My dearest friend and fellow writer, Gemma Luz Corotan-Kolb, has every reason to be proud of what she has created out of what she recalls today “as a property on top of a hill overlooking a patch of white sand and sea.”

Discovering that piece of paradise made her think, “If you were given a shot, a slim shot but a shot nonetheless to live for the rest of your life on top of that mountain overlooking that patch of white sand and that stretch of clear blue sea, would you take it? Or consider it simply as one of those things that the heart wants but has to let go of because the cost is simply too high? Is life a matter of pursuing everything that the heart wants or simplifying life so that everything we need fits in a backpack? Decisions, decisions…”

She and her husband, Klaus, a German national, made the big leap. She relates, “We closed our eyes and against all reason took the shot.”

Casa Amara, she tells her guests, is the result of that daring.

DECOR created by human hands in the porch harmonizes with nature’s unfolding grace in the nearby hill.

I’ve been to Casa Amara, located in San Juan, Batangas, only once. It is one of those places you long to go back to because there’s a sense of being home with the ones you love and care about.

Gemma has decorated it like a home, although not commonplace, with flowers, bric-a-brac and art works that make you tell yourself, this is what life should be, especially if you want to be by your lonesome just meditating or writing, or you want to be with friends or family and just loll around and enjoy each other’s relaxed, unpretentious company.

GLITTERING spray of red and gold trimmings.

A good time to be at Casa Amara is the Christmas season. Although I have never made it there around the holidays, I always enjoy looking at the Facebook pictures showing Case Amara in all its glittering splendor.

This year is no exception, as Gemma has transformed Casa Amara into an enchanting, magical wonderland for the holidays. Truly a work of love that’s signature Gemma who writes very elegantly yet crisply.

According to Gemma, “I always wanted to recreate the German Alps and countryside inside Casa Amara for my husband Klaus who always bragged about how special his home is in Germany during Christmas time. This year the decoration was inspired by the first snowfall I witnessed in Germany. I came during autumn and did not think I would see winter. Then lo and behold, on my last day when I was scheduled to fly to Manila, it started to snow and I rushed out to the backyard in my pajamas and stuck my tongue out to taste my first winter in Germany and the memory stuck: the first day of snow barely dusting the green pine trees at the backyard of our house. Autumn in Germany is equally lovely and I reserved a spot in the Casa Amara living room to recreate the memory of my favorite season on some of our trees: a fiery explosion of gold, brown, orange, red, pink, magenta leaves, twigs and fruits collecting in a puddle and crunching underneath my feet.”

If it’s late to include Casa Amara in your holiday plans, any time of the year would be just as exciting. Come Valentine’s and summer, Casa Amara will look different. You can be sure Gemma will have something special for you.