Kasiiya Papagayo, Costa Rica – The Fathomless Purity of Nature and free diving in the Big Blue
By Simon Heyes
“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” John Ruskin
We awoke at Kasiiya to dawn breaking – endless sky and sea beyond the nearby canopy of protective trees – and tea accompanied by handwritten quotes from Ruskin and Muir. It felt like they were here with us, writing those words, drinking in this view and the sky from this beautiful private place tucked high and entirely hidden above waves crashing far below on the wild Portuguese beach.
Touches abound at this special small hotel that sits lightly in its spectacular environment of pristine beaches and dry tropical forest. Built not to compete with or distract from nature but to frame and celebrate it – because nature simply cannot be improved upon and shouldn’t be disturbed. And because through nature and improving our connection to it we can slow down and remember what’s important. This is a hotel that calms, inspires, breathes; that allows, encourages (and even celebrates) its guests to forget about time.
Only 40 minutes from Liberia international airport but a world apart, Kasiiya – find your pace – is a most unusual and very pleasing place. OK, English understatement; it completely blew me away and it did so ever so gently, peacefully, like the caress of waves lapping the picture-perfect beach.
For now just five (yes only 5) incredible – low impact, solar run – tented rooms are scattered around an impossibly beautiful Pacific Coast peninsula. There is a deep quality of design here, simplicity achieved and absence of forced narrative as well as a careful, crafted use of wood and natural materials. Add into the mix space and privacy, plus unusual activities and experiences like movement and free diving (read on) – as well as forest hikes, snorkeling, kayaking and SUP. Season with delicious unpretentious cuisine, and a spa space tucked away via a drawbridge in the forest offering high-quality treatments and healing. All this combines to rare effect.
Amongst the many experiences offered, learning to free dive immediately caught my eye. Cue youthful 80s memories of the Big Blue, of Enzo and Jaques. Free dive, really?! Well yes… in beautiful, warm, blue Pacific waters – you can start to learn to hold your breath underwater. I am a keen swimmer yet always felt nervous holding my breath underwater for long. It seemed like a superpower that friends in Brazil possessed but I simply didn’t. In fact, like most things in life it turns out it’s something you can learn. Bruno, the movement and free diving coach, at Kasiiya has an ear infection so we are tutored on the basics of free diving by Siberian free diver Catarina, who explains breathing techniques (deep belly breathing and oxygen loading) and relaxation. 20% of our oxygen needs comes from the brain despite it being only 2% of our body – if we can learn to calm our thoughts, entering a near meditative state, then we use less. Armed with this theory – as well as the revelation that our carbon-dioxide panic impulse to breathe is a false or better put early one and that oxygen levels only decrease relatively slowly – we head to the boat and out to our dive spot. Four of us hanging onto a floating ring from which a rope descends, it’s time to try to put theory into practice. There’s no obsession with how long you stay down, or how deep you go. Dive when you are ready, come back up when you feel like it.
Without exactly knowing why, or fully understanding the appeal, I quickly find I’m hooked. You have to love water, of course, and feel comfortable in it, then well, just jump in and see. It seems a strange addiction, repeatedly pulling myself down a rope to the sea bed, nose-pinching equalising as I go. Is it to see abundant marine life – Punta Gorda right in front of Kasiiya is one of Costa Rica’s top snorkeling spots – without the palaver of tanks and hose? To push your boundaries, to tackle and push beyond a fear perhaps? Those are all good reasons and part of it but no, the real reason I keep going down – long after everyone else has got out with wrinkly fingers and wait patiently in the boat for me – is an extraordinary feeling of peace and silence. Somehow, where breath is absent, time and memory are altered, suspended, and uncomplicated being floods in. Or something like that. Mostly when I surface I have to be reminded by Catarina to breathe-Simon-breathe, an almost total absence of that carbon-dioxide panic. To be fair though, it wasn’t all Zen enlightenment – one time after a breakthrough dive – and aware of my companions watching cold beer in hand – I broke the surface of the water like a white whale breaching (we actually saw a humpback do this one day from the breakfast table), laughing and simultaneously punching the air with a shout of “Mammalian Dive Reflex!” (NB The fascinating effect of water on our physiology – a vestige from our ocean living days – is also known as The Master Switch of Life).
You’ll scoff and think that I am stretching my marketing powers too far to suggest that Kasiiya the hotel does the same as free diving or meditation, but it’s too tempting a connection to ignore, for me it really does. It looks beyond the conventional and mundane to create a space and feeling that encourages optional introspection and re-inspiration. Yet it’s also an unpretentious maverick that like its design doesn’t take itself too seriously. Full of soul but lighthearted.
Make of my meandering musings what you will. For the lucky, Kasiiya provides the picture-perfect tropical private beach retreat. For families or couples alike; for lovers of nature and forest; for thalassophiles, sun worshippers and beach bums; for design aficionados, and searchers of secluded, serene spas – Come All, for Costa Rica beckons.
http://www.senderos.co.uk/en/partnerships/kasiiya-papagayo.php
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