
A rural Costa Rican cabin retreat ~ La Flor de Rio Cuarto
Hi, we're Sara & Johel. Nice to meet you.

Casitas Joys & Leo was a long time coming, and we are excited they are finally here. An acronym for our family (Johel - Oliver - Yorela - Sara - Leo), these were a project envisioned by Johel years ago with the dream of bringing people to his hometown of La Flor through an authentic experience.
Sara is originally from the Midwest and grew up in an entrepreneurial family. She, too, grew up developing a love for nature, travel, and living and learning from other cultures. As a long-standing English as a Second Language teacher who has taught students from over 30 countries, she developed a passion for experiencing the world and hoped to share this passion with not only their children but anyone looking for an opportunity to experience under-explored, genuine reflections of a country. After a year of volunteering in rural Costa Rica, she too fell in love with the way of life and the richness of nature around her and worked with Johel to establish Go Tico! Costa Rica. In September of 2020, they moved their family to La Flor to begin work on the cabins.
See the Casita Progress
The Casitas was a seven-month project, from land preparation (built on a former privately-owned pineapple farm) to final landscaping. See some of the process below.
Step 1: Land Prep ~ it's a lot of work to convert an overgrown pineapple field into a beautiful rural residence


Step 2: Prep for construction ~ trench digging (by hand!) and concrete baldosa raising



Step 3: Roof raising, tile laying & initial painting



Step 4: Mural painting, sodding & tree planting





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Step 5: Yet another round of sod, boulder install and landscaping



Step 6: Furniture & kitchen install and final cleaning




