as the spider monkeys, and have our "white hawks" circling. Many birds and insects can be found if you take the time to look. Otherwise a snuggle on the terrace, catch a quiet moment of serenity, or catch up on that book you have wanted to read. The air is fresh and clean, the water is tasty, and the setting is amazing.
It is unlikely we will be nearby while you are here, but you can reach us anytime by email if there are problems or something is not to your satisfaction. You can make reservations for any activities you want to participate in...Zip lining, hanging bridges, rafting, kayaking, hiking, eating, hot springs and much more. You will find a red binder in the house when you arrive. Inside you will find everything you need, telephone numbers, locations, names, information on how the house works, lists of our favorite places to eat, play and visit. You can spend a lot of time in this area and still have more to see and do.
We strongly recommend NOT making a lot of arrangements for activities or specific plans until you arrive, EXCEPT for reservations for Zip Lining and Rafting. Both of these are often sold out. When you get here, look in the red binder with tons of information on the house, the TV's, the trail to the waterfall, specific restaurants we love both here in El Castillo and La Fortuna. We will share some of our favorite places for hanging bridges walks, hot springs (our favorite has many pools of varying temperatures, water slides, peaceful places, swim-up bar, lets you be there all day and includes either lunch or dinner for $28-$50 per person, depending on the season). We will tell you about our most loved walks in the National Park area, a great restaurant for lunch if you choose to drive around Lake Arenal. This is rural Costa Rica, so you will be in a small town that mostly speaks Spanish, except for the various tourist all speak English as well.
You will have lots of room to do as you wish. There are no shades on any of the windows, so we tend to go to bed early and rise early. The views are just too magnificent to cover with cloth. And no one is near you to see in anyway. Please consider a 4WD vehicle. the 12KM road to the Arenal National Park entrance has many pot holes. On this road you will pass the park entrance and drive about 8KM almost to El Castillo. The 1.2KM drive to our house is gravel and often rutted and if raining it will be muddy. That road is up hill and and can be challenging. Can it be done with a small car, yes, but you will be a lot happier with a 4WD vehicle.
Your drive, either from San Jose or Liberia airport, will take approx. 3 hours to arrive at our house. YOU DO NOT WANT TO DRIVE IN COSTA RICA AT NIGHT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO COSTA RICA BEFORE. So plan to arrive at the airport by Noon. We know, looking at a map, you believe you can get here a lot faster. But we have made the trip many times and it takes us about 3 hours to get here. Let us know your flight plans as soon as you can. If you cannot arrive by 6PM. plan to spend a night near the airport.
