Permits, permaculture, and capuchins
The Bad Weather campsite is coming soon--if the monkeys allow it, anyway.
Hola amigos,
Progress toward building our two new guest villas continues! Now that the design plan is finalized, we’re moving into the construction permitting phase, which includes the technical blueprints as well as securing all the required building permits from the Costa Rican municipality where our land is located. Like everything else in Costa Rica, bureaucracy moves at the “pura vida” pace, which is a nice euphemism for “slowly.” We probably won’t have all the permits we need for several more weeks, but we’re still on track to break ground in early 2023.
If you missed our last issue with details about the guest villas, you can get caught up here.
In October, JP will head down to Costa Rica to work on building a “minimum viable product” campsite on Lot 13. We’ve already got a simple outdoor shower, so we’re hoping to add a platform to keep guests’ tents off the ground, a very basic kitchenette, and a basic toilet so guests don’t have to 💩 in the rainforest like our archnemeses, the white-faced capuchin monkeys. Once the campsite is up and running, we’ll rent it out to our first guests in November and December.
Speaking of which, Costa Rica’s dry season (December through April) is right around the corner, and with the better weather comes lots of visitors. If you’re considering a trip to Costa Rica, please reach out! We’d love to give you recommendations and tips for keeping the cost down–not to mention meeting up if we’re there at the same time.
Thank you for continuing to be part of our Bad Weather community. We’re so happy to have y’all along for the ride!
Pura vida,
-Emily & JP
In this issue of the Bad Weather Catharsis…
In case you missed it: Check out our guest villas!
We’ll break ground on Villas Secretas in early 2023 and hope to have these 1-bedroom villas available for guests (that means you!) later that year. Here’s a first look at the 3D model, floorplan, and concept design by Vince Studio. Read more here.
Meet our archnemeses: Capuchin monkeys.
All we wanted was to hike up our own creek, but the angry capuchin monkeys had other plans. Check out this video about our monkey encounter (with a quick lesson about property law thrown in) that Emily recorded for her Religious Education & Ecological Context class. Watch below.
The big picture: Permaculture plan for Lot 13
Villas Secretas is only one part of a larger plan for Lot 13. The big picture includes a food forest, water recycling system, and everybody’s favorite: composting toilets! JP spent six months working on the permaculture plan for Lot 13 with a great team from around the world. Watch the presentation below.