Karen's Island

Back at Hotel Los Robles and meetings with Omar my solicitor and Matthew. The plans are coming along brilliantly, Matthew even has a funky 3D model of the rooms (coming soon!). Everything appears to be taking shape. Matthew has also made contact with Edgar who owns the neighbouring islands and also some land on the mainland. We want to set up a meeting with him to discuss possibilities of using his land  and also to let him know what our plans are. Omar mentioned that he has been unable to get the Island registered to Decadent Properties (which will be a majority shareholder in the S.A (Ltd company)) – which is strange. The S.A has also not been registered yet. Something about strikes and holidays – I guess it’s a waiting game. – welcome to central America! I have to learn to be patient and not want everything yesterday in my London way!

This is the enjoyable part of the job – visiting other Eco Hotels and trying out the facilities, especially when it’s winter in London and in the 30’s in Central America.  It turns out that Mauricio from Costa Rica Trails is at Arenas Del Mar at the same time with a client so I have good company too. Arenas Del Mar has only recently been opened so I was very interested to see whether it was being run efficiently by Cayuga (unlike my experience in Africa). I was not disappointed.  The food was great, the rooms spacious, comfortable and well decorated and despite the fact that it was a resort hotel, it still felt intimate. The biggest let down was the spa – another lesson learnt. Wish I had the perfect spa solution.

Next up was a meeting with Hans from Cayuga to determine if we could work together, if we had the same visions. I found the meeting very inspiring and am sure that Cayuga are the right company to work with. By a fortunate stroke of luck for me, one of the properties that they manage is being sold which gives them the time and oppurtunity to work with me. Hans can also supply me with a Fixture Fittings and Equipment list to help with my application for law 306 – a weight off of my mind. He will be doing a feasability study tooand I have to be clear on the whole concept of the hotel.

Back to Latitude10 and the wonderful management team – something for me to aspire to. This time around I looked into the back of house areas and asked incessant questions (as well as having a bit of pool time!)

I just found Matthew’s new site which has some info on the island plans : Click on Jicaro Island Hotel and Spa  http://www.simplementemadera.com/architecture.html

I am now trying to arrange my flights and hotels for next week’s trip (lastminute as ever!). I am going to Costa Rica first for a meeting with Cayuga who specialise in the management of Eco Hotels, mainly in Costa Rica and would also like to visit their newest venture (Arenas Del Mar) and revisit Latitide10 which is of somilar size to mine. Then off to Nicaragua and more yo-yoing between Managua and Granada. Hopefully I’ll have a place to lay my belongings in Granada – yet another English connection.

 I guess my New Year’s resolution ought to be to keep this site updated!

Apologies for not keeping this updated. Time passes quickly whilst progress is slow!

November was my last visit to Nicaragua and the promised final plans have still not materialised. it doesn’t help that I keep changing my mind! It’s still 8 bedrooms/villas with a spa, swimming pool and restaurant. The villas are going to be 2 stories with a top floor bedroom and a luxurious bathroom and sitting room on the ground floor opening up onto a deck with views across the lake. We had some fun on the Island taking photos of “Matthew in the bar” and “Matthew in the swimming pool” – it needed some imagination!

Anyway, this trip proved to be a bit of a stressful one. Things in the UK were hectic so I found myself rising at 5-6am in order to do work for Key Production (thankfully this time there was no web cam – I’ll have to be careful next time!) and then going to the meetings with Lawyers/accountants/ Matthew/ Ben. I won’t bore you with the paperwork but let’s just say there’s a lot of permissions and paper and legal stuff to be got through.

Nicaragua run a marvellous scheme to encourage tourism which involves the tourist law 306. If you are willing and able to put in a lenghthy proposal (and boy do I mean lengthy), you can obtain tax free purchases for 10 years if you meet the criteria. Scarily, this involves me gaining proforma invoices for every knife plate spoon. towel, sheet, cooker, boat  – you name it. My Spanish is still sadly lacking, so I was left turning circles in a kitchen shop saying “I want EVERYTHING!”  In a state of panic, the lovely Maria came and rescued me. It turns out that she is the manageress of the Plaza Colon Hotel in Granada, where I was staying and she invited me to sit down and pick her brains about hotel stuff.

I re-visited Morgan’s Rock this trip and met with Gloria the manageress there and picked her brains too. How lovely is it that even though I’m entering the same business, people here are more than willing to help you in any way and set up a mutual working relationship. It’s like me telling my competitors here in the UK exactly where I source product, what I pay and how I run my business!!!!

Morgan’s Rock also turned up trumps with Adrienne, the yoga instructor who also runs yoga retreats and photography seminars at Morgan’s Rock and would like to extend them to El-Jicaro.

One big step forward this trip was a visit to another project that Matthew is working on where I fell in love with his curved roofs – Sydney Opera House eat your heart out!!

Phew! That trip was exhausting. I visited Morgan’s Rock, Punta Teonoste to look at another lodge and was yo-yoing between Nicaragua and Granada.  I am due back the beginning of Feb to continue and hopefully finish pro-forma shopping from hell (just how many towels??) and tie up the legals before we finally begin building (March / April??)

I thought I’d better take a proper holiday as I don’t know if I’ll be able to again!! So, off to Botswana to see the meercats for New Year. See the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63831367@N00/sets/72157603721364909/

Then to Mozambique and a luxury Eco-Lodge on the coast – busman’s holiday really and I experienced how not to do it! Memo to self – Do NOT open a hotel before it is ready and the staff are tried and tested. Do NOT employ a chef that can’t even get the oil hot enough to fry chips or deal with more than one order! Make sure you get a good project manager (I’ve thankfully ticked that box), don’t let him / her leave and check the workmanship of the builders. I could go on. Interesting though and I did relax with a couple of good books inbetween asking about supply chains / staffing / back of house etc.

Back in Nicaragua and it’s August, the middle of the rainy season. This is my 4th trip this year and things are progressing . Every time I’m in the UK, it seems like a dream. When I get to Nicaragua, reality strikes and I wonder if I am truly crazy to have embarked on such a huge project with no experience of what I’m doing in a 3rd world country.

So, I meet up with Matthew my architect, he of “Morgan’s Rock” fame – one of the most beautiful lodges I’ve ever stayed in with wonderful detailing and of course, great architecture.

Along with various diagrams and plans of possible positionings of rooms, retaurant and spa, he breaks some news of a poassible development closeby – my mind races – a rival luxury hotel or noisy neighbours – what have I done?

It turns out that another Englishman (is this some kind of English conspiracy) owns some land nearby and is hoping to rehouse local displaced families that used to live on the surrounding islands. A perfect project for me to get involved with when the hotel is completed. A nearby source of hotel staff, we can buy fresh fruit and veg from the local farmers and help with the housing development with our profits.

This was my first of two visits to the island in August 2007 to see the lie of the land before deciding the positioning of the rooms, spa and pool. And a beautiful day it was.