The Land -

The Story

We didn’t find this place. It found us.

We’d spent seven years building on our first farm in Barbosa — planting, constructing, hosting retreats. But the neighborhood was growing around us. More traffic, more noise, less room to breathe. The idea of starting over somewhere new was the last thing I wanted to hear. But we knew it was what was supposed to happen.

How we found this land

I’d never heard of San Roque. Before the tunnel was built, it took nine hours to get here from the city. The land was largely unexplored, quietly sitting behind a difficult road that most people didn’t bother with. I came out because I saw an ad — there was cacao, a river, it looked promising. Esther and I walked it and agreed it was beautiful. And then we drove home and said it was too far, too hard to access, impossible to manage.

And then I started dreaming about it.

For months it kept appearing. I tried to forget it. I heard someone had bought it. I kept dreaming about it anyway. And then I found out it was still available.

I came back with Alex the builder, Santiago, Esther, the kids. Everyone felt it. This was the place. We’d figure out the road.

The original parcel was 50 hectares. But there were a couple of neighbors too close for what we had in mind, so we negotiated to acquire those parcels too. Then we got to work.

There were two old houses and nothing else. No road, no bridge, no infrastructure — just abandoned cow pasture and potential. A crew of thirteen came in. We paved the road down the hill, built the bridge, built the chocolate factory, built a new house for Esther, planted everything we could. Then the lodge, a cabin, the maloca.

The lake was one of the first things I built. I knew where the water wanted to be — there was a naturally humid hollow that told me. Ten days of digging. Within the first few days it started filling. Then the bugs came. Then the birds. Then the turtles. One day a duck just arrived. Now there are massive iguanas.

That’s how this place works. We dream it, and the magic happens.

Restoration vision

When we arrived, this land was abandoned cow pasture. The forest had been cleared, the soil was tired, and the river ran through a landscape that had forgotten what it was supposed to look like.

We have spent years giving it back to itself. The native forest is protected and expanding. The cacao grows alongside fruit trees, medicinal plants, and wild habitat the way it was always meant to. The lake brought the birds. The birds brought the seeds. The seeds brought more forest.

We don’t know exactly what this place will look like in ten or twenty years. What we know is that the families who live here are committed to staying, to protecting it, and to continuing to build something worth protecting. Every tree we plant is a decision about the future. Every structure we build is made to belong here.

People come to Territorio de Origen and they don’t want to leave. We understand that feeling. It’s why we’re still here.