In 2005, National Geographic's cover story, "Longevity: The Secrets of a Long Life," identified five places on Earth where people live much longer than average. These so-called "blue zones" include Okinawa, Sardinia, Icaria, Loma Linda, and Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula. From Tamarindo to Malpais, the Nicoya stretches over 100 miles of Pacific coastline.

Bumping along a pock-marked dirt road, we arrive in Santa Teresa one dusty evening just after sunset. As we make our way to the rental office, the dry season is on full display: every car is covered in a quarter inch of khaki brown. Shirtless and shoeless twenty-something expats litter the dusty main drag, their faces wrapped in scarves. The sleepy surf town we'd seen online looked more like Tatooine than Shangri-La.

I wondered if we'd picked the wrong place...until morning came.

Our AirBnB was a mile south, in Malpais. High on a hill, a secluded three-bedroom villa with a pool overlooking the Pacific ocean was all ours for less than a hotel on St Pete beach. The nearest property—a few hundred yards south—is Mel Gibson's home; far below the hill are private bungalows that rent for $1,200/night.

We spend our days exploring the beaches of Santa Teresa and Montezuma, then retreating to the villa with a bottle of Flor de Cana to watch the sun sink into the sea. Each night, the bark of howler monkeys, distant at first, grows alarmingly loud as the males hidden in the dense jungle below us approach our unfenced property...and then become eerily silent.

Share this Story

A Summer Saga from the Land of Ice and Fire

Decadence and Debauchery from the Roaring Twenties

May 1st, 2023

April 30th, 2023

Forty Shades of Green and Grey

Return to the mesmerizing Todos Santos

May 1^st, 2023

April 30^th, 2023