Bungalow Renovation Complete
Pachamama has been a busy place the past couple months. We were very excited to welcome our first bungalow guests in mid-Oct after closing the bungalows down for two months to complete our renovations. We were a bit worried at times about finishing on time and the noise, but the crew worked with us to build around our house guests’ schedules and get the last details done a few days before the first guests and Cathy had a well timed trip to Ikea and a couple other places to outfit the new kitchen and living rooms. So what did we do? We installed a new 30′x10′ deck in front of the bungalows, put a full kitchen between them, and then enclosed the old patios and made them into living rooms complete with new ceiling fans and futons that fold out into beds. We decided against covering the entire new deck to give people much more room to view the trees, sky and everything living that inhabits them. We employed the services of a Punta Uva/Manzanillo builder called Eco-Development for the project and all of the wood we used was either from our wood storage from previous projects or was brought in from wood plantations in Costa Rica. We also used “green” products and standards in all the construction which makes us and the land happy. Leaving the deck open turned out to be a great idea because guests have really enjoyed the terrace and we put new deck chairs and benches out there for hanging out and entertaining. So what if it rains? Well, contrary to rumours, it does not rain all the time here and usually (if you can use the word usual here) it rains at night. So, if it is pouring rain you just move back a little under the covered section of the porch and the rain gutters move the rain so you can enjoy the view and fresh air regardless. We just had a couple of move from the 1 bedroom house to the bungalow with a kitchen and said they liked it more because of all the room and the views.
So what does all this mean to Pachamama? Now we have another option for people who want a kitchen, and the really cool thing is that we can now open up the bungalows and make a 2 bedroom 2 bath house complete with 2 living rooms, 5 ceiling fans, and room for up to 8 people. However, the construction process was a bit taxing so we are done for awhile and it is nice to get back to “normal”.
Other updates, the Cari Blancas (White Faced Capuchin monkeys)
returned last week and today after not being around for a few months. People were seeing them on the kayaks up the river, but some locals suggested that since have been so many congo (howler) monkeys on the property the past few months that the Cari Blancas stayed away (the howlers are a little initimidating with their large groups and loud noises). Other news is that we have been catching Bass and Snook pretty easily in the river and Green Jacks (hooreles?) and Kingfish have been pretty plentiful…I went fishing on a boat with some guests last week and we brought home a 5 kilo Jack that we cooked up family style and it was just delicious and lasted for a couple days in tacos and salads….The sea was like glass that day and we went snorkeling off Punta Mona and could see a good 50′ with some nice fish and reefs..
returned last week and today after not being around for a few months. People were seeing them on the kayaks up the river, but some locals suggested that since have been so many congo (howler) monkeys on the property the past few months that the Cari Blancas stayed away (the howlers are a little initimidating with their large groups and loud noises). Other news is that we have been catching Bass and Snook pretty easily in the river and Green Jacks (hooreles?) and Kingfish have been pretty plentiful…I went fishing on a boat with some guests last week and we brought home a 5 kilo Jack that we cooked up family style and it was just delicious and lasted for a couple days in tacos and salads….The sea was like glass that day and we went snorkeling off Punta Mona and could see a good 50′ with some nice fish and reefs..We’ll try to be a little more frequent with the updates before the end of the year…oh yeah, the weather has been excellent in September and October…October is typically the driest month if you look on www.puertoviejosatellite.com and it has only rained a little at night with some clouds during the day to keep things cool..Some of the big storms out in the caribbean made the waves big a few days, but generally the swimming and snorkeling have been fairly decent..Who knows what November will bring, but so far it has been consistenly wonderful….back to the hammock ;0)
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