Human Haven community in Costa Rica

Hello all, we are (or I should say hopefully will be) a budding community here in Costa Rica. We own a little more than 350 acres here in the beautiful area of Dos Bocas. If you care to look up the area you might be more successful looking for Hatillo or Dominical as Dos Bocas isn't on all the maps. We are not quite ready to get started with the community portion of things as we don't have enough housing just yet and have had a few bad experiences with volunteers that have passed through. We also have not established a farm income yet and I know that is one of the biggest complaints about communes. Having an income, even if its small is so important. We do have plans for this and more structures but will need the next year or 2 to get to a point where we are comfortable enough with the idea that the farm can support more than just us. We have had about 16 volunteers pass through and have learned a lot about small group dynamics through that. This is another reason for the wait. We have actually loved most of them and been tempted to beg many to stay but in the end realized how many improvement would be needed before the farm can give anyone a real and well-rounded life. However one of the things we learned from the less great experiences was how important it is to get to know someone for quite a while before you invite them into your home. So this is in some way an invitation for those who could potentially be interested to go ahead and get in touch now so that we can get to know each other a good bit beforehand. We would also like to ask anyone with a good bit of experience with communities to chime in a bit and let us know if they can think of any potential pitfalls that are rarely mentioned. Of course we have read many of the discussions on here about the same but even if its repetitive we would love to hear about it. We are particularly looking for advice on what can go wrong..I think the hippie world is plenty full enough with intoxicating images of how right the whole thing could be. Also another thing to note is that we are very off grid. We have no electricity though plan on going for a mix of micro renewable systems, maybe a larger emphasis on solar despite our amazing water sources. The government here has a monopoly on electric and for whatever reason they are fussier about hydro. We are also about an hour from the closest proper town, 45 mins on a nice dry day and the road is dirt and problem prone since it rains a lot here. Hopefully we get a few responses here, please also look through our page on facebook (well once I add some more photos) as our properties are veritable water and jungle playgrounds with tons of falls. If nothing else its pretty awesome eye candy. Look forward to hearing from people soon!

Howdy Lucy , welcome to permies!  Some of us here don't do facebook so I was wondering if you might have time to post a few of those pictures here as well?

oh absolutely..honestly I was a bit mystified by how to add photos to my profile otherwise it would be full of em. I totally understand too, i don't really like fb too much either and my bf who is my partner on the farm project also doesn't have one. I will do my best here

ok going again...technology baffles me guys sorry for only posting these here...if anyone has advice for posting to my profile please have mercy and let me know haha

ok now for some non waterfall pics (though I do have more of those if anyone wants to see) Btw we also have a cute little peek of the Pacific ocean from here with a lovely view of the Osa peninsula. Also there are good tracts of land available in my area if anyone is interested just let me know.

Thanks Lucy ! That looks wonderful.
So there are other properties for sale near you too? How does ownership work if you are not a native/citizen ?

Hey Miles (and others of course) i am so happy to let you guys know about land opportunities here. We live in this perfect, walled in valley and I cant imagine anything better than gaining allies in the area
.its like the hidden valley. I don't want to answer too many questions about land ownership on my own but I have an awesome lawyer and friend who I can ask any question free of charge so just get in touch either by forum or purple mooseage with specific questions and I will get back in a few days with answers. I am also happy to refer anyone to him so they can ask their questions personally, he speaks beautiful English. Also within my valley I will gain a commission from the sale, just saying in the interest of full disclosure, if its any consolation I charge way less than the CR norm. Also my email is humanhaven@gmail.com if you are looking for details on our project or land or even details about CR or residency etc

Oh and as far as I know ownership is equally valid for non citizens and citizens alike and there are a reasonable number of residency options. Cr also allows dual citizenship. I dont think there are mineral rights here but the country is insanely green, does no mining, and just went 113 days of 100% renewable energy. The main game here is green tourism

Looks really amazing! I have a friend who recently got back from Costa Rica, he spent some time in Guatemala and Mexico as well. He has been on a mission to find some existing communities that seem sustainable enough to become invested in and possibly start bringing out other folks who are serious about stewarding the Earth and being part of a community (like my family and I for example). I'll show him your thread and stay up to date with it as well. Best of luck out there!

Hey there, thank you guys for the responses. As I see a lot of similarities between communities cropping up around here I would like to make myself a bit clearer on certain issues, sorry I didn't before but it is important, we are a bit unique to this area which is one full of startup communities like ours. We want to see a community full of strong and varied individuals. Many here start on the basis of veganism, vegetarianism, yoga, or spirituality. I would like to make sure that everyone knows that we do none of this. We are also not opposed to the inclusion of individuals who are vegans or vegetarians, yoga enthusiasts or members of a faith, have no problem with energy healers or any of the rest. The main point I want to make though is we hope to never have any of these things be the binder of our community. I would hate for someone looking for an all vegan yoga center to mistake us for one as many are after that when thinking to come down here. If you are into that still let me know, I have plenty of suggestions with some very nice people. We have a bit more of a survivalist streak, are very new at what we do, and live very primitively and have no interest in these other concepts becoming central to our project. Btw I love yoga, think it feels great, eat very little meat, and am no atheist, just that I don't think pushing people to conform in these ways is very condusive. Hopefully I haven't deterred anyone but if I have I'm sure it was right to do so

Hello, my family and I are very interested in your community. Nadina my fiance age 25, Helios my son who is almost 2, Tim age 35 me. We are looking to be apart of a income sharing community. We are into permaculture but are far from being a expert. We would like to help grow fruit trees and to help grow veggies as well. Would also like to help with any natural building that you may want to do. We we're wondering if the members have a choice to build there own natural tiny home or if members have to co-live with each other? Do you have to buy?

We are a Vegan family, but we don't judge others on what they eat. It is just a lifestyle we chose for a health. Don't get me wrong we love animals. But everyone has a right to choose what they eat. We live on a 43 ace property right now in a tiny 750qft home. It has no water or electricity. So we are used to living very without much. If we are what you are looking for please let us know. You could go on Instagram to check me out more urbanfarmer22 is my account name. I don't do Facebook though sorry. Thanks for your time.

Hey everyone, just a quick update... We have made some major strides on infrastructure and have cleaned up and replanted all of our pastures but at the moment our road is in terrible shape and access has become extremely limited. It's a toss up of whether the government here will do their part but as they often don't do a proper job (essentially they flatten and widen the road but don't add any gravel unless it's an extremely steep hill..and don't crown the road at all etc...) anyway we are on hold for a little bit. We should be ready to accommodate more people in about 2 1/2 years, maybe a bit sooner. However we are still working on the farms and welcome people who may be interested in the project to contact and get to know us. We also do have enough space to host visitors but ask that they come in dry season... The waterfalls won't have the same umph but access to and from is way more guaranteed in dry season (late December through early April)

Hi Lucy,

My name is Noelle. I will be spending quite a bit of time in Costa Rica starting in two months, with the interest to one day invest. I am looking for a green community of people who are keen on living sustainably, and therefore I am exciting about your project. I do believe finding a community is a very personal thing, and I can understand about getting to know people before welcoming them into your home. I'm all about celebrating a pure life! Pura vida;) I would love to learn more about your community, and keep track of the improvements as the days go by. Thanks so much for updating everyone last week. I tried to locate your Facebook page but could not. How can I get to know more about the project and people?

Green love!
Noelle

Hi !!

I am Aljosa from Slovenia ! I will be staying in Costa from October until January, keeping myself busy with doing field works on Coffea plants. I'll be taking data for my master thesis from University of Copenhagen, but later I would like to stay and help in off the grid community at least for a month. If you are interested , let me know :)

Aljo

Hello my name is david. I am from Florida. I am very interested in your post. I would love to get to know you and see where it leads. I would love to help build a community that will last a long time.