If it’s billionaire CEO buyers you want, get close to their personal shoppers. Ross Perot Jr.’s Fort Worth-based Hillwood owns 13 prime, half-acre, beachfront lots in the über-exclusive enclave of Peninsula Papagayo, located in a dry tropical forest on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. So the company recently fueled up its private jet and whisked top local Realtors Ellen Terry, Virginia Cook, and Dave Perry-Miller-and one ink-stained scribe, yours truly-to Costa Rica for a look-see.
WEDNESDAY, 9 a.m.
No need to get to the airport two hours early. Just drive to Dallas Love Field, turn in your passport number, and get wheels-up in Hillwood’s $45 million G450, the Bentley of air limos.
12:30 p.m. Set your watches back an hour and land at the small Liberia (Costa Rica) International airport. It’s cooled by enormous ceiling fans and is known for its extra-long runway built by Oliver North during the Iran-Contra affair. We sail through customs and meet the Peninsula Papagayo car, which is waiting with refreshments for our 45-minute drive to the Four Seasons resort.
1:30 p.m. The Four Seasons greets us with cold, citrus-scented washcloths and native berry drinks. The golfers among us have a 2 p.m. tee time; greens fees for resort guests: $185. Non-golfers unpack in our three-bedroom suites complete with kitchen, study, and laundry. Typical cost per night: about $3,000. Meet up at 3 p.m. for a golf-cart tour of the completed Arnold Palmer Signature golf course that’s planted with Seashore Paspalum, a grass hybrid intended to make courses more “green.”
THURSDAY, 4 a.m.
I awaken to a guttural, blood-curdling sound and think King Kong is outside my open window. Instead, it’s just my wake-up call by Costa Rica’s famous “howler” monkeys.
8:30 a.m. The water is clean, the beaches pristine on our coastal boat tour. We visit the site of the new Marina Papagayo, which is abuzz with construction. Thirty million dollars has already been sunk into Papagayo, an in-progress, 382-slip luxury marina that will cater to 225-foot mega-yachts.
11:15 a.m. We tour the Peninsula Papagayo communication center, and learn it has a security backbone rivaling the Pentagon: 250 hidden cameras, a fiber-optics network, a firefighting department that trained at Texas A&M. You wonder if Ollie North is still around.
12 p.m. A quick peek at the only condos built yet on the peninsula: they range in price from a cool $1.4 million to $2.5 million. Then we traverse a few lots (about $2 million per acre).
2 p.m. After lunch, we head for a hard-hat tour of the Playa Prieta Beach Club, which is 85 percent complete. Its 38,000 square feet include spa and exercise rooms, plus open-air massage rooms and rainfall showers.
3 p.m. We’re driven to the site of Hillwood’s primo lots. We walk them from one end to the other, winding up on the half-acre crowning glory-it’s listed for $5.6 million-then dip our feet into the swirling surf as the sunset paints the western sky. The agents are texting their clients already.
FRIDAY, 8:30 a.m. Peninsula Papagayo boasts a team of full-time adventure experts who can get you off your lazy, vacationing butt to experience the rain forest, mangroves, and beaches; Susan Powter meets The Crocodile Hunter. Our adventure du jour: stand-up surfing and paddling an outrigger canoe.
2:00 p.m. Showered, packed, and ready, we take off for Dallas in the G450, leaving the Costa Rican high life behind.
