Cellular Phones Were Used By the Ancient Incas

Villa Luces que Flotan rests high on the slopes of Poas Volcano above Grecia with broad views of Costa Ricas verdant Central Valley. Its name, Villa of Lights that Float, is named for its views of tens of thousands of shimmering city lights from the Central Valley below, star-filled clear nights, thousands of fireflies drifting over the property and for its lighted floating fountain sphere in the central courtyard. Utilizing his background in anthropology owner Gene Warneke created the basic design in 1990. After traveling through several continents, Gene found the perfect site to build his visionary home and a superb and gifted architect, Rodrigo A. Torres, to manifest this monument of the sacred past with modern aesthetics and ingenuity. The villa is a harmony of ovals and circles consciously integrating the land with the sky. Multiple curved forms create a harmonious and comfortable ambiance throughout. Absolutely unique in its style, the villas design blends sacred Amerindian forms and alignments with warm Spanish hacienda and comfortable monastic forms. In ancient Inca fashion, the villas alignment converges with the highest peak on the horizon, Cerro Turrubares. A nineteen-meter lap-pool transects the villa and points precisely at Cerro Turrubares. The pool gradually ramps up to a vanishing line to allow swimmers to recline, relax and enjoy the sweeping vistas before them. On both the courtyard and vestibule patio sides lie arched bridges over the pool with ice block centerlines. Especially magical at night, the pool lights glow through the bridges from the cobalt blue flowing waters below. The courtyards earthen wall amphitheatre with its backdrop of tropical flora cradles this visionary structure and provides the starting point of the pool. The central fountain emanates from a large, partially submerged sphere. One could say this is indeed the heart of the Villa where the waters that flow to infinity begin, descending as a waterfall at the infinity line toward a large semi-circular Jacuzzi that holds a tiled massage platform four inches below the soothing waters. Fronting the Jacuzzi lies a gently sloping lawn of verdant grass providing breathtaking views from the lower level and privacy for users. Solar batch collectors lie underneath a glass walkway surrounding the hot tub providing endless hot water. From the fountain sphere the Villa roof and rooms emanate in perfect balance as the spokes in a wheel aligned directly with a hub. The broad circular sweep of the roof from the courtyard connects the earth and sky in dramatic fashion integrating the entire whole with the endless vault of the sky. An intelligent home, the villa allows its owners to control lights, appliances and wireless external video security cameras from anywhere in the world where there is cell phone or internet access. Broadband internet service and wi-fi are available throughout the villa. Hailing from California earthquake country, Gene designed the structure to withstand the strongest of earthquakes. The homes southern alignment and curved roof design provide passive solar heat for the pleasant and cool mountain nights. Throughout the year air conditioning and heating are unnecessary. Year-round daytime temperatures on the mountain average 74 degrees Fahrenheit and night-times average a comfortable 65 degrees. The nearest public road is a small valley away. Access to the home is via a remotely controlled gate and a half-mile of paved road bordered by an exquisite park-like setting. The Rio Achiote below the property offers streamside walks amid virgin forest and waterfalls. The abundance of varied wildlife is to be enjoyed daily as the Resplendent Quetzal, the long-tailed sacred bird of the Aztecs and Mayans nests on the mountain slopes and the ever-present hummingbirds and butterflies hover to everyones delight.