Harmony Hotel Playa Guiones

For as long as most residents and visitors can remember, the tall coconut palm at the end of our beach path served as a landmark on

our stretch of Playa Guiones. After a quick succession of storms

during the 2020 rainy season, the tree lost its fronds, and when

the leaves didn’t regenerate this year, we knew that the tree had

died. It could have been old age, exposure to salt water, a fungus,

or maybe a species of beetle. Even though it can be jarring to

see the bare trunk that now rises from the sand, there is a beauty

in this part of the tree’s natural lifecycle. It is already home

to a community of insects, which will surely draw woodpeckers and

other birds seeking food and shelter, so it continues to hold a

place in the natural ecosystem of our little town.