Matt Hogan went on a surf trip to Costa Rica with his friends in 2006. After falling in love with the beauty and serenity of the Southern Zone, he called his wife, Erica, to plan a trip down together. Both wanted to explore the option of finding a little getaway in the tropics…maybe a fixer-upper surf shack or a bungalow in the rainforest.

After looking through hundreds of listings, they settled on a Top 10 list to look at. They had a good feeling about the last one on the list, and after a long day (Erica’s 28th birthday to be exact) of looking at the possibilities, they landed at what would become Finca Bellavista. At the end of a gravel road, they explored about 100 yards of the property’s river frontage before deciding that it was a most surreal setting…like a National Park in its grandeur.

That evening, celebrating their find over a cocktail, they began to brainstorm ways they could afford that 62-acre property. Recalling that the trees on the property were spectacular, Erica threw the idea of building a treehouse on the table. Both knew that the parcel was far bigger than what they needed or wanted, especially for something simple like a treehouse. Erica then wondered out loud if friends or other people might be interested in building a treehouse there, and “wouldn’t it be cool if we could build ziplines to go back and forth between people’s houses?”

Kind of like the Ewok village in Return of the Jedi…

That was the initial idea, and that’s what Finca Bellavista is becoming today – a real-life treetop paradise. The whole of the property is now about 350 acres, encompassing an entire peninsula of a rainforest mountain, two whitewater rivers, countless big trees, and lots of cool critters like frogs, birds and monkeys.

Finca Bellavista is now a place where people can live out their dreams, and their treetop fantasies in a place like no other on Earth. And, all electricity is generated on site by harnessing the power of the sun and rivers for a carbon-neutral lifestyle. We like to think it’s off the ground, off the grid, and out of this world!