My best friend from high school announced a few years ago at our annual get-together that she and her boyfriend were selling their Toronto house and moving to Costa Rica to set up a nudist resort. She explained that they were both tired of the 9 to 5 daily grind and wanted to work for themselves. They were taking the proceeds from their house sale to buy a plot of land not far from the ocean and build a rustic getaway-from-it-all smack in the middle of nature. Where did they plan to build this resort, we asked, ignoring the bigger question of whether the targeted clientele could support an ongoing business. Well, they would figure that out when they got there, you know, tour around, see what the prices were like, and buy a plot of land they liked. I admired my friend’s idealism and spirit but was worried for her; shouldn’t they do some research first, scope out sites online? Mark Holdridge of Market Promotions must have had people like my friend in mind when he spent two years considering ways to tour a 50-mile stretch of beach on the South Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Fast forward to VRSkyTour’s Sky Tour of Costa Rica, an easy way to explore places to stay, property for sale and things to do along this segment of the coast. A combination of panoramas, photos and videos, most with external links to real estate companies, hotels and adventure travel companies, allow you to get a better feel for the area – so if you see something you like, more detailed information is just a click away.
click here to view siteI loved the detailed satellite photo on the homepage, where you can scroll 50 breathtaking miles of Costa Rica’s south Pacific coast and view over 100 VRs, grouped into Real Estate, Accommodation, and Adventure categories. The real estate includes lots for sale, such as Hills of Portalon: a satellite photo shows the available lots amidst land set aside as reserve and pasture. Twelve of the lots have virtual tours, all depicting incredibly hilly and verdant/green land with views of the ocean. Lot #3 might have been perfect for my friend, 2.54 acres for $165,000. There’s even a panorama of the quaint Quepos Airport nearby, useful knowledge if you’re wondering about accessibility. And if you’re up for some adventure, Hang Glide Costa Rica is in the area – view the movie taken aboard an ultra light aircraft.
A quick search on Google shows that my friend will have lots of expat company in Costa Rica; it seems that thousands of North Americans have discovered that real estate is a bargain compared with the U.S.A. and Canada, and you don't have to be a resident to buy it. There’s also a low crime rate, friendly and welcoming people, a low cost socialized health care system, inexpensive housing, cable TV with all the U.S. channels, and a broad spectrum of activities to stay busy and happy. Moreover, most people can live on less than $1,000 US a month, excluding rent, and a fulltime maid costs around $10 per day!
I wondered how Holdridge cottoned on to all this. “In the winter of 2003 I went on a 30-day trip to Costa Rica with talented project partner Dea Million,” he explains. “We planned on shooting a few VRs and ended up shooting many. At the end of the trip I went up in an ultra-light and shot five miles of aerials down the coast near the town of Dominical on the South Pacific side of the country. I then stitched the aerial photos together and made an interface for all the tours we shot on the ground. I then coined the name VRskyTour and bought the domain.”
Holdridge then returned to Costa Rica this past winter for a 90-day trip and found himself popular with the locals for the previous year’s tour, which was used by the local tourist office and his customers to show people around. On this visit, Holdridge shot more aerial photos and extended the tour to 50 miles, comprised of 80 aerial shots with over 100 links to properties for sale, places to stay, and local activities. The image used to make the main pano is a six inch by ten foot jpg
Holdridge is currently working with photographers Bruce Chalgren and Ed Fink on a similar project in Minneapolis, to be released this spring/summer. It is a fullscreen cubic VR interface shot from helicopter over the city of Minneapolis that will let the user turn on categories of links to other fullscreen VRs. “I also have a program in place that allows digital photographers to send all the image files and information to create there own VRskyTour of an area without having to learn all the back end stuff,” he says. “Sales materials, tutorials and pricing are included to aid the photographer in the process.”
