Sales price: $1.390.000 FEATURES: Location: San Ramón, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. Bedrooms: 5. Bathrooms: 5.5. Construction area: 650 m2 Lot size: 69 acres (28 hectares) Large courtyard with two fountains. Numerous terraces and porches with Pacific Ocean views. Ample kitchen. Formal dining room. Swimming pool A secluded world of 69 forested acres. Annual Property Tax: USD$862.00 A perfect place for family events, a getaway with friends, small corporate retreats, spas, des-intoxication clinic, Eco lodge, wellness community, family retreat, etc. DESCRIPTION: A splendid 69-acres Costa Rica estate & farm for sale with an architecturally stupendous 5 bedroom house located in the central mountains of Costa Rica overlooking the Pacific Ocean conveniently just outside the Central Valley. This property is an easy drive to San Ramon, San Jose, and the Juan Santamaria Airport. The area serves for unsurpassed hiking, biking, bird watching, and horseback riding. Unique features include owning your own secluded mountain valley with a superb mountain climate and a palatial colonial-style building with breathtaking ocean views just 37 miles from the Juan Santamaria airport near San Jose. The property is secluded and secure, yet only 37 miles from the Juan Santamaría International Airport outside the capital San Jose, centrally located in the mountains near the City of San Ramon, Alajuela Province, overlooking the Port of Puntarenas, Nicoya Peninsula, and the Pacific Ocean. The private nature preserve boasts a Mediterranean climate and breathtaking view of the Pacific and Nicoya Peninsula. The property land area includes a substantial forest, freshwater springs, trails, a creek, and a mountaintop. This is a piece of paradise. The property uses wind power for electricity, maintains its own organic vegetable and fruit tree plantings, conserves energy and resources, and engages in local reforestation and nature preservation. DISTRIBUTION: Magnificent construction completed in 2004 with 5 bedrooms, all with their own bath. Some of these rooms could be converted to an office, play room, etc. Two of the bedrooms are extremely large and nice, one located in the tower with incredible views. There is a large living room with cathedral ceilings, balcony, handcrafted windows, and fireplace, a formal dining room and an extremely large, professional kitchen. The house has an area for laundry that also acts as a guard’s quarters, as well as a public/employee bathroom and a utility room. The property has also a storage room. ADDITIONAL DETALS: Water is provided by 5 underground springs that flow down the mountain. Even at the highest point of the dry season we have reliable water supply. The pool has a separate underground source that provides plenty of water. Cerro Coyote is the highest mountain in the area and has the greatest supply of water. Architectural influence: Moorish, Arabic details, and a lot of architecture in Spain. The large courtyard Khatim or eight pointed star fountain is beautiful. The eight pointed star began to appear in Islamic art in the middle Ages. It is referred to as khatim or khatim-sulayman, meaning "seal of the prophets". ... These stars are known to denote life, from birth to death. There are 4 horse stables. There is a fenced in pasture for the horses. It is about 3 acres on a hillside which horses can easily manage. The stalls are small and good for feeding hay or grain if required. The horses could not lie down in the stalls. There is a trough for water. The tube for the trough is connected to one of the streams, so there is constant flow. The reason for the Muhedar design elements in the casa is because the former owners have a villa in Grenada which overlooks the Alhambra. Connected to the Alhambra is the summer palace of the King and Queen of Spain. Cerro Coyote is a smaller version of the summer palace. The kitchen is a full commercial kitchen filled with All Clad cookware, 10 burner commercial stoves, and 4 sinks. There are three same sized guest rooms on the first floor, the owner’s suite opening to two balconies on the second floor and the guest tower. A new owner could choose to sleep in one of the guest rooms if so desired. San Ramon is a great location. We have easy access to Escazu and other nice places near San Jose. The property is one hour from the airport and there is good access to the beaches of the Central Pacific or Guanacaste. San Ramon is an authentic Costa Rican town that is uncrowded and manageable with a good hospital and university. It is the City of Presidents and Poets as more Costa Rican Presidents are from San Ramon and the town pursued literacy during its settlement. SAN RAMON & VICINITY San Ramón’s history begins with the arrival of the European settlers in this part of the central valley in the early 1840’s. These primary colonizers established traditional farms in the area, many of which are are either still operational or have since been converted to the cultivation of the region's three main export crops: Tropical ornamentals, sugar cane, and coffee. The name San Ramón was bestowed by two prominent figures in the establishment of the town, Ramon Solís and Ramon Rodriguez who placed the area under the protection of Saint Raymond. In 1854 the village of San Ramón de los Palmares was elevated in status to municipality then, in 1856, five schools were funded which was the beginning of the Municipality of San Ramón's legacy as the main educational, and later commercial, hub of the canton. Since 1876 San Ramón has also served as the governmental center of Alajuela Province's second largest district which is also named San Ramón. Despite the low latitude position of San Ramón, the temperatures tend to be very mild year-round: 21-27 C (70-80 F). This is largely due to the city's altitude of 1,057 m (3,468 ft.) above sea level. June through October is considered the rainy or "Green" season with November to May considered the "dry season." Diurnal periods are very predictable due to Costa Rica's low North latitude: The sun rises in San Ramon by about 05:45 and sets at 18:30 with very little variation throughout the year. This regular cycle is further evident in the precipitation patterns, particularly during the rainy season. As the morning sun rises, air which is already moist due to a certain amount of orographic lift being added by the Pacific Ocean, is further loaded by evapotranspiration wherein water drawn from the ground by plants and trees is transpired into the atmosphere. This leads to a relatively consistent pattern of mostly dry mornings followed by rains in the afternoon, usually beginning around 14:00. Rains can last for a short period, or for several hours, and there is a seemingly equal chance that there will either be a downpour or a drizzle. Evenings can be cooler than one might expect due to altitude, and cooler still in the evenings following a rain event. The Natural History of Cerro Coyote: A 70-acre Private Costa Rica Nature Preserve The Cerro Coyote preserve encompasses approximately 70 acres on the upper Pacific slope near the Continental Divide in the Cordillera de Tilarán of northwestern Costa Rica, including one of the final, most northwesterly mountaintops in the chain. Elevations are between approximately 1200 and 1400 meters in altitude. The Preserve is typical of the Tilarán, with steep slopes and deep valleys on both sides of the mountain. Cerro Coyote (Coyote Mountain) serves as a water source and watershed for the Rio Barranca, which flows into the Gulf of Nicoya not far from Puntarenas. The Preserve straddles both the Pacific and Caribbean sides, thereby encompassing different life zones. Cerro Coyote’s climate is similar to other upper Pacific montane areas, such as the famous Monteverde reserve, which lies just north about 15 miles as the crow flies. The climate is mild—almost Mediterranean—with montane temperature patterns, seasonal rainfall mostly in the Costa Rican "winter" (May to mid November), and powerful northeast trade winds. These winds—called "alisios"—are usually at their strongest in December, diminishing in intensity through April. During the rainy season (May-October), these winds are blocked by warm air masses that develop over the Pacific slope of which the Preserve is a part, resulting in calm air and rain. During the dry season, the alisios drive moist air from the Caribbean inland and up the mountain slopes, where the air cools and clouds form. These clouds produce regular rain on the Caribbean-facing slopes resulting in the cloud forest environment in places like nearby Piedades Norte, Cerro Azahar, and Los Angeles. The clouds and mists sometimes get as far as the lower Cerro Coyote Preserve, and often a stream of clouds passes through an east-west wind alley just to the north of Cerro Coyote, where clouds hit the much drier Pacific slope and then suddenly disappear. The top of Cerro Coyote is windy and cloudy more than other parts of the preserve, resulting in a small section of wind swept elfin forest on the exposed Atlantic side, which is Tropical Lower Montane Wet Forest. The rest of the forest here is Tropical Premontane Wet Forest. Both areas have abundant epiphytic life, including ferns, bromeliads, and orchids. Some larger trees are buttressed. The climate here is intermediate between Caribbean and Pacific. During December and January, the trade winds are sometimes joined by cold fronts, resulting in extremely strong winds and cold temperatures, especially at night. These winds often blow down trees or rip off branches or leaves. Below the top of the mountain forested areas are mostly Tropical Premontane Moist Forest, with more lush areas following the creek and spring areas in the valleys. Epiphytic life is less common than at the top of the mountain. Bird and animal life generally increases in diversity around the creeks and springs, especially in valleys sheltered from the wind during the dry season. Just over the other side of Cerro Coyote, the Caribbean weather pattern predominates. In general, the Caribbean side of the Tilarán Mountains receives twice as much rain as the Pacific slope. This results in a much more lush type of forest. Generally, the lower down on the Pacific side, the climate becomes drier and more seasonal. It is often cloudy and misty in Piedades Sur or San Ramon, while being dry and sunny at Cerro Coyote. These communities have extensive cloud forest areas that can easily be visited from Cerro Coyote. The rocks and soils of the Cordillera de Tilarán were formed 2-65 million years ago, with most of the surface rocks being relatively young (about 2-5 million years). Soil types include rhyolite, which looks like a light gray sand and was formed by volcanic extrusion; dark colored volcanic soils rich in organic matter from eroded ash and rock deposits; and eroded areas, especially on steeper slopes, that display heavy red-orange clay that is low in fertility. The Cerro Coyote Preserve includes three broad life zones: highly seasonal (dry-wet) forest on the Pacific slope; cloud forest on the mountaintop; and wet rain forest on the Caribbean side (up and over the mountaintop). In addition there are open, savanna-like areas of the Pacific slope sparsely populated with trees that were formerly used for pasture. Many of these areas are being reforested, or being allowed to return to a natural state of forest creation and succession.