Muffadal Saylawala

El Pacífico

A garden hotel in La Talanguera, rewired, replumbed and redesigned room by room. Oro’s chocolate factory started in its kitchen and is still there.

At a glance

Role
Designer and builder
When
2017 to now
Where
La Talanguera, San Juan del Sur
Scope
Bought it, then upgraded the systems and redesigned a garden hotel, 13 rooms at the time; home of the Oro factory
A white two-storey building with an outside staircase and balconies
El Pacífico, rooms off an outside stair.

Results

  • 13Rooms redesigned in 2017 for light and one consistent look
  • EveryElectrical and plumbing connection redone past the safety code
  • 2019Oro’s chocolate production starts in the hotel’s kitchen; the factory is still there

El Pacífico is a classic garden hotel in La Talanguera, two blocks from the beach, and families from Managua have been coming back to it for years. Big trees, gardens, a pool and quiet, with town a 10-minute walk down the sand.

Under the walls first

We bought it in 2017. Before any paint, I went under the walls: I redid every electrical and plumbing connection in the hotel so it went beyond the safety code, not just up to it. Guests never see that work. They notice when it’s missing.

An open-air restaurant with a bar and wooden tables under a thatched roof
The restaurant, open to the garden.

Room by room

Then I directed a makeover of all 13 rooms it had then (12 today), redesigning each one for more light and one consistent look in materials and color, so the hotel felt like one place instead of thirteen. The bones stayed: two-storey room blocks set in gardens and fruit trees, a round palapa, and the pool, which I’d still call the best in the group. The ocean is two blocks away; at night you hear it from the rooms.

Today El Pacífico has its own restaurant for breakfast and lunch, air conditioning in the rooms, secure parking, and a free shuttle to Casa Oro in town when the schedule runs. It works as a family house: groups can take the whole place.

An aerial view of a round tiled roof among palms, hills behind
The restaurant roof from above.

Where Oro began

In 2019 we set up chocolate production in El Pacífico’s kitchen. That’s where we made our first bars. The Oro factory is still on the property: we roast, winnow, grind and conch there, close to where the cacao grows. On Saturday mornings Karina leads guests through it, from bean to bar.

What I did

  • Redid every electrical and plumbing connection in the hotel so it went beyond the safety code, before any paint
  • Directed a makeover of all 13 rooms, redesigning each for more light and one consistent look in materials and color
  • Kept the bones that made it a classic: two-storey room blocks in gardens and fruit trees, the round palapa and the pool
  • Set up Oro’s first chocolate production in the hotel kitchen in 2019, where we made our first bars
  • Designed and built out the Oro factory on the property, which still roasts, winnows, grinds and conches there; Karina leads guests through it on Saturday mornings

Deliverables

  • Rewired and replumbed hotel systems, past the safety code
  • Thirteen redesigned guest rooms
  • The Oro chocolate factory, on site

Skills

  • Electrical and plumbing upgrades past code
  • Interior redesign across a whole property
  • Keeping a well-loved hotel’s character through a renovation
  • Designing and building out a small food factory
A white two-storey wing with a black steel stair and balconies, red ti plants and banana trees along a gravel drive
El Pacífico, the garden wing, 2026.
Banana trees and red flowers in front of a white wing with red Adirondack chairs on its balcony
El Pacífico, the gardens, 2026.
A covered terracotta-tiled walkway with a black railing, steps going down and two red wooden chairs among banana leaves
El Pacífico, the upper walkway, 2026.
A small pool edged in red tile, palms and a white building with balconies behind
El Pacífico, the pool, 2026.
A room with a double and a single bed under two painted mandalas, red rafters overhead
El Pacífico, a room after the makeover, 2026.
A double bed with a striped runner against a wall of patterned cement tiles, a navy curtain over a high window
El Pacífico, a room after the makeover, 2026.

What I learned

Fix what guests never see before what they do. The wiring and the pipes are the hotel.

  • The long room at Oro Chocolate & Coffee: a teak wave sculpture fills the ceiling and walls, white neon lines loop through it

    Oro Chocolate & Coffee

    Founder

    Bean-to-bar chocolate made at our own factory in Nicaragua, and a café, roastery and chocolate line in a Wicker Park shoe store I rebuilt.

    San Juan del Sur and Chicago, 2019 to now

  • A white and yellow house behind yellow gates, a bicycle on the patio

    Casa Ruth

    Designer and builder

    An abandoned five-bedroom house on a hill over the bay, gutted and rebuilt with a crew of ten: new wiring, polished brick and a straw-insulated roof.

    San Juan del Sur, 2017 to now

  • A drone view over Casa Andalucía's pool and tile roofs, the bay of San Juan del Sur and its headland beyond

    Casa Andalucía

    Designer, builder, engineer

    A hillside B&B over the bay, rebuilt twice: once by choice, with bamboo and bottle walls, and once after an October 2017 storm brought the hill down.

    San Juan del Sur, 2016 to now

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