Casa Oro

The pitch

Casa Oro had been running since the early 2000s, the first hostel in San Juan del Sur, in all the guidebooks and busy. On a trip home I made a PowerPoint, put on a suit, a tie and my pointy shoes, and made a very good financial case to my partners. I didn’t say a word about the environment. Halfway through, I was asked how much we should offer.

I led the due diligence, and on 1 October 2015 I was signing the papers. It was already called Casa Oro. I kept the name, and everything that grew out of it became Oro.

Learning it from the floor

I trained for two months with the former owners, then ran it for a year changing almost nothing while I learned it: twelve employees, the hostel, beach shuttles, tours and a small surf shop. I became the go-to person for everything. Little stickers in hostel bathrooms all over town, and referrals from Rancho Margot and the brewery on Lake Arenal where the whole idea started, kept us so booked that we were turning guests away.

Four months

Then, from September to December 2016, we rebuilt it inside and out. I designed and managed the construction of a third floor, wraparound balconies, a bigger surf shop, a commercial kitchen, a bar and a restaurant: the first Café Oro. I designed every bunk with its own privacy curtain. We built the tables and chairs from reclaimed wood, the chairs with a round hole in every back and the tables from cable spools, and made the light fixtures from old glass bottles.

More than 200 people worked on it, day and night. A family of local artisans made and painted every dish for the café from clay. Welders made the structures. Fifteen artists painted the murals. Most of them completed things they had never done before. It was a lot of fun experimenting with eco-construction, turning trash into treasure, and it wasn’t easy: we had obstacles and delays all the way through. I ran it in Spanish, with local crews, and the calculations were mine.

I ended up with a corner office on the new third floor. Mom, I made it.

19 January 2017

We reopened on 19 January 2017, and I gave a speech. I thanked the travelers, the business owners of San Juan del Sur, the Casa Oro team, our construction crew and the authorities, and asked everyone in the room to bring us their garbage for the farm. After the remodel Casa Oro had 106 beds, and it kept turning up in Lonely Planet and the travel blogs.

Casa Oro today

From September to December 2023, while Oro was opening in Chicago, we remodeled Casa Oro again: new tile, ceilings and ceiling fans, carpentry, flooring, new wiring on the third floor, paint, and a new Café Oro. That’s the one you’ll walk into today, on the first floor, with Hijo de Pita next door. The kitchen is the home of the heart.

It sleeps about 90 now, in dorms and private rooms. The shuttles and the surf lessons still leave from the front door. It is also home to our artist residency and our volunteer program.