The People Behind the Experience:
Elizabeth Steinvorth of Hotel Aguas Claras
In Hotel Aguas Claras, co-owner Elizabeth Steinvorth, a lifelong artist, has created a hospitality experience that not only tells the story of a place – Puerto Viejo – but also her own personal story, one that brought her from the capital of San Jose, around the world and back to the vibrant jungles, beaches and local community of Costa Rica’s Southern Caribbean Coast. Through an intentionally curated blend of personal creations, up-cycled furniture, Victorian architecture and the handmade works of numerous artist friends, Steinvorth and her daughter, Elena Rohrmoser, have brought to life a singular vision guests can feel with all of their senses, with a style and vibe that is 100% original. Perhaps that is why, during this most challenging of years for much of the tourism space, Hotel Aguas Claras is thriving.
Elizabeth & daughter Elena, on one of their first shared trips to Puerto Viejo.
Thanks to Elizabeth for taking the time to chat with us last month and share more of her story as one of our “People Behind the Experience”.
It’s quite a leap to dive into building and running a hotel from scratch after a lifetime as an artist. What drew you and Elena to this shared adventure in hospitality in Puerto Viejo?
Puerto Viejo has been my spiritual home since the first time I visited 33 years ago. I fell in love with the beaches, spectacular nature, wildlife, climate, and mainly the people and culture, which is more Afro Caribbean & indigenous (Bribri) than elsewhere in Costa Rica. I eventually purchased & renovated my own home here.
Mother & daughter
Elena and I are very close friends, apart from being mother/daughter. We love to travel the world together and have spent considerable time abroad. When I was younger, I studied to be a German and French translator in Germany for six years and Elena has been citizen of the world since she was 17 years old when she left to Berlin. She spent more than a decade in Europe and finally New York City where she studied Art and Design at Parsons.
Six years ago, after Elena returned to Costa Rica she and I initially had the idea to build a music studio together with our cousin Jorge who is a musician and artist in New York. So we started looking for the right location in Puerto Viejo and discovered that my neighbor was selling the old Aguas Claras Cottages right next to our house! After investigating the music studio idea, it turned out to be too complicated. But by then, we had also fallen in love with this property which I admired for decades. I decided to buy it and initially just restore the cottages to rent. And so it happened that we ended up with this huge project that kept us busy for the next four years!
With building a hotel we had little experience, but we knew we wanted to share this wonderful paradise with the rest of the world. And while Puerto Viejo is just starting to become an internationally known destination - it is and will continue to remain very natural and easy going, a characteristic that we’ve reflected in the hotel.
With shared but different backgrounds in art and design, can you tell us about the distinct styles of you and Elena and where you draw inspiration from? Where can guests see each of your personalities represented in the design and style of certain spaces?
I’ve been making things my whole life – expressing myself through music, dance, art. From a very young age I practiced ballet, played the piano, painted watercolors and created all kinds of handicrafts, and I love to create something every day since then. Currently (or before the pandemic), I really enjoy attending art workshops and traveling around the world – to Bali, Japan, New Zealand, South America to mention a few, which has opened my senses, taught me new techniques and expanded my creativity even more. I have also always been extremely conscious of keeping this world clean, and many years ago decided to include elements of up-cycling in all of my art projects, believing that and anything that can be made beautiful and useful again.
Guests can see my personality represented in the mirrors throughout the lobby of the hotel and bungalow rooms. I made these from egg cartons, old magazines, lids from glass jars, and may other materials which are usually thrown away, I think about 70% of furniture we have - including the shutters, balcony railings and floor boards - have been up-cycled and refinished by me, and much of it was saved from the old Aguas Claras Cottages. Also my flower watercolors can be seen in Casa Floralia, and several lamps and other ceramic objects here and there are my creation. I love color so all of my art work stands out against the white walls of the hotel, just enough to not compete with the bright colors of nature surrounding us.
Elena’s personality is very evident in the design and decor of our Papaya Restaurant and Pavlova Sweets, each one with a different theme or influenced by a different artistic acquaintance. She also curated many of the items we’ve showcased in our Libelula Gift Shop, clothing, jewelry and art objects that are all hand made. Our Beach Club “Da Lime” is a mixture of Elena’s and my taste, the perfect combination!
If you had to pick three “signature pieces” that represent Hotel Aguas Claras, what would they be?
Close up of the chandelier that hangs above the bar in Papaya Restaurant
First, the Chandelier hanging over the bar at Papaya Restaurant was created by my friend Natasha Nokin, a French artist living in Puerto Viejo 30 years ago, and me. It’s a combination of 5 lamps, each created from old lamps that belonged to my family, plus chandelier crystals, shell beads and bamboo pieces as well as other local materials. Since up-cycling is always my goal, exhibiting this chandelier is the perfect example of how old pieces and any kind of natural materials and objects can be put together with an excellent visual effect.
Second - the Iron columns at the lobby entrance and fountain. These unique pieces belonged to my good artist friend Antonio Doninelli, who has been a frequent collaborator on the hotel and surrounding gardens. They came from England and date from the 19th Century, when Costa Rica started exporting coffee for the first time. At that time, Costa Rica’s president used the ships exporting coffee to bring back many ornaments from Europe, especially for the creation of our National Theatre, which emulated popular architectural styles in Europe. These columns stood for many years in the gardens and residences of the old Presidential Home until we acquired them, incorporating a piece of Costa Rica’s global history into our gardens.
Fountain made with coral blocks discovered during the construction of Hotel Aguas Claras
Third - the coral ornamentation throughout the gardens of Aguas Claras:. The property of Aguas Claras used to be covered by water; today we sit atop a platform of coral some 3 meters under the ground. When we started to excavate for the hotel’s foundations, we found thousands of pieces of coral! We wanted to use it somehow and pay homage to the property’s natural history and found in town a Spanish stonecutter. Using our designs he created a series of benches, pedestals and floors found throughout the gardens of the hotel. They are a work of art for sure and I was inspired by the use of coral in Viscaya Castle in Miami and architecture in La Habana, Cuba.
Tell me more about Familia Paraíso – who have you hosted and who would you like to host in the future as an artist-in-residence?
Familia Paraíso is the creative multimedia platform for Hotel Aguas Claras. It serves as an archival library for all the art forms created at the Hotel by artists in many creative disciplines that come to visit us locally and from faraway lands. It is also a space to build and promote the creative community we have here in Puerto Viejo, showcase all the beautiful things happening at the Hotel and inform of future Artist-in-Residencies, Events and Environmental Community Projects.
We have hosted and collaborated with musicians like Andrew Van Wyngarden from MGMT, California band Allah-Las, Soko (French actress/musician/model), NYC Designers Dusen Dusen and Susan Alexandra, Costa Rican Artist Federico Herrero who has come to host a creative workshop with the community kids, Director and Photographer Stuart Winecoff, among many others! The idea is to continue inviting inspiring individuals from creative and environmental fields and we welcome proposals from different artists around the world which match our vision and values.
Our intention is to serve as a cultural bridge between our local diversity and the guests that visit us through the key element of collaboration and exchange.
Traveling with more intention and consideration of our impact and footprint is a theme for post-Covid travel. What do you want visitors coming to Puerto Viejo to know about the place and be mindful of?
We would like visitors to know about our environmental efforts to protect nature, the Caribbean heritage and to be inspired by these - because that is what makes Puerto Viejo unique among Costa Rica’s beach towns. Every guest should participate in our sustainability tour - these show every practice taken at the Hotel as well as the history of this place, which is very important to understand the culture and landscape of Puerto Viejo.
What other hotels or destinations have influenced you (beyond Costa Rica) and Elena?
We’ve both travelled a lot together ever since Elena was quite young and believe that a key element of a great experience are the memories and the feelings that a particular place can leave you with forever, that you can access later on in life. Two very joyful trips I remember are both road trips that we took together, one in California where we drove Highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Francisco and stayed in several hotels along the way. They were all so different but special! Ventana Inn, Chateau Marmont, Ace Hotel in Palm Springs and a really kitsch but very unique one with themed rooms called Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The other was in Italy where we went to Porto Ercole. We stayed at a friend’s family style B&B and then at Il Pellicano, a beautiful hotel which has a special history and really was an inspiration for Hotel Aguas Claras. In terms of attention to detail and a very personal and beautiful service I will never forget a trip we did to Indonesia on a yoga retreat. For me, the unique and sacred approach to hospitality in Asia and the feeling it leaves you with is unmatched in the world!
Where are you going when international travel reopens for Costa Ricans and you feel comfortable moving around internationally?
I would love to visit Oaxaca again, attend art and cooking workshops. Know more and learn about their textiles, natural dyes and how they are made. And The Galapagos Islands are also a place I would love to visit.