Hacienda La Esperanza Country Estate, Costa Rica

Hacienda la Esperanza in Costa Rica is a beautiful unique country estate initiated by Forest Returns (www.forestreturns.com) and acquired with a group of investors. This is a sustainable country estate situated at Peninsula Nicoya, near Tambor in Costa Rica. The company is situated on 1035 hectares of land. The income is created by CO2 compensation projects, teak wood and tourism. There are several authentic houses on the Hacienda that are currently rented to network partners of Forest Returns. Hacienda La Esperanza is part of the largest blue zone in the world! After identifying 5 of the world’s Blue Zones, National Geographic took teams of scientists to each location. To identify lifestyle characteristics that might explain longevity. They found that the lifestyles of all Blue Zones residents shared nine specific characteristics.

Kondoa Rock Art site & lodge, Tanzania

In Tanzania a unique UNESCO world heritage area was explored in order to identify the opportunities for an investment in a high-end sustainable cultural tourism lodge. This lodge would also serve as a flywheel for sustainable micro entrepreneurship in the region. On the eastern slopes of the Masai escarpment bordering the Great Rift Valley are natural rock shelters. Overhanging slabs of sedimentary rocks fragmented by rift faults, whose vertical planes have been used for rock paintings for at least two millennia. The spectacular collection of images from over 150 shelters over 2,336 km, many with high artistic value, displays sequences that provide a unique testimony to the changing socio-economic base of the area from hunter-gatherer to agro-pastoralist, and the beliefs and ideas associated with the different societies. Some of the shelters are still considered to have ritual associations with the people who live nearby, reflecting their beliefs, rituals and cosmological traditions. The site is adjacent to the Tarangire national game park. Both nature and cultural tourism can be combined for tourist.