Thursday 6/17—This morning we met with Diego, the realtor that we have been working with to find some property to build on. We originally met him on our trip here last February and he brought us out to look at a couple properties at that time. He seemed like a good guy to work with, so we kept in contact with him after we went back to MN. He continued to keep an eye out for properties that fell within our wishes, and even sent us a few videos of properties he found. It only made sense for us to get in touch with him right away when we got back down here so we could start looking again. He had found 6 or 7 for us to look at today (but to be honest, only 3 really stood out to us as being possibilities). He showed us properties that ranged from pretty small (in our opinion, but actually average for the local area) to much larger (still less than half an acre but a big lot comparatively, for a house without being a small farm); everything from the flats near the beach, to just starting up into the hills, and all the way up the hill; everything from almost completely bare of trees, to right at the edge of the jungle. Some were in what felt like a development, and some felt very rural. All were less than a 15 minute drive into town, which is what we are looking for.
The first one he brought us to was just at the edge of the hills and was very near one that we had looked at last February (which is still also for sale). This property is only a few minutes from the center of town but feels very rural, there are a few houses nearby but it is mostly surrounded by farms/pastures. There are already mature trees on the land including mangoes, and quite a bit of room to plant more trees and a garden.
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| You have to pass over this bridge to get to the property. It is barely wide enough for our truck!! |
Next, he brought us to a few in the flat areas near the beach. These didn’t really impress us too much. They were wide open, no trees, small lots, and no breeze because it’s just too flat. They were nice to see, but just not really for us. All of these were walking or biking distance to shops and to the beach. I guess this is really sought after down here so people don’t have to drive as much or for people who don’t even have cars. For us, though, this isn’t a high priority since we were used to having to drive everywhere back in MN anyway. After those few that didn’t interest us at all, he did have one that was down on the flats that we could consider. This one had a bunch of mango trees, didn’t feel so open or so hot as the other ones, and had some pastures and fields on the one side of it. It was less expensive than the other ones that we had looked at so far, but it was pretty small. We added this to our “maybe” list and went to see the last property.
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| All those dark green trees in the middle: Mangoes!! |
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| The property is only the back 1/3 or so of this piece, back where all of the mango trees are. |
This last property was about 15 minutes away in a small town called Playa Hermosa. This was up in the mountains, and up quite a steep road, but at least this road is paved. We had never been up here before and it was nice to see the new area. We got to the property and instantly thought it was fantastic. This was the largest of the ones we had seen, but also the most expensive and far enough over our budget that it was not an instant yes. This property isn’t even on the market yet, and Diego had found out about it through his brother-in-law. Diego was very excited about this property, and we could tell that he really wanted us to buy this one. The price that they were asking for it, plus the size of it made it a very good deal, but it just was more than we had anticipated spending. It was perfectly situated at the end of the road, at the edge of a jungle with a stream down below so no one would ever build on 2 sides of us. There were fruit trees already there and lots of room to plant more. This really was an awesome property!
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| The property is much larger than this photo would make it appear! |
After looking around and talking about it some more, Diego offered to show us his house which was very nearby (we would almost be neighbors). He has a small but beautiful home that he had just recently finished in the last few months, on a beautiful property that overlooks the ocean. Boy, did he have it made! But, we surely would not be able to afford anything like what he has! Afterwards, he brought us back into town, told us to think about the properties, and get back in contact with him if we had more questions or if we make a decision
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