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October 02, 2002
The Cabana on the Water
The
cabana
on the water is rather rustic little house that constantly
reminds you where you are,
while still being quite comfortable.
It is built in about 3 feet of water. To the east and west is coral, to the north a dock that leads to land, and to the south a little covered deck and deeper water, Everything was built on wooden posts (which have now been replaced with concrete posts). Downstairs is a storage area, a kitchen / small living room area, and lots of deck space.
Upstairs
is the
bedroom -- it's open to both
sides, so it is a good idea to sleep under a mosquito net. When it gets
too breezy, you close the curtain on the weather side, but most of the
time it's all
open. It's quite nice to have a view of the coral from your bed, and
sometimes you wake up to the sounds of dolphins exhaling water, as they
swim right by the house, and play around.
The
house is pretty rustic,
built traditional style (though
maybe a little bit more straight than usual). Most of the wood is
Laurel, milled
directly on the
finca, from dying Laurel trees that we
needed to use. The floor upstairs is Nispero, and the roof penca, the
local thatch material. The window upstairs in the thatch is for diving
in the water, and practicing kayak seal launchers.
The
kitchen is fairly complete,
with a sink, gas stove, fridge
(also gas), microwave, and, most importantly, blender. There is power
from the solar panels and backup generator setup. Running water is
supplied from a couple of tanks on the hill, so the pressure is pretty
good. The shower is, of course, cold, but that is actually quite nice
in this kind of climate.
One nice thing about living on the water is that you can just through your organic trash out the window, and the fish will eat it. It's actually quite entertaining to watch them eat and grow. Barry the Barracuda has grown from unnoticeable to almost 2 feet by now.
It is quite surreal to have
internet access in such a place -- with
the help of a (in the picture, mounted for temporary use...)
directional anternna and MoviStar.
I never get tired of the views from the house - in the mornings, the sun casts a magical light onto the rainforest across the bay, perfect reflections at night are not uncommon here, and sunsets can be spectacular.
Posted by rick at 01:04 PM | Comments (0)