Story

This is the story of Yoko Village in six chapters, in the order I lived it. It starts long before Costa Rica, with how I learned to sell, and runs to mid-2024.

I have tried to tell it plainly, including what I got wrong. Others may remember events differently, and some legal and financial matters are still contested.

Santa Teresa
Chapter 1 · 2005 to 2019
Where I learned to sell and why I wanted more
Hostels in Buenos Aires, an immigration company in the US, and the habit that would cost me.
Yoko South
Chapter 2 · 2019 to 2020
A house on the hill and a changed world
An older brother on the hill, land with no house, water or power, and a world that shut down.
Rendering
What we imagined for the North villas
Chapter 3 · 2020
From Koko to Yoko
A broken partnership, a new name, thousands of replies, and speaking of the future as fact.
The North bridge, which also gave nearby families a way across the river
Chapter 4 · 2021
The first people and the first mountain
The Lucky Six, a bridge across the river, and the first problems on the mountain.
Planting a steep slope at Sangha instead of building a retaining wall
Chapter 5 · 2021 to 2022
Sangha and the cost of moving faster
A place of peace by the bridge, a pattern of borrowing to keep promises, and work that went too far.
The land at Yoko South
Chapter 6 · 2022 to 2024
The offer I refused
Saying no to a buyer, a fading COVID rush, and what I got wrong about the town.

The story currently runs to mid-2024. Where things stand