“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods
Playa Burica was our first Adventure Colony and this is the story of how it came to be.
We spotted Playa Burica on a map of Panama and it looked like it had the makings of an ideal place.
We were looking to buy remote property where we could get away from it all. We wanted our own private retreat and we had heard from others that the Burica Peninsula could be the exact type of place we were looking for.
We decided we would get out there as soon as we could get the preliminary information together.
The Burica peninsula: home of wide open spaces.
A few weeks later I had a chance encounter on a plane with a crazy American guy. It turned out he had bought some property on the same peninsula where Playa Burica is now located.
I jumped at the chance to learn about the area.
He was so animated about how cool the area was and couldn’t tell me enough about what to expect.
He had already told me that there was no road to the end of the peninsula.
“How do people get out to the end if there is no road?” I said.
“They drive down beach at low tide. You have to be careful though, because if you get stuck in the sand your car will get destroyed by the ocean when the tide comes back up,” he said.
“People live out there?” I asked.
“Yeah, there is a little village, a little school, there is even a bus.” (We later found out the “bus” was a full size pick-up where everyone piled in the back.)
Morning sunrise in Burica.
This piqued my interest because if people couldn’t get out to the end easily maybe there was an opportunity to be discovered.
He also said that the area in general is one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen and mentioned one other piece of information that stuck out.
“The sun rises out of the water like on the east coast; it has to be one of the only places on the west coast where that happens. There are some places in the mountains there where you can watch the sunrise out of the ocean in the morning in the east and from the same place watch the sun set into the ocean on the west side.”
I was intrigued and couldn’t wait to get out there to see what it was like for myself.
During the ensuing months we covered the area, from driving the long beaches on the Costa Rica side, to hiring boats to circumnavigate the peninsula, to hiking through the jungles.
We had confirmed our suspicion. It was the perfect escape for us. We found great options for surfing, fishing, hiking, and other daily adventures from island trips to waterfall hikes.
We narrowed down a stretch of the coast that we thought had the right balance of access, beach front, and usable land.
We had also discovered that the government was about to put in a road all the way to the end. It looked like this area’s inaccessibility was about to change now that there would be a new road.
Now we needed a structure so that we could spend more time out there and not have to bring so many supplies. What we ended up building was the first cabana (which we’ll talk more about later) and it was the perfect structure for hanging out a few weeks at a time.
With a place to stay we started spending much more time in Burica. It became our escape and we would go out there any time we had a chance.
We now had a caretaker, so planning a trip out to Burica was easy. Just make a call to him first and the cabana would magically be set up and ready to go as if we never left, coconuts and all. (By the way, every client of ours can set up a similar arrangement.)
Going to Burica became an addiction, it was so relaxing and calming to spend a week or two.
Going surfing, exploring the Costa Rican coastline, or just walking the trails of the project. The lifestyle was incredible and satisfying. There was barely anyone around and the expectation was you would be alone with only the people you brought with you.
In the jungle you don’t have to go far to see something engaging, like leaf cutter ants working on their trails or whales jumping in the distance. Everything is alive, which makes just sitting and watching an event.
After a few days you settle into the rhythms of the area, awaking with the sun, watching the daily ebb and flow of the tides, maybe seeing the red backed squirrel monkeys traverse the forest canopy in the late afternoons.
On rainy days, just sitting in the hammock and reading for hours while listening to the sound of the rain falling was all you wanted to do. It felt great. In fact, it felt incredible. It was clear that just being there made you feel good.
We started having meetings out there to discuss ideas for Viva Tropical and we always came up with really good stuff.
Great ideas happened so often that we started scheduling trips to Playa Burica when we needed a creative breakthrough.
After a few days in Playa Burica it was hard not to notice how balanced and happy you felt. It was like a magic elixir. You felt rejuvenated, happy, and ready to take on the world.
We wondered why? Was it just our affinity for the area? Was it that we were forced to slow down? Was it just the simplicity of life there?
We began to research whether or not there was a correlation to the outdoors and feeling good. It didn’t take long to stumble onto studies and people studying these exact questions.
It turns out natural environments have incredible powers over the way we feel and our health.
