Tips
Basic Rules
- No wet swimwear in the living room or on any piece furniture. Not only does water ruin the upholstery, your travel companion will be unhappy to sit down after you’ve left your wet imprint on the couches or chairs.
- Preferably, shoes off inside. Not only does it avoid sand and mud from being brought in to the house, but there are a variety of textures in the house that your feet can enjoy.
- No smoking inside at all (Dining room, kitchen, family room, bedrooms). If you must smoke, please do so in the open air living space and kindly use an ashtray.
- No glass ware in the pool area.
- No suntan or sunblock lotion in the pool. Suntan and sunblock lotions combine with the pool chemicals and make the pool water turn green. It has happened, and if this happens during your visit, the pool will look ugly and uninviting. In fact, while a vacation suntan is nice, keep in mind that you are very close to (only 9 degrees above) the equator. The sun’s rays are deceptively strong even if it doesn’t feel so hot, the best way to protect yourself is to simply be in the shaded parts of the villa, thus avoiding the use of suntan lotion at all. Definitely, do use suntan or sunblock lotion at the beach because it’s hard to find shade and the sun reflects off of the sand.
- Avoid excessive use of A/C. The temperature here is ideal and it rarely gets below 60s and rarely exceeds the mid‐80s. It’s usually between low 70s and low 80s. All year round. It may take a day or so to adjust, but do try to give your body the luxury of enjoying natural, wholesome, and carbon‐free ventilation. In addition to the obvious environmental impact of energy usage, the A/C gets in the way of being able to hear the waves and crickets at night. By leaving your windows and sliding doors open (with screens), you are actually harmonizing with nature. The area is magical, so it’s a true treat to enjoy this harmony.
- Don’t get upset. This is not a house rule, but the one piece of “cultural advice” we would like to impart. Showing emotional displays of anger is simply against Costa Rican culture. Costa Rica, due to its history, is a place that avoids confrontation. That aspect is deeply embedded in its culture.
- Close all the screens around 4pm to minimize mosquitoes and other nighttime bugs. The evenings are amazing, and while it is not entirely bug free, it is mostly free of mosquitoes, and we encourage you to spend your evenings enjoying the sounds of the waves, the lightning storms, the rain, and turning on the fan and dimming the lights will help reduce the number of bugs.
- Yes, this area gives us incredible peace! However, it is better to use all the security devices provided in home to prevent people from taking our belongings and beautiful memories of this place. Make sure everything is locked up when you leave the house and do not leave valuables in the car if you to the beach.
Basic Information
- We experience peaks of electricity every day and sometimes more than once, it is normal in this area, sometimes it will be just for a few seconds and other times it can take longer. We are in the tropical rainforest and a fallen branch can cause a short-circuit. Help comes from the nearest town, San Isidro, which is 40 minutes from Dominical. As you can understand, this will take a while. Normally 2-4 hours.
- Pool cleaning service comes a couple of times per week. Depending on the house, schedule is Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday.
- High speed internet! While there is service in almost all homes, some houses have cable internet but the most of them have it by antenna and others by chip. This last one work with a limited plan, therefore, you can use it mostly to check emails and WhatsApp and not for streaming movies or games. We recommend you to try to disconnect and enjoy your time here, there is so much to do and to see!
- Some houses have satellite TV service through SkyTV or ClaroTV. You can get Fox, ESPN, CNN, some movie channels and more. Others have a DVD player to watch movies.
- For all our houses 4×4 vehicles are required.
- Bugs and other animals: We live in the midst of the rainforest, and we share our house with lots of different species. You will see various types of beetles, butterflies, moths, ants, millipedes, grasshoppers, cicadas, stick bugs, gnats, and mosquitoes. You may also see lizards, geckos, frogs, larger toads, and “Jesus Christ” lizards. The earth is wonderfully in balance in our immediate vicinity. That balance, the breezes, the lack of standing water – all of these elements makes it such that not one animal – eg mosquitoes – is in surplus. The one annoyance – mosquitoes – aren’t too much of a problem, and when they do come around, it’s usually at day break and at sunset. If in the living room during these times, turn on the ceiling fan for better air circulation. At night, dim the lights to avoid attracting too many bugs
Eating and Drinking!
- Drinking water , Some of the houses has a very good filter system and others doesn’t, is better if we get bottle water to drink. Outside of the house (eg restaurants), usually the water is potable but play it safe by ordering bottled water or bringing refilled bottles from the Better yet, enjoy a na”
- “Cooking For those who plan to cook, we have most basic cooking tools It’s hard to give an exhaustive list or description of what you get at our supermarket. Maybe the best way is to say that our supermarket will carry what a small town, small grocery store would carry in North America. You won’t find five varieties of balsamic vinegar, but you’ll find one. You won’t find 20 kinds of pastas, but you’ll find spaghetti or macaroni. You will find a good variety of spices. The are only alimited variety of cheeses. You will usually find fresh parmesan and maybe one blue cheese, but maybe not. Have a look when you get here, and most cooks will find most of what they need. The main thing is to use the seafood shop in front of La Macha Restaurant. It’s down the road to the coast highway in Dominicalito or at Johnny’s that is the next entrance after Villas Rio Mar. They have a variety of fresh seafood. Normally, you will find sea bass (corvina), tuna (atun), marlin (marlin), redsnapper (pargorojo), mahi-mahi (dorado), and various sized shrimp (camarones), and occasionally snook (robalo), and other varieties (yes, write these names down before making the trip down). If you like meaty, non-fishy fish, stick to tuna and marlin. The mahi‐mahi tends to bemore fishy and abit bland (wedon’t particularly like it). Snapper is more subtle. The shrimp are quite good, and the medium shrimp are the best value. The Jumbo shrimp fetch North America prices, but what the heck… you’re on holiday.
- Should you happen to be here early on Saturday, go to the Uvita Farmer’s Market It’s at the main junction of Uvita, and turn right. You’ll see an indoor small soccer field on the immediate right, and it’s right there.There’s agreat variety of seasonal, organically grown vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs, and cheeses. There is usually a German man selling smoked sausages (great for beer). There are also crafts people selling chocolates, essential oils, candles, and a whole lot of other neat things. Now we have a Farmes Market in Dominical on Sunday’s and in Tinamastes on Tuesdays.
- Besides seafood, we like the pork and We think it’s better quality and taste than back home. Probably, they use less chemicals and stuff. We’re not big fans of the beef. In Costa Rica, probably due to storage conditions, they don’t age beef very well. That said, they do carry steaks in the grocery store, and you can ask for the lomito (filet mignon), or Delmonico (rib eye), or just see what they have.
- Wine and liquor Wine: limited but not bad. There is a wine available at all larger supermarkets. Generally, we stick to Chilean and Argentine wines, but there is also a nice offering of Australian and South African wines. Of course, California wines are also available but we get sticker shock and don’t think it’s good value for the money. Like anywhere, there is generally a correlation between quality and price. To be safe and get decent value, you can try the “Casillero del Diablo” wines (found in the U.S. also). For reds, we like the “Palo Alto” or “Terra Andino”. Wegenerally chill even the red wines a bit. You can usually get a Spanish sparkling wine called Freixenet. Costa Rica only makes sweet fruit kinds of wines (kind of like Japanese plum wines). “
- “Liquor: Costa Rica does make a national liquor called “Guaro” under the Cacique brand It’s an “aguardiente”, distilled from sugar cane, similar to Brazilian “cachasa”. You can use it to make brazilian caipirinhas ‐‐ lots of lime wedges mashed in the glass with sugar syrup and ice. Finally, the Nicaraguan rum “Flor de Cana” is world renown and readily available. It comes in 5, 7, 12 and 20 year old aged versions. Highly recommended for rum fans. Besides that, you’ll find a decent variety of vodkas and whiskies. Gin is sometimes not available. Beer is pretty much the liquor of choice around here. We recommend the two major national brands – Imperial and Pilsen. They are similar, but Pilsen is a bit more hoppy and bitter. Either is much more flavorful than the American standard beers. If you like a darker beer, try Bavaria Dark.
Pre‐arrival packing list
The villas is pretty much self‐contained for linens, towels, furniture and accessories, pillows, cooking supplies, soap and shampoo (for the first day), and other items. That said here are some tips for packing.
- If you are only coming to Dominical, you are basically packing for the beach. Plus, since we wash your clothes twice during your stay, you really can get by with very little. The temperature is ideal all year round, and no one gets dressed up much around here. Simply bring lots of shorts, short sleeved shirts (t‐shirts or polo shirts), and light dresses or skirts. Even at the “nicer” restaurants, no one arrives with much more than short sand flip flops. But that’s Dominical… and that’s part of the charm. You will pretty much not need or use long pants or sweaters. If you go to San Jose, that’s a different matter. San Jose is cooler in the evenings, and since it is a city, locals never wear shorts or beach wear. For San Jose, pack long pants, dresses/skirts, and a light sweater or long sleeve shirts.
- Bring Teva‐style sandals if possible. Flip flops for sure. Hiking boots, if you have them, or simple sports shoes (running shoes or walking shoes) are good for any kind of day hikes.
- You should definitely bring (or buy locally) a small, pocket umbrella. You can bring ponchos or very light, breathable rainwear, if you have those items. In our opinion, those items are uncomfortable because if you get caught in the rain,it remains warm and those items make you hot and muggy. Better yet, locals simply bring a change of clothes if they are going on an excursion or long hike (in case you get caught in the rain). You can leave those items on the tour bus and change after your hike or boat ride. Even if you get caught in the rain, it’s not that bad because it’s still a nice temperature, even in the rain. But the change of clothes keeps you comfortable on the ride back home (often in an A/C tour van… THAT gets cold).
- Other than the above, bring any kind of special toys or stuffed animals that the kids may like to make them comfortable. If you have special snacks they like, you should bring them. You can buy “basic” snacks like chips or cookies, but they may be a bit different than at home. Sun screen for the beach and when you’ll be in open sun. Especially good is the sweat and waterproof variety (but not for use in the pool, as noted above).