To help promote conservation in Culebra, José Carlos Cortés and his wife, Yaritza L. Albelo, are working to open the first eco-lodge in Culebra, located on a high ridge overlooking Cayo Luis Peña and the Big Island to the west and back to the harbor to the east. Bajacú in Taino means “the splendor of the morning” and Carlos hopes that his guests can truly feel part of the morning as if awakened by nature. Not only will their lodge be Culebra’s first true eco-lodge, but it will also be the very first in all of Puerto Rico.

Carlos and his wife have been successfully running their car rental business, “Carlos Jeep Rental” for the past 5 years. Carlos came up with the eco-lodge concept in 1997. They hired an engineer but were not impressed with his plans. Carlos explained that he had always been interested in architecture and had even taken some college courses and worked in construction for several years. Then earlier this year, he combined his talents with his good friend and artist, Pan Miebers, and they began seriously planning the eco-lodge -- a place were visitors could come to appreciate the nature of Culebra and a place that would be good for Culebra’s environment. Their hope was to steer Culebra from a path of large traditional resorts to a new path of building smaller environmentally friendly lodges. Carlos said, “We wanted to set a new standard with hopes of making a difference for Culebra’s future.”

Their first step was to setup guidelines for the construction and implementation of an eco-lodge. Since there weren’t any in Puerto Rico, they adopted the guidelines from the International Ecotourism Society, located in Burlington, Vermont. (For more information, see http://www.ecotourism.org)

Among some of their guidelines are: the employment of local people, the education of the community, employees and guests concerning environmental protection and endorsement by a non-profit environmental protection organization. Carlos has already spoken to Culebra’s local environmental group, CORALations, to work with his lodge. Their joint plans are to have educational workshops at the lodge and to involve guests with tour expeditions that will help to enhance the environment such as replanting coral on the reef in the preserve at the Luis Peña canal. Another plan is to give guests the opportunity to plant a tree in the area. The tree will be recorded into a system that will keep track of the progress so guests can truly remember their visit. He also plans to have bird watching expeditions and to have specialists from the University of Puerto Rico come for educational workshops.

Originally, they wanted to build two or three villas. However, with a goal of getting endorsements from Puerto Rico Tourism Company, they were told that they needed to build 15 villas, along with a restaurant, pool and reception area.

There will be two types of villas -- one for families that will sleep up to eight people, and smaller villas that will accommodate up to three people. Most will be spread along the hillside with a fantastic tropical sunset view. Some will be on top of the ridge, having not only the glorious sunset view, but they will also enjoy views of the harbor and town.

All of the villas will all be artistically designed and constructed by hand to fit into the surrounding landscape with a minimum disturbance to the environment and a minimal loss of existing trees. Each unit will be painted to blend into its surroundings, with ornate roof trims painted in sky-blue and the exterior will be the exact color of the trees. They will all be made of wood and tied together with strong bolts and clips. All of the villas will have a small kitchen, outdoor shower, composting toilets, a solar panel electric system for renewable energy, and for water each will be equipped with a gravity-fed 7,000 gallon private cistern. Gray water from the shower will be sent to nearby trees for irrigation. Instead of air-conditioners in keeping with the concept of conservation, they will have numerous large windows and a special roof ventilation system to take advantage of the tropical breezes. A large deck area will be artistically designed with tropical detailed carvings and include large built in sitting areas to enjoy the magnificent views. All of the shared facilities will be handicap accessible and one villa will be built to accommodate a wheel chair.

Much thought has gone into the many specific details of the villas. For example, each one will be named after a local bird and the famous Puerto Rican artist, Elpidio Collazo has been contracted to hand-carve that bird in wood, which will be attached to each building. Another special touch is that the rails surrounding the decks will all have conch shells embedded in them.

To get to the villas, guests will have to hike down trails. The reception area will have parking spaces available for cars but the rest of the lodge will be a network of trails running to each villa and additional trails for hiking enthusiasts with one going all the way down to the beach.

The planned shared facilities include an adobe-style restaurant and bar, open dome-covered spa and massage center and a pretty (but small) pool area.

Carlos explained that they recently submitted all the plans for permits to both ACDEC and Puerto Rico Tourism Company and are awaiting approval. Carlos commented, “We feel pretty confident that ACDEC will accept our plans since we were careful to design the lodge to follow guidelines from the Puerto Rico Plan de Uso Objectives Plan Policies and the Culebra Municipal Demographic and Socioeconomic Profile, among others. Our vision is to show how to keep the island in its natural state and to have a positive impact on the educational, social, environmental and economic development of the Culebra community and with visitors.” He added, “Our goal is to perpetuate Culebra’s beauty so that future generations can enjoy it. We hope to educate tourists to appreciate our natural resources as a main attraction for visiting the island while becoming a model to promote and motivate other similar projects. We want to be pioneers and make a significant difference in our community.”

For more information call Carlos or Yari at 787-742-3514 or send a fax to 787-742-0484.
BAJACÚ ECO-LODGE