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I spent the end of 2024 in Uvita, Costa Rica. My partner and I arrived in the country on December 27 and headed south toward the Pacific coast. Uvita was our base for the change of year.
Time around the table
The photographs bring back more of the week than the flight and booking records do. On December 28, we were gathered around a large wooden table, with the room open to the night outside. The same table appears again in daylight on New Year’s morning.
The house after dark
Two views from December 29 show the setting around us: the covered dining area below the terrace and the pool glowing blue against a dark hillside. They belong to the quieter hours around the house.
The last evening of 2024
On New Year’s Eve, the light dropped over the trees beyond the terrace, with the pool and lower terrace below.
A small visitor on New Year’s morning
A butterfly rested on a window sill on January 1. Its patterned wings made a close-up worth keeping alongside the wider views of the house and the people around the table.
The way home
On January 2, I headed back toward San Jose. I had asked whether there was a hotel in the airport—a practical question before the early flight home. My partner and I were checked in for the following morning, connecting through Panama to Washington Dulles. By January 3, we were back in Virginia.
A week with one base
Uvita gives this trip a different rhythm from the road journeys. I kept returning to the same Pacific-side base through the change of year. The night photographs look down into the covered dining space and across the lit pool; the butterfly picture turns to a small detail at the window.
The travel days sit at either end of that week: arrival in Costa Rica on December 27, the journey south to Uvita, then the return toward San José on January 2. The early flight on January 3 connected through Panama before the arrival at Dulles. The place where we stayed, the days around New Year and the journey home are three parts of the same visit.
The house gives the week its center
Uvita appears here through a place we returned to: the table, terrace and the views around the house. The night photographs draw attention to the covered dining area and the bright pool against the hillside. The butterfly photograph on New Year's morning works at the other end of that scale, concentrating on a small visitor at the window.
That range leaves room for the quieter part of a trip across the change of year. The travel dates and flight connections frame the visit, but they do not have to carry the whole story. The repeated setting gives the days a center. The January 2 question about an airport hotel then turns the account back toward departure, as the practical details of getting home begin to replace the time around the house.
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New Year in Uvita · 3 photographs