Postcard from Playa Pelada
We hadn’t spent too much time at Playa Pelada (a short walk from the well worth an afternoon, and great for sunsets. It seems to be mostly secluded on weekdays and busier on weekends.
Surf SurvivalCosta Rica
Just over a week until our second annual Surf Survival Camp at the Harmony Hotel. Another beat down story that happened near our own back yard. I was in Costa Rica for the first time, having traveled there alone. I was staying in Tamarindo and caught a boat ride over to Playa Grande. From the […]
Postcard from Playa Ostional
We just missed the turtles nesting on this black sand beach, but an afternoon tropical torrential downpour. It seems like the region is having so much more rain this year than last in late July. No complaints, of course.
Surf SurvivalNicaragua
Still time to sign up for the Harmony Hotel’s Surf Survival Camp that begins August 3. Another great beat down story from the contest. This past October in Nicaragua I had an experience that will stay with me forever, literally! It was early morning & the surface was already choppy with menacing clouds overhead. Even […]
Surf Survival: Winner!
Reading through the entries for our Surf Survival Contest is reassuring reading for anyone who’s ever gotten an ass kicking in the ocean. We received so many great beat down stories from Australia to Chicago (yes, people do surf Lake Michigan!). Though our contest ended this week (meet the winner we pulled out of a […]
Surf SurvivalSan Diego
A great entry in our Surf Survival Camp Contest: Recently in San Diego, two dolphins appeared through a glass walled wave heading straight for me. No way to duck dive the six foot wave in fear of colliding with the dolphins who had just dove a little deeper to just grazing level I had to […]
Surf Survival: A Boot Camp for Aspiring Watermen
ER Doc and author, Andrew Nathanson, tells the Harmony Blog about the surfing injury that inspired him to write a book on how to survive fin cuts, sting ray barbs to the shin and related big wave beat downs that can come with surfing. Andrew Nathanson, an ER doctor and avid waterman, is probably […]
Michael Gaillard (Harmony Artist-In-Residence)
The work in this installment represents some more experimental work I did during my stay. I use the word experimental to signify their incompleteness rather than in relation to their relative novelty. I see the abstractions as drawings or sketches to be readdressed within my studio and repurposed within the context of their eventual exhibition […]
Michael Gaillard (Harmony Artist-In-Residence)
Below are some more of the images taken during my residency at the Harmony, once again, all of these images were taken with my 8×10 film camera.
Michael Gaillard (Harmony Artist-In-Residence)
Glimpses of Costa Rica, as seen through the lens of my 8×10 camera (please click on a thumbnail to load the slideshow)…
Michael Gaillard (Harmony Artist-In-Residence)
Here are some images from the rodeo/fiesta in the town of Nosara, a few kilometers inland from Playa Guiones where the hotel is located. This is a five-night event, and the entire local population, children and adults alike, Ticos (locals), ex-pats, and tourists, all look forward to the event with great anticipation. I decided to […]
Michael Gaillard
The Harmony Hotel’s first Artist in Residence talks with the Harmony Blog about his work past and present. Artist Michael Gaillard is grappling with too many names. For over a decade now, he has produced photographs of Nantucket landscapes as “Michael Gaillard,” while making a separate, more conceptually driven body of work under his New […]
The Good Farmer
Fashion designer turned farmer, Christopher Totman, returned to his family farm in Western Massachusetts and then created a farm-to-table program for The Harmony Hotel. It was 2008, and Christopher Totman was asking himself the harder questions. â??Where are you the happiest?â? And: â??Why is it so difficult to do what makes you the happiest?â? At […]
Support Nosara’s New Recycling Center
Nosara’s new Recycling Center got off to a good start in summer 2012. Now the students hope to return to Costa Rica to complete it. Architect Tobias Holler explains how you can help on their new Kickstarter campaign: This past summer my absolute favorite building project, the Nosara Recycling and Education Center, made a huge […]
Surf Survival Camp
Yesterday Lauren blogged about the great waves you’ll find in Nosara. Today, we’re telling you how to survive them no matter how big: go to the Harmony Hotel‘s first Surf Survival Camp with the Dr. Andrew Nathanson, author of last year’s best selling book, Surf Survival! You’ll learn how to handle a lot more than […]
“Next Stop:” Nosara
Writer Bonnie Tsui reports on her recent trip to Nosara in the “Next Stop” column of the New York Times‘s Travel section. The article mostly focuses on the surf schools, and her experiences: During a week in Nosara surfing with Mr. Hill and his crew, I became a bit of a surf nerd, learning the finer […]
The Annual New York Times Latin America Travel Section
Last weekend the New York Times published its annual issue featuring Latin American getaways. It includes stories on Managua, Nicaragua; Bogotá, Colombia; food destinations in Mexico City—not in Latin America, I know!—and Buenos Aires; and more. Most relevant to readers of this site, however, is an article on Chile’s surf coast. From that last story: About […]
Earthquake News from Voz de Nosara
We’re grateful to the Voz de Nosara for updates about last week’s earthquake. More news from the Costa Rican Red Cross here.
The Very Bad Wizards Podcast
One of our goals for the Philosophy in Residence program was to finally launch the podcast series that we had been developing this past year. From the beginning, Dave and I loved the idea of presenting accessible and (hopefully) entertaining discussions about the central issues in science and ethics. But we had a problem: neither […]
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Become a Philosopher-in-Residence
Why would the Harmony Hotel care about what a philosopher and a psychologist have to say about ethics? It’s a question I kept asking myself well into my visit to the beautiful and peaceful property last week with Tamler Sommers. Tamler (the philosopher) and I (the psychologist) had both been invited to stay for a […]
Nosara’s New Recycling Center
Architecture students from New York Institute of Technology collaborate with locals in Costa Rica to build a sustainable recycling center. The main waste-disposal site in Nosara, Costa Rica, lies at the end of a dusty roadway aptly nicknamed “dump road” by locals. There, jungle gives way to a clearing in a small valley. The full […]
Study Suggests Leatherback Turtle Decline
From Yale Environment 360: A warming climate could exacerbate threats facing leatherback turtle populations in the eastern Pacific Ocean, creating conditions that could trigger a 75 percent reduction in turtle numbers by the end of the century, a new study says. Even under existing conditions, turtle births ebb and flow each year, researchers say, with eggs and hatchlings […]
Web Surfing for Stories on Surfing
My blogging colleague Lauren has posted several highlights from the time we recently spent in Costa Rica. I’ve savored looking through my holiday photos, but when I need an extra shot of fantasy-getaway images, I’ve taken to looking up the “surfing” tag on travel websites. Here are a few to whet your appetite for an […]
Pura Vida Raw Foods
Pura Vida Raw Foods in Playa Guiones is a must! On a recent trip, Frankie—the owner/master chef—treated a group of us to a tasting of all of his delicious concoctions. From dehydrated pineapple chips to his signature “sushi” rolls of compressed and sliced raw organic chocolate and fruit. And good to know: the Ca$hew-Buttah Cups and […]
