Eco tours; Costa Rica Property for sale

a july trip we will not soon forget…

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Sally with noni fruit

Fabian and Juan take wind reading

Lothar studying the topo for a natural reed based sustainable sewage system

Ray in our new banana grove

The Kellys join FLB as project and site manager

FLB partners Darlene and Ray Coker, and their son, Ben, made their way to Carrillo in early July and were joined soon thereafter by Al Benner, for what turned out to be a very fast paced and rewarding trip on many levels.

Joining the group for the entire trip was Sally Richards from London. Sally is the buyer of lot 24, and while she was in town, the closing was conducted in Samara for her property. Sally is a pretty amazing person with a background in education and the arts, and she brings a wide range of talents to the community (she has already come up with several good ideas for our project). She is also a lot of fun to hang out with it! As Darlene says "Sally is a hoot" and she introduced Ben to Dr. Who playing on her Apple during our long dinner meetings.

The weather was changeable, but overall very pleasant with relatively cool temperatures and a fair amount of sunshine for the rainy season. The finca was a verdant green from all the rains, and the various plantings on site were growing so quickly you could almost watch the growth…

Since the project is getting close to beginning construction of the Student's villa and community center, Ray and Al had several meetings with alternative energy power consultants (a wind data logger is in the process of being set up), and an analysis of the upper falls for hydro power is forthcoming. Solar is a no-brainer, and the team is currently getting various quotes for installing a sizeable bank of PV panels and a solar hot water system on the southerly facing slope down in front of the community area. Bruce Carey of Solar Costa Rica also stopped back out to hook up a UV/filtration system at the outlet side of the water storage tank. This will ensure that the pure water being pumped from deep inside the rock below the finca remains that way once it travels to the community area and villas. Bruce also hooked up a hot shower behind the storage/work shed for our workers. Meetings were also carried out with civil engineer, Alvaro Mata, and a formal water distribution engineering plan is being prepared by his engineering firm.

Note: the first structure we are building is for student interns. Our project manager / site manager family will live in the home until the community center is built. Several universities and colleges have strong sustainable degree program such as Arizona State, UC Santa Cruz, College of the Atlantic, and the new SUNY sustainable campus on the tip of Long Island just to mention a few. Our hope in the near future is to have a strong student intern program in place.

Another meeting of significance included a visit by architects Eva and Lucca from Nosara. This married couple presented the team with preliminary concepts for the community center, and they are also very interested in obtaining their own lot within the finca. The couple is very focused on utilizing low impact construction materials and techniques, and for this reason introduced the partners to Lothar Spoerl – the distributor for Swedish waste management technology that utilizes locally occurring reeds (plants) that filter the waste (below ground in the soil surrounding the root system) to a point where the waters exiting the system can then be utilized for irrigation of trees and shrubs on the hillsides below. This is all gravity fed, and once set up, no additional inputs or power are required. It was observed that the community area location is ideal for this type of system, and the partners are seriously considering this technology.

One other highlight was the “sustainable construction” workshop at the finca organized by local builder, Abe Acton of Costa Coast Construction in Samara. Abe brought in several vendors of cutting edge construction materials and also discussed some experiments his company has been conducting with adobe. Following this presentation and discussion with the architects, the partners were able to further hone in on the materials and construction techniques that will most likely be utilized for the project.

Darlene, Ray, and Al also had a final interview with Patrick and Sarah Kelly from nearby Nosara. The FLB team has been in conversations with Patrick for close to 18 months, and after this final meeting it was agreed that the Kellys were the right fit for the caretaker/Project Manager roles. Once the caretaker villa is completed in the coming months, the couple and their young daughter, Eden will be moving onto the site to live year round. Patrick has a strong construction, project management, and customer service background. He is also highly proficient in Spanish, and has been living and working in Costa Rica for several years. The team is very excited to have completed this important step towards establishing a full time presence on the finca. Patrick starts part time in August and full time in November. Christoph Hubmann will continue his role as re-forestation consultant, and a small on-site nursery of sorts has been discussed.

Additional fruit and nut trees, including bread fruit, passion fruit, figs, almonds, and cashews were also planted. The partners harvested many “quadrado” (square) bananas on this trip as well. This variety of banana is exceptionally hearty in texture with a lemon zest flavor…fantastic.

One of the most rewarding parts of our trips is finding local people with ecological and sustainable interests like Tom Peifer's permaculture finca which we visited this trip and learned important water management techniques. To the left, Darlene is planting endangered trees on the finca (provided by Berit and Sara, the owners of LazDivaz, a lovely bed and breakfast in Samara). Berit and Sara where also instrumental in starting the desperately needed recycle center in Samara.

Finally it was agreed on this trip that a camp-out of sorts will occur on the finca on or around January 1st this coming year. Teepees and tents were discussed, and with the pure drinking water, fresh fruit, and hot showers now in line, this is an idea that everyone is pretty excited about. If you would like to join us to sleep under the stars on the finca for a couple of nights, just let us know … We can’t think of a better way to really get intimately acquainted with our land before we start building.

A sad note in closing:

Our neighbor, Rapha Morales (who sold us part of his finca so that our finca could be formed by touching the pubic road) died in early July after a battle with cancer. The partners send their condolences to Rapha’s family. We will miss his big smile and hearty wave as we drive down our lane. In memory of Don Morales, we are going to name the North Falls after him.

Temporary FLB headquarters: We set up shop at the restaurant in our hotel end of Playa Carrillo. We started our mornings there with breakfast, planned the day, checked email, and made our calls. Then we headed up to the finca - well most of us, at times we needed to get some beach time in before a busy day!

Darlene, Ray, Ben and Sally at the "office"	Pretty typical views from our office		It rained most every day late afternoon or at night
Work on the finca: This July trip is characterized by project work.

Senior partner Al Benner reviews his lot with Mark Janiczek and son Andy who own lot #10	Mark and Andy at the workshop area. The roof will be covered with solar panels that will power the student center and the workshop.	Christoph makes contribution to the road up to the finca from the main road to Samara	Sally, the unofficial finca video photographer	Clearing the view on the Coker's lot #8

Architects Lucca and Evangelina from Nosara	Bananas after just one year growth	Christoph makes contribution to the road up to the finca from the main road to Samara	Sally, energy consultants, Mark, Andy and Al	Finca workers clearing Dave Cunningham's Lot #3	Al and Ben load up the SUV with fruit trees ordered by new lot owners

	Guadua Bamboo samples. Over 200 bamboo plants and trees have been just ordered for planting!	Ray cutting the grass around the entrance sign	Our neighbor Jorge meets energy consultants	Water system engineer Alvaro Mata	Work area extension in progress

Abe Acton from Costa Coast Construction	Al with UV sterilization and filtration system prior to installation	Workshop participants discuss method	Finca workshop on sustainable construction method	Lothar chats with Ray and Christoph	Solar expert Bruce Carey gives Ben a lesson on our water pump solar system

Finca workers now have a shower and potable water!	Darlene planting endangered tree
The howler monkeys seemed very interested in us this trip

Side trip to Guatil: On the way to the finca from the Liberia Airport is the small town of Guatil where dozens of artists make pottery using local materials and ancient techniques.


All materials are extracted from places bordering the community	Craftsmen beat the clay with their feet and the clay is ready when it begins to pump (pedos)	A chunk of clay is kneaded then it is placed in a mold and begins to take shape	Colors are made from three different clays gathered in the surrounding hills	When dried and painted a piece of pottery is polished with stone	After all decoration is finished a piece is polished again and dried in the sun for two days
Finca during rainy season. The finca was more green than we have ever seen it.

These parrots who mate for life and who seem to be in pairs most of the time could be seen all over the finca this trip	Experts claim there are five times more crop pests in Costa Rica than in North America	Agriculturalists argue that pesticides are a must to control them these parrots which are viewed as pests	Pesticides cause huge wildlife losses through poisoning and these parrots suffer greatly		North falls now named for Don Rapha Morales

A vision for future generations	Cabailla blanca at infinity pool site	Andy and Ben build a real climbing wall on the finca	Future site of community area
Onsite meeting with our local architects Eva and Lucca from Nosara and community members.

Architects conduct workshop on finca vision	Al, Sally, Lucca and Eva		Lucca pointing out design ideas to Christoph, Al and Patrick	Eva and Lucca's little girl

Miscellaneous pictures

Macquenco entrance	Andy Spiderman Janiczek in Rancho	Ben at Tom Peifer's permaculture finca	Permaculture guru Tom Peifer talks with Sally	A night of laughs with Howie Kramer at El Garto	Sally Richards signs closing papers in Samara

Darlene and Christoph's son Pablo	Eden Kelly enjoys a finca banana	Ben, at age nine learning to drive on the finca. As the gringo's in Nosara are fond of saying, "Hey man, its Costa Rica, no rules!"	Christoph turns 44! We help celebrate his birthday at his home with some of his friends.	Rincon de La Viejo park near the Liberia airport. Ben and Dar next to a huge fica tree on the park's trail system.	Steam rising from volcanic pools at Rincon de La Viejo park

Mud pool at Rincon de La Viejo park		One of many Rincon de La Viejo park rivers