Welcome to Rancho Armadillo :: Playas del Coco, Costa Rica

Meet Chunche, (choon-chay - costa rican slang for thingamajig) our 2 ton pool shower. Our Judges were a group of advertising executives who have been coming here the second week in January for the past eight years. The winning name was submitted by a couple of up and coming chefs from Chicago, Megan and Anthony, who were guests here back in February 2009.Congratulations!!

Rancho Armadillo has been Chosen as One of the Top Honeymoons Destinations in the Most Popular Tourist Area of Costa Rica by Brides Magazine!!

We were featured in the Sweet Spots Section of the July/August 2007edition of Brides magazine as one of (if not the) best honeymoon destinations in Costa Rica. (We also do great destination weddings). So whether it's your first, second or third honeymoon - stay at Rancho Armadillo and see why we are the #1 choice of all the major Guide Books, Trip Advisor and now Brides Magazine

"Low key couples who want a more authentic atmosphere choose centrally located inns like Rancho Armadillo, a Spanish-style estate, where the owner welcomes guests like family by dictating down to the mile marker directions to secret waterfalls, Places like this remind you that, despite the buzz, Costa Rica will never be a high-rise mecca. You can still find a hammock where the only sound will be a breeze rustling the trees. And if you listen closely, a howler monkey's screech. "
Lexi Dwyer - Brides

Rancho Armadillo Estate rated "excellent" by 37 travelers	We have been ranked the #1 TripAdvisor hotel in Coco, Ocotal & Hermosa for the past 7 years. Visit TripAdvisor or our testimonial page to see what our guests have to say about us.
Have you visited us recently? Please write a review and tell everyone what you thought.	Review Rancho Armadillo Estate

Rancho Armadillo Estate is also a member of Adventure Hotels of Costa Rica a group of small and medium sized hotels located throughout Costa Rica. Although we have not been to all of the hotels in the association we are confident that all meet the standards that were required by the founders of this group. Please visit our Recommended Hotels page for more information

We installed wireless internet connection so that our guests can check their flight status, hotel reservations and mom's & dad's can keep tabs on the kids while they enjoy their second honeymoon. Some guests might even be tempted to check their work emails, but mixing up a batch of pina coladas usually quashes that temptation. No need to bring your lap top, we a Gateway Notebook for our guests to use not only for the internet but also to down load pictures onto memory stick or send pictures of the great time they are having in Paradise to all their friends. We are now hooked up with SKYPE, the internet VIOP phone service, so now our guests can make international phone calls for free.

Follow the goings on here at Rancho through the eyes of of our special "guest" Twitchy, our resident Coatimundi, as he chronicles the day to day life in the jungle and here at Rancho. You can find him on Twitter at @TwitchysTweets. if you have a Twitter account be sure to sign up as a "follower". if you don't this is a good time to sign up. I know he'll love to here from you and he will always welcome suggestions as to how make his entry into the social media field informative and entertaining. Look for his Facebook page coming soon to a computer in front of you.

Our Apple iPOD is loaded up with over 9,000 songs covering almost every musical taste (we still won't allow Rap or Hip-Hop) So if you have an iPOD feel free to bring it along with you.

With so much to see and do with in a hours drive from the Estate that we highly recommend that you rent a car. In the long run it will be much cheaper than hiring a taxi or a guide to chauffeur you around plus you will be able to set your own schedule and not be confined to the schedule of tour guides. After doing extensive research I have found that Adobe Car Rentals have the best rates and great service with offices around the country should you encounter any problems. We have teamed up with Adobe to offer our guests direct on line booking, guaranteeing that you get the best rates possible. Please visit our Car Rental page for more information.

Introducing The 2009 Guanacaste Soccer Champions
Our Own Escuela de Coco
Girls Soccer Team

Rancho Armadillo purchased complete uniforms and equipment for the first Coco Elementary School girls soccer team back in 2007.. There is no Title IX in Costa Rica and the girls are often left on the sidelines when it comes to extracurricular activities. Having raised 2 daughters who participated in sports as children and one receiving a full scholarship to college under Title IX for soccer. I realize the importance of learning team work at an early age.

This years team made it to the finals in Liberia where they played the first game to a 0-0 tie and lost the final game in a heartbreaker. The tears turned to smiles a couple od days later when we hosted the team to a pool pizza party and a week later at the graduation dinner the girls presented to the school 4 trophies - one each for the district championship, the Nicoya championship, the Regional championship and the Runner Up trophy for the Provincial Championship. They wowed their parents and the students attending the dinner with a 20 slide show presentation of this years triumphs. Each Girl also received a personal trophy. For most of these girls this will be will be the one memory that will last them a lifetime as here in Costa Rica only 30% will go on to finish high school, most will be raising families by the time they're 18 years old.

Rancho Armadillo donated and installed new basketball hoops to the elementary school. Although basketball will never replace soccer in Costa Rica, basketball is great exercise for the phys ed class. Honeymooners Betsey & Kyle from the Chicago area, donated enough money for the school to purchase 4 new basketballs and 6 soccer balls and have the basketball court painted. Thanks to Betsey & Kyle and all of our guests who help Coco's future generation.

Each year the Brown Family from Washington State hosts the annual Easter Egg Hunt for local & ex-pat children and each year it gets bigger & better. This year we brought our employees children to hunt for eggs filled with candy and money, all searching for the Golden Egg filled with $100 and candy. In the past years our kids have found the Golden Egg twice, but not this year, but they did have tons of fun and went home with bags filled with candy and money.

Every six months we have our pool water tested and the latest results were spectacular! Our pool water is cleaner than the Crystal brand bottled water sold here in Costa Rica. We use the ionizing method of cleaning our water and have cut the chlorine level to less than 1/8 of the chlorine that is generally used in a pool our size.

Local ex pat boat captain Richard Hook (seriously that's his name Captain Hook!), has been building his own pirate ship for the past 2 years and finally got it christened Friday the 16th of April. The Perla Negra has 6 cannons, a full service bar and future plans include wall of slot machines. The ship will hold up to 70 passengers and will do day trips out of Coco.. The launching of the ship was a community entertainment event, the crowds gathered all day long making it a party. First they had to wait for low tide, then dig trenches so that the front loaders could drag it out without damaging the prop. They planned on the process taking 4 hours, giving them enough time to be at the waters edge for high tide, but very typical of how things happen in Costa Rica, it ended up taking 2 days.

A must do favorite of all of our guests is The Congo Trail Canopy Tour, one of the original canopy tours in Costa Rica, about a 20 minute drive from here. You have to understand that canopy tours are intended as an amusement ride not a study in nature, but that does not mean that you won't be able to view nature in it's purist form. We recommend that our guests go in the late afternoon, leaving here around 3:30, that way you will have missed all of the tour busses and you stand a great chance of being in the trees with monkeys, as they travel though there on their way to bed down for the night.

The tour has 11 platforms and has one line that is 800 yards long. After the tour stop by and visit the Congo Trail serpent display, containing a variety of snakes and frogs local to the area. After a visit with the snakes you can easily convince the guides to let you play with the resident white face and howler monkeys. The monkeys can get a bit inquisitive, searching pockets, purses and even climbing down your shirt. Guests of Rancho Armadillo pay only $25 for the tour instead of the normal $35, a bargain considering most other canopy tours run from $45 to $85. Having been on over 15 canopy tours around Costa Rica, this is definitely one of the best, the guides are the key that makes it one of the best.

A water tour that our guests have given a big thumbs up to is the tour boat Almaco, a 27ft, 8 passenger custom designed skiff that will take you to secluded beaches comfortably. They will customize the tour to fit your needs. The Almaco offers complete diving packages, snorkeling, reef fishing, water skiing and tubing. They will even include a gourmet beach BBQ complete with linens, china and silverware. The tours are private, meaning you and yours will be the only ones on the boat. The Almaco is just one of many options for diving and snorkeling the world famous Gulf of Papagayo.

A great Sail/Snorkel tour is the 65ft sail yacht the "Don Bosco". The crew of the Don Bosco will take you up to Huevos Beach, a secluded cove with caves to explore and great snorkeling. While you are enjoying the beach the crew is busy preparing a fantastic gourmet BBQ lunch for you with all the trimmings. The tour includes all equipment, beach toys, an open bar featuring the Don Bosco's world famous Fruit Punch.

Llanas de Cortez or locally known as the Bagaces waterfall, one of our favorite tours. The waterfall is 60 ft high and 40 ft wide and empties into a white sand pool around 5 ft deep. Swim up to and under the waterfall.
	Combine a trip to the waterfall with a stop at the oldest wild cat rescue center in Costa Rica and an optional river float trip down the Corobice river to see crocs, monkeys and lots of birds.

We have recently added a new horseback riding tour to our list of "non touristy" tours and our guests love it. This tour will take small groups to hidden waterfalls and natural springs, up mountain trails for some incredible vistas. At the end of the trail you will be invited into the home of the owners for some Costa Rican snacks, giving you a glimpse of Costa Rican ranch life.
	We combine the horseback tour with stops at the indigenous village of Guatil to observe pottery making by the ancestors of the Chortega's, who still make pottery as they have for hundreds of years.

Even though it has been here for thousands of years it's new to us. We recently visited the area near the Miravalles Volcano. More specifically the Hornillas Crater, about a 1 & 1/2 hour drive from here. This crater is unique in the world, it is an active crater on the side of the 5000 meter high volcano featuring boiling mud pits, emerald green springs and fumaroles that emit steam and other gases. Here you can follow a path that will allow you to get up close and personal with these natural wonders.

At one spot along the way you can stop and actually hear the "heartbeat" of the volcano.

After the short hike you sit in a natural sauna and get your pores open before you lather yourself up with the mud from the mud pits, once the mud has dried you shower it off in a hot shower with water taken directly from the boiling hot springs. Makes your skin feel 10 years younger. Then relax in any of the three hot spring pools.

About an hour's drive north of here up into the rain forest near the town of Las Lilas we have found 2 locations featuring pre- columbian rock carvings dated from 1,000 - 800 years ago. The first set is located next to a natural spring where the locals have built a retaining pool for the kids to swim in, in the bushes next to the spring are 2 large boulders with carvings of faces and symbols. In front of the local grade school is another boulder that has been identified by University of Costa Rica's archeology department

The second set of petroglyphs is a bit outside of the town hidden through a cattle gate, down a two track road behind some houses, where one of the residents has built a small butterfly garden. After a quick tour of the garden you walk down a path that has three different groups of petroglyphs. These have been studied and identified by the University of Costa Rica's archeology department The boulders are located along a river bed that during the dry season is pretty accessible, Below are pictures from the first of the three sites.

After the archeological sites you can drive another 40 minutes to the Rio Azul, the minerals color the river sky blue.

The rainy season has has arrived a bit early this year, starting April 21st, we have had rain everyday, the first few days it rained hard for most of the day but now we have settled in and we get an afternoon shower lasting an hour or so. because the initial rains were so heavy the ground go good and soaked so everything is now green, we are about 2 weeks away from being a full tropical forest. We usually aren't this green until the end of June. The temps have also fallen, we are now averaging temps in the low 90's.

October 2008 brought devastating rains to our area, the rising waters of the Tempisque River flooded over the bridge. The Tempisque River is normally a good 100 feet below the bridge. The picture was taken about an hour before the bridge was submerged. Note the huge concrete slabs being lifted to almost a 45 degree angle. 2008 saw record rainfalls here in Costa Rica and it looks like we may see a repeat this year.

Playas del Coco is growing by leaps and bounds, we now have 3 brand new super markets, the AutoMercado, Mega Super and SuperCompro, a division of Walmart, all are big chain stores here in Costa Rica. We also have new upscale clothing stores, a new florist, 2 new banks, Banco San Jose and Banco de Costa Rica, both with ATM's and at Banco de Costa Rica you can purchase the exit stamp prior to going to the airport. We also have POPS, a premium ice cream parlor famous in Costa Rica and an optical store with an optometrist, they also carry brand name sun glasses ( a bit more expensive than the knock off's you can buy on the street but much safer for your eyes) and another pharmacy, bringing the number of pharmacies in Coco to 5, in Costa Rica pharmacies have a doctor on hand for consultations and advice on medicines.

Proyecto de Luz (Project of Light), the local charity that Debbie works
with, is always looking for donations of either money or school items.
If you would like to contribute please contact us. We will be happy to
let you know what is needed. Currently we are looking to fund another
girls soccer team, this will be for the 4th & 5th grade boys. The cost
to purchase the uniforms, shoes and balls is around $2,500. We
will gladly accept donation on behalf of Proyecto de Luz. The average
cost of sponsoring a child in the public school is $320 this coversbooks, supplies and uniformsThis cost is prohibitive for many family's, without uniforms the children cannot attend school. This past February, as the school children returned from their summer vacation, Proyecto de Luz, passed out 65 uniforms and over $4,000 worth of supplies for the children and for the teachers. The Coco Club is passing out piggy banks to business's and hotels around town for tourists to get rid of their loose change. Donations - large or small are needed and welcomed. There is so much we can do to improve the educational lives of these children, but funds are limited. We at Rancho Armadillo are sponsoring 2 children at the private bilingual school, 4 children at the local elementary schools, 2 adults in the local university and former guests Galen & Vicki are sponsoring 2 children from Sardinal and are sending them to a better school in Liberia, Galen & Vicki have decided to sponsor these children throughout their entire education, kindergarten through College.

The real estate bubble in the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica has burst leaving behind a trail broken dreams and promises.

T he real estate bubble in the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica has burst leaving a trail broken dreams and promises in its path. In increasing numbers, those seeking some kind of investment opportunity or mythological paradise in Costa Rica have been burned by a mounting number of real estate development failures.

One could debate the question “who is responsible for this situation”. Some would argue it is the inevitable consequence of a complicit unregulated, unlicensed and real estate industry gone rogue. Others would argue that it is the consequence of unscrupulous developer's gone illegal skirting the laws of Costa Rica in order to expedite their development timeline and concomitantly enhance the return on their investment. Still others would argue it is the inevitable consequence of buyers gone greedy and failing to do their due diligence, preferring to believe the developer's and/or real estate agencies pitchmen, sometimes even anteing up their money on the strength of a promise to deliver the finished product.

Whatever the case, the reporting in the news media of the consequential lawsuits, foreclosures, and outright frauds is on the rise. It appears buyers have had enough.

The most recent reporting is on a project North of Jaco on the Pacific Coast where the prosecutor's office in Garabito has launched an investigation into a criminal complaint by 34 purchasers who invested $1.7 million buying property in the now defunct project VIVA Punta Leona.

Another, nearly as recent reporting, is that of the case of a Playas del Coco project where about 30 persons who entered into deals to purchase condominiums paid over $3 million to the developer. Some buyers paid up to 90% of the full purchase price. The contract called for the money they paid to be placed with an escrow agent to be

released to the developer as specific construction milestones were reached. For example, the developer got

15% of the escrowed amount upon completing laying the ceramic tiles of the floor.

Some of these buyers were likely confused or duped by the use of an escrow agent. While escrow is widely used in the United States to protect the interests of the buyer since the seller does not get the money until the deal is final, this appears not to be the case in Costa Rica .

In essence, the developer was building the project with the buyer's money and without the buyer having a legal ownership position in the condominium or home. As the buyer's tell it, when the developer's defaulted on its loan with a state bank, the bank foreclosed leaving the buyers burnt and their claims without weight because they were not listed as an owner. Some buyers reported that they were not even made aware of the bank action for months.

The case of Paragon Properties is yet another example where the purchasers put their money up front. In this case from one third up to the full purchase price for one or more building lots, and it appears unlikely that the developer will ever provide the roads, water lines, and other utilities necessary of living on the land.

There is also the case in Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste where a buyer in the project Hermosa Village has filed a criminal lawsuit claiming fraud against the developer, escrow agent, and selling real estate agents and agency. Some 4 years later, the project still has not been completed. And, there is the situation in three different major projects in Playa Hermosa where an estimated 75 - 100 buyers entered into deals to purchase condominiums or residences, all represented by the same real estate agent, and lying shut down for near 3 years now by the government (the municipality and/or the Supreme Court of Costa Rica) for failing to comply with proper legal requisites. But it does not appear any are in litigation.

In the case of the VIVA Punta Leona project, the buyers said that in the year 2007 the project sold 36 reconstruction condominiums to buyers from the United States, Canada and Costa Rica and that it Phase I Sales Release featured one, two and three bedroom condominiums ranging in size from about 800 to more than 2,000 square feet with prices ranging from $189,000 to $749,900 … generating sales of $16.3 million.

The buyers said that each put down 10% of the purchase price, but were then notified by letter on June 6, 2008 that the project was officially canceled and that their deposits would be refunded. Nevertheless the VIVA Punta Leona Website is still active. And, in this case the buyers have joined forces and hired a lawyer. His name is José Joaquín Ureña.

In all these cases the practice of reconstruction is complicit in the demise or disenchantment of the buyers. In the opinion of The Responsible Development Front, the practice of reconstruction sales is a plague / a cancer on Costa Rica , a country where the development law and real estate practice are not well regulated, or regulated at all.

It should not be a part of any responsible developer's, or realtor's, portfolio of practices .

The Staff at Rancho Armadillo Estate
Debbie, Rick, Marisol, Melissa, Teo, Minor, Arnoldo & Mongo