our story
Raquel (Raky) is from the small 200-person town of Mastatal in the Central Valley of Costa Rica and Javier (Javi) is from San another small town just 15 minutes down the road. Despite being from so close to each other, Javi and Raky didn't meet until they were both living in San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city as young adults. After falling in love and getting married, they moved back to Mastatal to Raky's family's acestral land to start their own family.
Javi and Raky opened Villas Mastatal in 2010. After learning about permaculture and agroecology from a local permaculture school, Javi began to implement these practices onto their own land and saw the incredible benefits. Huge harvets, abundant gardens, and healthy soils, meant that they never looked back despite the region being filled with monocrop industrial farms.
A few years after starting the farm, they began to open their home to volunteers and university groups who were eager to come and learn about sustainable agriculture, natural building, and permaculture. Over the years, they have hosted thousands of people on the farm, opening their home to complete strangers and facilitating many life changing experiences.
They built the first structures on the farm, using all local and natural materials and their own hands. They experimented and tested out endless tropical agroecology techniques and figured out what works best for their farm and land.
In the summer of 2016, after her freshmen year studying agriculture at Cornell, Elizabeth ended up at Villas Mastatal! She had one of the best summers of her life as Javi and Raky so graciously opened her into their home and family.
Elizabeth was immersed into all things tropical agriculture, natural building, and life in rural Costa Rica. She learned so much rom Javi and Raky and met other people interested in sustainability from all over the world. The farm truly felt like a family, and anyone who passed by if even for a few days could feel it.
A few summers later, Elizabeth returned and Villas Mastatal was no longer the thriving place she knew it to be. Affects on tourism from COVID, competition of foreign owned permaculture farms, and
When I was 18, I went on my first solo travel trip, volunteering on a family farm in Costa Rica for one summer. This was something totally out of my comfort zone. I had never backpacked, I didn't speak any Spanish, and I knew nothing about farming or growing food. This summer changed my life by introducing me to a different kind of slow meaningful travel and igniting my passions for food, farming, and sustainability. I got to meet an incredible diverse group of people from all over the world and I was welcomed into the most kind loving Costa Rican family.
Fast forward - 5 years later I had dived into the worlds of environmentalism, sustainable farming, regeneration, and permaculture through my studies at Cornell and traveled to dozens of countries immersing myself into different communities and cultures and learning how I can best contribute to the regeneration. I had been bitten by a bit of the travel bug but throughout all of my adventures, I had a yearning to return to Costa Rica where it all began.
During my senior year of college, as I was being encouraged to do job applications and resumes and start my career in the corporate world, I decided to come back to Costa Rica to visit this special farm and family who had had such a meaningful impact on me.
This was another very meaningful trip and I had written in my journal after only being back for 24 hours how this was my place and I knew that I wanted to move back here full time after I graduated. To this day Mastatal is one of the most special places I have ever been lucky enough to know.
The family who own and run Villas Mastatal were glowing and vibrant as ever but the project seemed to be struggling. Tourism in the area was in a bit of a rut and they were struggling financially. It made me so sad to see such a special place that I had seen change the lives of so many practically empty. With the help and inspiration of some friends, we decided that we would host some sort of retreat/course/experience on the farm to be able to bring more people to this inspiring place and financially support the family and local community.
Months later and lots of planning, coordinating, and phone calls, we hosted our first retreat. 26 beautiful souls came to the farm and it was so so special. A week of deep community and all being able to share our gifts and passions while learning from this Costa Rican family and the land.
We did the whole thing ourselves, a young group of kids at the time. We weren't paid a thing and in one week we were able to give Javi and Raky more money than they usually make in months. Now we continue to host sustainable living retreats with our core teams and we help facilitate other people to host their own meaningful experiences on the farm as well.
I was lucky to build my career in Costa Rica landing a job at a permaculture education center, helping to teach and facilitate permaculture design courses around the country, and eventually open a farm to table vegan restaurant. After almost a decade of sharing my life online and activism on social media, still running these in person retreats at the place where my environmental awaking began, is one of my favorite things and the most fulfilling work.
I feel oh so lucky to have stumbled upon this sleepy mountain town in the beautiful Central Valley of Costa Rica. It is forever a home and a sanctuary to me and to be able to share it with others in a mutually beneficial way for the local community and guests is a dream.
xx Elizabeth Couse