Intentional
Community
COMMUNITY
Our raw vegan community is made up of a group of like-minded raw vegans that want to live close to nature. Our community allows you to manifest your highest potential while positively impacting the world, doing what you love and taking great care of yourself. Our neighbors include kind-hearted souls who hold peace, health, honor, sustainability, and sharing in high regard. We are truth-seeking individuals who have come together in a safe place to share our dreams and values, while making optimal life choices and sharing our message with others.
As a community, we support and encourage one another to be the best version of ourselves. We feel that collaborating as a community helps us be stronger. As the African proverb says, it takes a village to raise a child. Our close-knit community is a family oriented place where you can share information and resources, lead nonviolent lives, take care of each other and communicate openly. The community is open to people of all ages, ethnicities, faiths, and beliefs, as long as everyone holds mutual respect for one another.
The community consists of approximately 100 homes, ensuring a small, tight-knit group of people who are able to function together effectively. The homes are simple and environmentally sound. They are located within a designated tract of land, allowing for each steward to have their own space and privacy, and include common areas with gardens, food forests, communal eating space, recreational areas, and more. The homeowners are able to grow their own fruit trees and gardens on their own land, using organic practices. The homes are powered by natural energy and a common love for nature. The homes overlook the nature preserve, fruit forest and planned gardens and are in close proximity to the commercial village, with the ease of access yet separate enough for privacy and tranquility.
There’s a community structure for community meals, a library, laundry center, tool shed and meditation-yoga area. The landscape and roads are well maintained by the community association. Although Costa Rica is a safe country, the community will be closed to the public with secured access to ensure everyone’s peace of mind and safety. Members have the opportunity to participate in regular community discussions, physical activities, meditations, readings and musical jams. Community members are able to enjoy unlimited access to the nature preserve, waterfalls, and all of the natural resources within the scope of the project, as well as discounted prices for any of the paid tours, activities, facilities and education.
Consensus-based decision making and non-violent communication are the organizational backbones of our community. A self-created and internally elected board serves as a guiding body to ensure that the values of the community are respected on an ongoing basis. In order to create a successful and cohesive residential community, Las Cascadas has adopted a set of values that we believe foster an optimal environment for health, wellness, collaboration, sustainability, respect and tranquility. The members of the community must agree to embrace the same core values so that everyone sharing the space feels confident that they are in good company. It’s our goal to lovingly and peacefully coexist as we strive for excellence, and we intend to do so by subscribing to the same ethics.
Community members who are interested in creating an income will have many options to either run one of the key businesses mentioned or to start and run their own business in the commercial village. You can own a shop, boutique, gallery, accommodation or restaurant in the eco-village, run tours or offer your favorite recreational activity. The community benefits as the whole project grows.
There are lots of possibilities here; if you have an idea or something you love that could fit in, fantastic, bring it to us! We want you to create a way to make a good living while doing something that you both enjoy and believe in.
Core values that bring our community together
Peaceful Living
No community would be successful without a general sense of safety, respect, honesty, unity, and pacifism. As humans, we realize that we will always have some differences, but our objective is to minimize our perceptions of any division and strive for common love and appreciation of one another.
Some of our core beliefs stem from a few authors who propose several cherished ideas, such as Non-Violent Communication, Radical Honesty, and The Four Agreements. We strongly encourage all community members to read these publications and agree to embrace the concepts therein when communicating and coexisting with other cohabitants.
Health and Wellness
As previously mentioned, health and wellness are the core focus of Las Cascadas. This isn’t to say that every community member needs to be in prime physical condition, but rather that we all hold the same vision of maximizing our health and supporting others to do the same.
In order to achieve optimal health, the food that we nourish our bodies with is of utmost importance. While we don’t try to control what people choose to do with their lives, we have set a general standard that the food and drink consumed within the project remain free from any animal products, cooked and processed foods, alcohol and other intoxicants. Our optimal diet consists of raw fruit and leafy green vegetables. Although it is not always entirely possible, we strive to maximize the consumption of organic, local, fresh produce, with the intention of growing much of our own food.
We understand that some people may be on medication currently, but we endeavor to free all our members from pharmaceuticals and other man-made treatments.
Love and respect for nature
Our community is for nature lovers who have a profound respect for the environment. Costa Rica is a bountiful country with astonishing landscapes, natural resources, and wildlife and our community attracts people that want to live in a tropical paradise.
Sustainable living practices
Living in harmony with the planet is an essential part of our community. Las Cascadas Intentional Community is for people who want to reduce their carbon footprint, take care of the planet and create a better tomorrow for our children. As a community, we are committed to reducing our use of the Earth’s natural resources, creating more natural habitats for all species and protecting our home.
Benefits
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You’ll live in a safe and peaceful community in which your neighbors look out for your best interest and your children will always be protected
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You’ll live in a community of like-minded individuals who want to experience optimal health in a natural habitat
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You’ll have the opportunity to work for something you believe in
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You’ll be in a place that will motivate you to make optimal choices
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You’ll leave a lower carbon footprint and will be contributing to a more sustainable world
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You’ll be protecting mother nature
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You’ll always have someone nearby for support when you need it
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Collective ownership gives you more
Get Involved
The first phase of the community consists of 15 lots. For those of you who resonate with our values and desire the type of lifestyle we wish to share, our team is offering an opportunity to reserve yours.
Lots will be a minimum of 400 square meters in size, and lot owners can build their own custom home or purchase one of several pre-selected model homes. The homes in the community carry a natural, tropical, jungle-friendly expression of styles, colors and characteristics, and are sized to ensure minimal impact on the land, maximum privacy, and to be eco-friendly.
The cost of the lots, including the membership benefits of the community, is $50,000 USD. In order to reserve your space, a $10,000 deposit is required, with the balance payable over 5 years. Or, you can save 20% by paying $40,000 now. If you’re interested in moving forward with us, please reach out to our team at info@lascascadas.com.
So that we can begin building the eco-village preserve right now, we are looking for investors. If you’re interested in investing in a sustainable project that you believe in, our project could be what you are looking for.
If you are not 100% committed to participating in the community, but are still keen on contributing to the cause, we welcome donations. These funds will be directed toward land acquisition, development, and marketing and outreach efforts. Please contact us at info@lascascadas.com for information about making a donation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the timeline for the project?
We have a lot of land under contract and own the first piece where the intentional community will be built. We’re working on a site plan and hope to be able to begin building by June 2021. In order to move the project forward, we need people to buy their lots as soon as they can. So the more people we have involved in the project, the faster we can get it working.
How is the size of the lots decided?
Lot size and designs will be done with an eye to privacy, ensuring that you will have adequate privacy. In the community we foster people to cooperate and communicate. It has been shown that intentional communities work best when the lots are kept small so that people spend their time on community land and on community projects. In other words, working together, instead of alone. With this in mind, most of the community land will be communal. We also believe that a small piece of land and small house is much more sustainable. On a side note, for a 365 day a year growing season, things grow very fast. If you have one hectare of land here, you will spend all your time maintaining your land.
What kind of internet will there be?
Internet access will be distributed from a large central antenna to each home at the homeowner’s expense and must be distributed within the home with network cables. Wifi will not be permitted as it’s harmful to health.
How will I make a living here?
The community members will be able to run their own businesses in Las Cascadas, hold retreats or possibly to take part in some aspect of the project that interests you most. Would I need to get residency in Costa Rica? What are the visa requirements to live there? It is not necessary to have residency to live in Costa Rica. Loren and two other members of the community have already lived here for from 2-9 years without residency. This is done by simply leaving Costa Rica every 90 days and can mean crossing the border into Nicaragua and coming back immediately.. Being on a tourist visa, has the benefit of exempting you from laws that govern citizens and residents. If you do decide to seek residency, you need to either invest $250,000 in the country, marry a Costa Rican, have a child here in Costa Rica or get a work visa.
Is homeschooling legal in Costa Rica?
No, it is illegal if you are a resident of Costa Rica, and so we will build a world-class school to serve the community children.
What does it cost to build a house?
Simple construction here ranges from $50 to $80 per square foot depending on the level and type of finish you want.
Why raw vegan?
There are no insurance policies in nature. That is to say, nothing natural happens by accident. Nature is no mystery, and it has no self-destructive instincts that would be better off paid by some third party. For every species, there is a species-specific diet. Human food is prepared in its entirety by a wonderful chef named Mother Earth. By reanimating a personal, direct relationship with nature, one can easily observe the optimal diet of humankind. It is only our willingness to uproot ourselves from the wild way of our ancestors that distracts us from our organic origins, causing dis-ease and so-called "natural" disasters. If we are open, we can relearn and remember our true nature and avoid causing unnecessary damage to the body. All we have to do is be at home with the innate intelligence of the body.
Do you see our closest primate relatives making smoothies, or tossing a fruit salad? The anatomy and physiology of our species evidently is designed to be fueled by raw, whole, unprocessed fruit. It's a symbiotic relationship, as we stay hydrated, and the fruit gets to propagate its seeds. The fruit literally falls into our lap, ripe and predigested! Human beings, many of whom are now domesticated, are addicted to variety. Within just one meal, we've consumed a laundry list of different ingredients, some from drastically different climates altogether. Therefore, our species thrives not only on a fruit-based diet, but also on a diet of mono-meals. This diet is not for the sake of mere maintenance or survival; it is aimed at achieving optimum health and vitality.
Why is the meat industry bad for the environment?
The meat industry is the most destructive business to the environment and is the leading cause of climate change. Raising animals for consumption uses up far too much land, water, energy and resources and creates a ton of waste and pollution. While factory farms are ruining our land, commercial fishing methods are clearing the ocean floor of all life and destroying coral reefs. We are destroying the planet as a result of trying to feed people a diet that our bodies are not intended for, while creating unnecessary suffering and death for billions of innocent, sentient animals each year.