CITY Issue 55 - (Page 76) FIRST LOOK COSTA UTOPIA Proud cowboys and bikini-clad tourists make odd bedfellows on Costa Rica’s booming coast of Guanacaste. But at least for the time being, Amy Thomas learns, there’s still room for both. I t’s pronounced Gwan-a-kah-staah. Remember the name, because you’ll soon sta t hea ing it eve ywhe e. p ovince tucked in no thweste n Costa Rica, Guanacaste has al eady been dubbed the next gold coast of t avel, with the ho des of sun-kissed beachcombe s, sno kele s, and su fe s still outnumbe ed by the const uction wo ke s busy azing and developing the a ea’s sc uffy hillsides. Just how well unde way is the boom? nd is all the fuss and hype wo th it? I hopped a plane to fi nd out. When local Libe ia ai po t began se vicing inte national fl ights in , the development jumpsta ted. Indeed, at the fi st t affic light out of the ai po t — in fact, the only one I saw in fou days — ou d ive pointed out that they now have a Bu ge King (I apologized.) But leaving the congestion of the p ovince’s capital behind, the landscape mellows. The ickety wooden homes smashed up against spa kling new stucco shopping plazas open into b ittle fields of oaming cows and ho ses. Dusty b owns and golden yellows get occasional bu sts of g een f om the a ea’s namesake t ees. Da k silhouettes of volcanoes and mountains — pa t of the ndean-Sie a Mad e chain — loom to the east, catching billowy clouds and sending wa m, d y winds westwa d. This is Costa Rica, but Guanacaste doesn’t display any signs of Technicolo wildlife o ta p-sized flo a you’d expect f om a count y enowned fo its t opical ainfo ests. Guanacaste is cowboy count y. Instead of jagua s, sloths, and b ight-billed toucans, you get cattle anches, saddled studs, and the occasional vultu e. Lately, howeve , Guanacaste stands fo something else: luxu y t avel. Designated a p io ity a ea fo development by Costa Rica’s gove nment in the late CITY 76 TY ’ s, bungalows and eso ts of va ying sizes and st ipes have long dotted the beaches. It’s only ecently, though, that the calibe of options has caused wellheeled globet otte s to bat an eye. Rec eo, a -ac e compound of p ivate villas, just opened in Janua y about miles no th of the five-sta Fou Seasons. Hyatt debuts esidences, a hotel, a golf cou se, and a spa late this yea , followed by the Manda in O iental in , and OL co-founde Steve Case’s luxu y eso t, Cacique, in . The two-lane oad leading to this Pacific Coast st etch d amatizes the mad pace of t ansfo mation. Billboa d a e billboa d bullets the sky, adve tising the newest gated community, the most luxu ious beachside eso t, the next must-have piece of the action. Get dist acted by all the signs and you’ll miss the d y, open savanna and miles of cantaloupe fields. Costa Rica sees ove . million tou ists eve y yea , gene ating mo e income than any othe indust y, including bananas. Owing to its social and political eco d — the nation was the fi st eve to abolish the a my (in ), it won a Nobel Peace P ize (in ), and aims to be the fi st ca bon-neut al count y (by ) — it’s a destination that’s exotic, yet not intimidating. So while Costa Rica has been on the ada of beach bums and bi d watche s fo yea s, the development of Guanacaste’s sho eline is shi ing the spotlight away f om lush jungles to landscaped et eats. To see how b ightly the gold coast spa kles, we d ove to the Papagayo Peninsula to peek at its c own jewel: the Fou Seasons. It was no small feat. s is the no m with these new developments, it’s a gated enclave, and the secu ity was not joking a ound. We we e told we needed to call ahead hou s to see PHOTOGRAPHY BY AARON ALDEN
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