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[quote=”sprite”]Make sure you find the heat and other “qualities” of sea level coastal living acceptable. The web site does not give details as to altitude of properties. It is one thing to vacation at a beach and quite another to live there at sea level in the tropics. The Central Valley mountains offer cooler, more comfortable temperatures, fewer potentially dangerous animals and insects and better infrastructure.[/quote]
The post from Sprite is perhaps the most valuable advice. I lived on the beach south of Limon for 3 months. I also visited friends in the hills outside Siquirres somewhere in the area where this project appears to be. Imagine stifling heat and humidity, mud, bugs, a tortuous drive to San Jose and not all that nice fighting with the all the container rigs on the “30 minute drive” to the beach. It’s a great place for banana plantations but for living???
I chose to settle near the coast in Guanacaste. It gets hot, but mainly in the dry season, and much less than many parts of my home state of California. As others have said, do your homework to avoid the disappointment that many of us have seen others go through.I love it, but then I plant a lot.
Also work in erosion control and it is a great year for that particular activity.
Sorry to ‘pop in’ rather late to this interesting thread.
As someone who shares the concern for peak oil and has a strong interest in permaculture and small scale local food production–plus 16 years on the land here in Guanacaste, I’d like to share a few observations.
1. Depending on where you are in CR, your entire site AND your plantings should be designed into a water conservation/erosion prevention layout. This includes roof runoff and septic water. Harvest the water first and the plants will respond in kind.
2. If you plan to subsist on a diet of fruit and vegetables, fine, but if you fancy some starches and protein you might consider traditional, low maintenance crops, like tubers, cooking bananas, the highly productive aerial yam (ñyame) and for long term, the mayan breadnut, ojoche, which has 4X the protein of corn. Perennial greens like quelite, moringa and katuk are also easy to grow, high nutrient value and good fodder for chickens and goats. (This is a short list)
3. Bamboo deserves consideration as a quick source of material for all manner of garden and farm structures from trellises to gates, chicken coops. It also provides abundant leaf litter for compost and can be incorporated into erosion control and landslide prevention plantings.
4. Don’t forget the advantages of living near, and cultivating relationships with, people who still know how to live off the land. For more on this approach, see:
http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/5714
For more information on sustainable land use and food production in the wet-dry tropics you can check out:
For those looking to see how a concern for future trends are being incorporated into an ‘eco-village’ design and construction please visit us.
