Welcome to Villa Ballena

I’m Jon Lundberg, a retired Navy Captain, state Senator from Tennessee and current businessman.  Lisa’s a real estate agent who works for Berkshire Hathaway.  Together, we have two grown “children” Sam (Samantha) and Nelson and a future son-in-law, ironically, named Jon.

We’ve both had the opportunity to travel extensively.  From across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia.  Central America had never been on my radar (or Lisa’s) until a friend mentioned Costa Rica.

That piqued my interest, and I started doing some research.  Stable government, safe country, high literacy rate…  bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east.  Compared to most places, it’s a tiny country – about the size of West Virginia.  And, while it has only .03% of the planet’s land mass, this tiny country contains 5% of the world’s biodiversity.

So, in the early 2000’s my son and I opted to fly down and drive around the country and down the pacific coast.  We began in Tamarindo – in the northwest part of the country and eventually ended up in Drake Bay (the far southwest).

Indeed, we found the country to be beautiful and the people incredibly friendly.  It was challenging at times.  Aside from the major interstate, there are no road signs and the roads (especially at the time) were really poorly maintained.  Anyway, we saw the rainforest, a volcano, went zip lining, scuba diving, saw monkeys, toucans and all sorts of wildlife and waterfalls almost everywhere.

During our drive, we realized there was one area we particularly enjoyed.  It was near three towns.  The northern town was Dominical – a surfer’s haven, Uvita  and Ojochal, believe it or not, a town known for its cuisine!

Then, I invited my wife, Lisa and our daughter Sam to tour the area.  Well, my wife took a little convincing.  You see it’s not your typical destination.  If you’re looking for a vacation with lots of shopping or visiting various historical sites – Costa Rica probably isn’t your vacation spot.

We purchased a home in Ojochal and absolutely loved it.  We’d go down three or four times a year and learned more about the country and area every time.  Frankly, also found out we enjoyed it more every time we visited.  Several years later, real estate prices took a major jump – we sold our house.  While that worked out for us, we missed our time and the people there.  It took us a number of years, but we finally found Villa Ballena in the beach town of Uvita – known for the iconic “Whale’s Tail” that truly brands the southern zone of Costa Rica.

Villa Ballena had a view like no other property we had ever seen.  The three bedrooms were separated, so everyone had their own living area.  And the house had a huge covered outdoor space.  Our entire family came down and we all knew this was the place.  We hope you enjoy the house, the region and Costa Rica as much as we do.

Pura vida.