La Sombra —the estate's day Enquire

A house built around the shade it makes.

Fourteen rooms on the Punta Aloe headland. The palms were here first; everything since has been placed to sit under them.

See the rooms The estate's day

The place

Nine hectares, most of it left alone.

The estate was a working coconut and citrus farm until 1974 and a ruin for thirty years after that. We kept the cistern, the arcade and every palm that was still standing, and put the new building where the shade already fell.

There are fourteen rooms across five buildings, one kitchen, one sitting at the long table, and no reception desk to speak of. Nothing here is scheduled that does not need to be.

Rooms
14
Palms
41
Hectares
9
Since
2011

In a hot country the expensive thing is not the view. It is somewhere cool to sit at three in the afternoon.

— Rosa Iriarte, who has run the kitchen since 2013

Rooms

Six kinds of room, told apart by their shade.

Every room here is described by which hours it is out of the sun, because on this headland that matters more than the square metres.

All six rooms and their rates

The day

It runs to the sun, not the clock.

The estate keeps solar time. Meals, the boat and the siesta all move through the year with sunrise.

  1. 05:40 First light The headland path is opened. Coffee and a thermos are left on the courtyard sill for anyone walking out early.
  2. 07:00 Breakfast begins Under the east arcade, which takes the low sun until nine and is out of it after. Bread from the wood oven, fruit from the terraces, eggs if you want them.
  3. 09:15 The gardeners move Watering finishes and the crew shifts to the north beds. The pool deck is quiet and already warm.
  4. 11:00 Sea hour The boat leaves the cove for the sea caves and returns before the wind turns. Six places, first asked.
  5. 13:00 The long table One sitting, one menu, four courses. It runs about two hours and nobody hurries it.

The whole day, hour by hour

Tell us when, and we will tell you which room.

We answer enquiries ourselves, usually the same day, and we will say so plainly if we think another time of year would suit you better.

Ask about a stay