Rancho Margot

A view of Lake Arenal on the perimeter of Rancho Margot.

     Just a few kilometers away from the famous hot springs of La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano lies a little gem of sustainable tourism. Rancho Margot is a resort/ case study model of sustainable tourism. With over 400 acres in the valley of a volcano, Rancho Margot provides most of the same activities and diversions found at many Costa Rican resorts: gourmet food, alcoholic beverages, heated swimming pools, yoga, horseback riding, kayaking, day trips to nearby zip-lines or whatever else one might expect tourists to want to do. But more than a mere resort, Rancho Margot is also an exciting new idea, an environmentally-sustainable model for other Costa Rican businesses to follow, indeed a model for all of us if we hope to sustain our way of life on this planet indefinitely.

A heated pool provides a place to relax after a long day of.... already relaxing. 

    Rancho Margot has taken progressive ideas on environmental sustainability from all around the world and synthesized them into this fantastic experiment. The ranch produces nearly all of it's own food: organic fruits and vegetables, fresh eggs from free-range chickens, and dairy products from a cow milked daily on site. Everything is recycled and reused, every resource utilized. Compost from livestock manure is used not only for garden fertilizing but also for heating the showers and extracting methane gas for cooking. Handmade soap is manufactured from the kitchen's used cooking oil and fragranced by aromatic flowers grown on the land. The internet is powered with solar panel technology on the roofs. A running stream from the mountains generates electricity to heat the pool and main building. Amazingly, Rancho Margot is completely self-sufficient for its energy needs, to the point of leaving a negative carbon footprint.

Some of the sustainable ideas of Rancho Margot are listed below:

     This is a worker rotating the compost pile over hot water coils. The process, discovered by a French inventor Jean Pain, works by letting bacteria heat the coils as they breakdown the compost's nutrients. After the compost has been used for heating the showers, it is then reused in the garden. 

     This compost is broken down and used for growing the food supply as well as for heating the hot water shower water tanks.

     The laundry mat: All biodegradable soap is used, most of the washing done by hand. A ventilated greenhouse provides clotheslines for effectively drying clothes without the use of electricity in the often damp climate. Notice the "permaculture" on the roof of the laundry mat. 

     Up close to "Permaculture." Permaculture is a concept thoroughly integrated into Rancho Margot's community design. Here we see a wild growth of vegetation on the roof tiles of the building, which serve as a kind of natural insulation for the buildings. The roof plants are growing on moss that has accumulated on the clay tiles. 

     The pigs and other animals are fed a natural diet. No hormones or medications are given to these animals, and plenty of room for roaming free is provided. Rancho Margot has created an ideal and humane farm for both meat and dairy production. Additionally, the livestock smells are deodorized by special "good" bacteria harvested from a fungus growing on local trees.  

 For anyone who is considering "going off the grid" or simply looking for ways to reduce their personal environmental impact on the world, a visit to Rancho Margot for a few days (or weeks) would do them a world of good. Volunteer and educational programs at the ranch are available options for those guests who would like to live at the ranch for an extended period of time; the ranch teaches everything from organic farming techniques to yoga and Spanish.  

   What's perhaps most impressive about the ranch is that visitors of Rancho Margot can take many of the ideas they've seen at Rancho Margot back home, implementing the earth sustainability-consciousness into their own lives: turn the lights off when you leave, eat organic food, minimize consumption and waste, conserve water. Rancho Margot, by serving as an example of a sustainable city on a hill, continues to inspire long after a guest's visit. 

For more information:
www.ranchomargot.com
Find on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/ranchomargot