Costa Rica · Phase 0
We won't transform you.
The forest might.
Primary cloud forest on the southern boundary of Braulio Carrillo National Park. Never cleared. A family kept it alive for over 25 years. No signal on the property.
Cloud forest around 1,600m on the edge of one of the most biodiverse national parks in the Western Hemisphere. Two zones — bosque and potrero. A year-round river. The Camino Carrillo — the cobblestone road Bishop Bernardo Augusto Thiel walked into exile in 1884 — runs nearby. The cobblestones are still there.
I quit my job and needed to go somewhere that wasn't where I was. My father had given me this land in Costa Rica, and I went. I spent years managing merch on tour with country acts, then running bars in Nashville — loud work, but work that runs on performance. I needed something that didn't.
If you're carrying something, the forest doesn't ask about it. It's just there — old, intact, indifferent in the best possible way. We're building this together with the family that kept it alive. Not a resort. Not a program. A place that does what primary forest does.
The potrero — where the clearing meets the cloud line. October 2024.
Primary Forest
Never logged, never cleared. Intact canopy, undisturbed soil, unbroken habitat. Tapir confirmed. Resplendent Quetzal habitat. Glass frogs on the river. Jaguar corridor from the park. This is not forest coming back — it never left.
The Gate That Sends People Here
The road dead-ends at the park boundary. Most people who make the drive are turned away at the gate. They drove an hour up cobblestone in a 4x4 to get there. Cielo Verde is what they find instead — primary forest, a family that knows it, and no tour group in sight.
The Lost Shrine
Somewhere inside Braulio Carrillo, now inaccessible, a shrine marks where Bishop Thiel passed on July 18, 1884 — exiled from Costa Rica, walking this road. His account is one of the earliest written records of what this land looked like. We walk the same road.
The river on the western boundary. Cold, clear, year-round. Glass frogs live here.
The Caretakers
Edwin "Macho" lived in this area for over 50 years, and on this land for over 25 — not as an employee, but as a steward. He knew every trail, every spring, every tree. He built paths through forest that had no paths. He protected it when it would have been easier not to.
Age eventually forced him off the land he loved. His son — 23, newly married, a toddler at home — drives out on his days off from his regular job to keep the work going. Out of love for his father's life work. Because he wants to build something real for his young family.
This project exists to make that possible. To turn what he does on borrowed time into his actual livelihood — and to build something he has a real stake in, not just a job inside of. His family kept this land alive. Any version of this that doesn't reflect that isn't worth building.
Gabriel, a local friend who wants to help however he can. May 2026.
The Work Right Now
Phase 0 — Trail clearing. Right now.
Daniel is working on his days off. $50 covers one day.
○ Trail clearing — $50/day per person on the land
○ Gate and entrance — $650
○ Trail clearing equipment (Stihl FS) — $400
○ Two heifers for Daniel's family — $1,200 (income from calves is his, not the project's)
○ July expedition — flights, food, crew — $500
Nothing has been funded yet. Everything raised goes directly to this list. Every dollar tracked publicly.
In July we walk to the northwest corner for the first time. We need to be ready.
A wildlife photographer and a small crew will make the first documented walk to the park boundary at 1,600m. The family will lead. We will follow. What comes back — photos, video, wildlife documentation — is what this project shows the world in August.
The trail work starts now. It needs funding now.
Come with us
This is a small thing being built honestly in a loud world.
No newsletter. No content calendar. When something real happens on the land — a trail opened, a trail camera catches something, the July crew comes back with photos — we send one email. That's it. If that sounds like your kind of thing, come with us.
One email. No spam. Unsubscribe any time.