Jungle Real Estate
I remember the beginning like it was yesterday, helping a surfer from California buy a property here in the Osa Peninsula near a local surf break. I wasn’t in the real estate business at the time but there was no-one else around to help him. So over a few cervezas he persuaded me to figure it out, then left the next day and would anxiously wait for me to contact him. I had already bought property myself in Osa and prior to that in Zancudo and Pavones in the late 80’s so I already had some understanding of how it worked. I recruited a local lawyer, a topographer and consulted the institutions in Golfito and San Jose, did the due diligence and closed the deal on his behalf with a power of attorney. So it was a grass roots thing, dawning on me that I could provide a good service and make a buck in the jungle. Osa Land Office was born.
There were no homes for sale back then, only land…hence the name. I barely had a telephone in those days, paid someone $600 for their analog phone line because there weren’t any new land lines available. I rented a small room in town for a fax machine and would check it a couple times a week when I came in for supplies. My P.O. Box was #8. Puerto Jimenez ran on diesel generator. The access road out to the Pan Am Highway was 4 wheel drive only, three hours of dodging waist deep mud holes. It was 1990 but it seemed like 1950. I was just starting to build Iguana Lodge out on Platanares beach, my own project and the reason I came to live here in Osa.
