Come for a weekend or stay forever!
It’s hard to believe when you see the visionary eco-development of Portasol Living that this Shangri-La paradise of towering rainforest and tumbling waterfalls was once the site of a lucrative timber business.
Our story begins in the early 1970s.
Carlos Manuel Piedra Mata and his wife, María Eugenia González Flores, from the Alto de Ochomogo – Cartago area of Costa Rica, needed a reliable supply of timber for their sawmill.
They purchased the 1,335 acres in the Portalón River valley on the Central Pacific Coast, which is today Portasol Living, for the abundance of Spanish cedar and other valuable hardwood trees growing there.
From 1974 to 1982, timber was harvested selectively on the farm, maintaining a large quantity of original primary rainforest trees.
Carlos stopped logging in 1982 when the family’s interests turned away from the lumber business, and he left the forest alone to grow back.
Fast forward 20 years to 2002.
News of such an amazing Costa Rica real estate deal by the very popular and rapidly growing area of Manuel Antonio and Quepos didn’t stay secret any longer.
The Piedra family received multiple offers to sell their land to foreign real estate developers looking to create large residential estates.
It was then that the family’s youngest son, Guillermo Piedra González, visited the farm for the first time in 30 years to help his father broker the real estate deal.
“When I saw the property with its river and waterfalls, I decided that this land needed to be preserved.
I saw a big opportunity to return to the Earth what we had taken from it with the lumber business, besides the importance of preserving these resources for future generations,” recalled Guillermo. He proposed creating a sustainable real estate development, a radical departure from Costa Rica’s norm at the time. The decision completely altered the family’s lives. Guillermo quit his corporate job to take over as CEO of the new family business. Together with his parents, brother and sisters, they set aside 200 acres of virgin forest for a private nature reserve and began planning and developing the infrastructure for the extraordinary Costa Rica eco-development.
Their location by the rural community of Portalón and sunny Matapalo Beach inspired the name of “Portasol” or “Doorway to the sun”.
The land of Portasol has been in the Piedra family for more than 45 years, and its rich natural resources are treasured by all who visit and live here.
We look forward to sharing this bountiful beauty with you. Come for a weekend and stay forever!