Muffadal Saylawala

Reserva Los Nogales

A rainforest reserve and coffee farm at about 1,000 meters, on the edge of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve. I came for the coffee in 2022 and stayed as a managing partner.

At a glance

Role
Managing partner; design thinking and the business
When
2022 to now
Where
Peñas Blancas, on the edge of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, about 1,000 m
Scope
Five cabins, a restaurant, retreats and a regenerative coffee farm
A white plastered cabin with a timber pergola in the forest
Reserva Los Nogales, a guest cabin.

Results

  • 5Cabins, plus a farm-to-table restaurant
  • 15+Years of the forest coming back on former farmland
  • ~1,000 mOn the edge of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve

Reserva Los Nogales sits at about 1,000 meters on the Peñas Blancas massif, on the edge of the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, on farmland the forest has been taking back for more than 15 years. It’s where the water starts. I came in 2022 to buy the coffee. I kept coming back, and became a managing partner.

A journey to the source

Getting there is part of it: about four and a half hours from Managua, the last stretch on a dirt track, and then the sound of water. Guests come for the trails, the waterfalls, the coffee and the quiet. What they remember is the sound: water, birds and insects.

It’s about as close to the source as most people ever get, of the water and of their coffee.

What we’ve built

Since I got involved we’ve built a new restaurant, two new cabins and a bamboo maloka for gatherings, and put money into the coffee farm’s agroforestry. There are five cabins now, Águila, Tucán, Nahuali, Gallo and Guatusa, built to fit the mountain, so more people come to know this place, its forest and the water it holds.

Arturo Cruz, the farm’s land steward, walks guests through it.

A place for retreats

The mountain does most of the work. No traffic, no schedule, forest on every side. That’s why it works for retreats: groups come for a few days of nature, food from the farm and time together.

Coffee under the forest

The coffee grows in agroforestry: coffee under shade, in layers, the way a forest grows. Over more than 15 years the team has tried one method after another, from syntropic agriculture to food forests.

We’re experimenting with regenerative coffee, using minerals, rock and microorganisms gathered from the forest floor, beside land we leave completely alone, to watch nature come back on its own.

Crop to cup

Los Nogales is the coffee end of the chain I’ve been building, from the forest in Nicaragua to the counter in Chicago. It’s crop to cup: coffee from this farm is in the cups at Oro in Wicker Park.

The business

My part is design thinking and the business: how the place is built, how it runs, and how it pays for itself. The cabins, the meals and the retreats earn alongside the coffee, so the place can look after its farm and its forest.

Hospitality, done well, is how a mountain like this stays a forest.

What I did

  • Came in 2022 to buy the coffee, and became a managing partner
  • Built a new restaurant, two new cabins and a bamboo maloka with the team
  • Invested in the coffee farm’s agroforestry
  • Bring design thinking to how the place is built and how it runs
  • Work on the business model, the operations and the hospitality
  • Put the farm’s coffee in the cups at Oro in Chicago

Deliverables

  • A new restaurant
  • Two new cabins
  • A bamboo maloka for gatherings and retreats
  • Investment in the coffee farm’s agroforestry
  • Los Nogales coffee in the cups at Oro

Skills

  • Design thinking for hospitality
  • Business models for regenerative land
  • Hospitality operations
  • Building on a mountain site
Two green-roofed timber cabins among forest and flowering shrubs below a tree branch
Reserva Los Nogales, the cabins in the forest.
A long wooden table set for a meal in a bamboo dining room with yellow walls, windows onto the forest
Reserva Los Nogales, the dining room.
A cabin bedroom with timber shelves, a striped bedspread and a glass door to the garden
Reserva Los Nogales, a cabin bedroom.
Inside a round bamboo hall with a glass roof, mats laid in a circle on an earth floor
Reserva Los Nogales, the bamboo hall.
A multi-tier waterfall in dense forest, long exposure over mossy rocks
Reserva Los Nogales, a cascade in the forest.
A view through timber posts across forest and flowering shrubs to the cliffs of the Macizo
Reserva Los Nogales, the Macizo from a cabin door.
An aerial view of two cabins on a forested slope
Reserva Los Nogales, the cabins from above.
An aerial view of the cabins among planted trees, bananas and bamboo
Reserva Los Nogales, from above.
The sun low over forest and planted slope in gold light
Reserva Los Nogales, the sun over the farm.

What I learned

Build to fit the place. We built the cabins to fit the mountain, so more people come to know its forest and the water it holds.

  • Cacao beans raked in long rows on concrete drying beds under a wide sky, drying sheds in the distance

    Ingemann

    Partner and CFO

    Award-winning Nicaraguan cacao from more than 1,000 farming families, and raw wildflower honey from more than 100 beekeepers. I’m a partner and the CFO: I run the finance, build the organization and keep the whole thing on track.

    Tipitapa, Nicaragua, 2024 to now

  • An orange sunset over forested hills at Rancho Regeneración, four people walking up through tall grass

    Rancho Regeneración

    Developer and designer

    80 acres in El Carrizal, south of San Juan del Sur, now a registered private wildlife reserve: water, roads, compost, food, trees and an earthbag dome.

    El Carrizal, San Juan del Sur, 2015 to now

  • The long room at Oro in Chicago: a stone counter and shelved chocolate under a looping neon line

    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

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